MANHATTAN (LN) — U.S. Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron on Friday ordered Gilbert Hardy III to show cause why sanctions should not be imposed under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 after finding that Hardy cited AI-hallucinated cases in opposition to motions to dismiss in Waggeh v. Utility Workers Union of America Local 1-2.
Aaron, who is overseeing the case in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, said he was "dismayed" to learn that several cases cited by Hardy in his opposition memoranda "do not stand for the propositions for which they were cited" and "appear to be hallucinations generated by an Artificial Intelligence large language model."
The order requires Hardy to conduct a careful review of each case cited in his filings and file a sworn declaration by April 29, 2026, certifying which citations are correct and which are incorrect.
The magistrate judge pointed to specific examples of the errors. On page 9 of one memorandum, Hardy cited Giraud v. MTA Metro-North R.R. Co. for the proposition that the court denied a Rule 12(b)(6) motion. Aaron noted that the Giraud court actually granted the motion and did not address termination for falsification of records, as Hardy contended.
Additionally, the union’s reply memorandum highlighted that three other cases cited by Hardy — Matter of Wright v. New York City Tr. Auth., Golston-Green v. City of New York, and Sanders v. City of New York — did not contain the language quoted by Hardy or refer to the asserted propositions. The union argued that the law in those cases appeared contrary to Hardy’s assertions.