In a lawsuit seeking $117,000 in unpaid legal fees, Schlam Stone & Dolan claims a former client, a real estate businessman, was “abusive” and sent a “rambling, bizarre” letter to a federal magistrate judge behind their backs.

The roughly 30-attorney New York firm, in a suit filed Friday in Manhattan Supreme Court, said Robert Toussie ”repeatedly threatened to bring down a rain of horribles” on its lawyers over the course of their 10-month attorney-client relationship. The firm claims it was simply the latest in a line of law firms to have given up on Toussie after his complaints and haggling made it impossible to deal with him any more.