Tag Archives: Florida

Feud between grandsons of Florida citrus baron ends

Posted on by
Reply

A settlement has ended a legal battle between two grandsons of a Florida citrus baron regarding the management of the family run company.

Read the full Miami Herald story here.

By GARY FINEOUT
Associated Press

BARTOW, Fla. — A legal battle that pitted two grandsons of a Florida citrus baron against one another is coming to an end for now.

A settlement reached Sunday ended a lawsuit that former State Rep. Baxter Troutman filed more than three years ago against State Sen. J.D. Alexander and his father over how they had run the family company.

J.D. Alexander is the powerful budget chairman of the state Senate who is behind a push to break off a branch campus of the University of South Florida in Lakeland. The bill to create the state’s 12th public university is expected to be sent to Gov. Rick Scott later this month.

Troutman’s lawsuit filed in October 2008 contended that Alexander – along with his father John R. Alexander – had mismanaged the family company Alico Inc. by pursuing a potential merger with another family-owned company.

Under the terms of the settlement Troutman agreed to drop the lawsuit, but he received no payment for doing so.

Alexander’s attorney said the settlement proved the lawsuit was frivolous and that J.D. Alexander had been “vindicated.” He noted the settlement was reached on the eve of a hearing in the case.

That was echoed by Sen. Alexander.

“It makes it clear that there were just no basis to the claims,” Alexander said.

Troutman, who was in the Florida House from 2002 to 2010, said he dropped the lawsuit to protect the interests of the shareholders of Alico, the agriculture and land management company once controlled by the late Ben Hill Griffin Jr.

Griffin was a wealthy citrus magnate and cattle rancher whose name is on the University of Florida stadium.

Troutman said settlement negotiations started months ago and that he told family members he would drop the lawsuit if J.D. Alexander gave up his post as president and chief executive officer of Atlantic Blue Group, which is the controlling shareholder of Alico. Alexander gave up that post last month after he was named full-time president and CEO of Alico.

He disputed the notion that the settlement had vindicated his cousin.

Read the rest of the story here.

Analysis: If Trayvon Martin family pursues civil case

Posted on by
Reply

Interesting analysis from Reuters should Trayvon Martin’s family pursue a civil case against the Retreat at Twin Lakes Homeowners’ Association–as the “Stand Your Ground Law” also protects Zimmerman from civil action.

Read the full Reuters story here.

By Andrew Longstreth

NEW YORK | Wed Mar 28, 2012 7:08pm EDT

(Reuters) – As uncertainty swirls around any criminal prosecution of George Zimmerman, the shooter of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in an Orlando suburb, one option that remains open to Martin’s family is a civil case.

Zimmerman could be shielded from prosecution under Florida’s 2005 “Stand Your Ground Law,” which gives immunity to people who use deadly force in their own defense without clear evidence of malice. The same law also says a person who uses such force is immune from civil action.

However, given certain conditions, the Martin family could bring a wrongful death case against Retreat at Twin Lakes Homeowners’ Association, Inc, the homeowners association for the central Florida gated community where the killing took place, legal experts said.

Such a lawsuit would likely allege that the association was negligent in overseeing Zimmerman’s activities, and could seek a judgment in the seven-figure range, said Philip Gerson, a Miami trial lawyer and founder of the law firm Gerson & Schwartz.

Ben Crump, an attorney for the Martin family, told reporters Monday that there were no plans to file a lawsuit now. But a wait-and-see strategy is common with alleged crime victims and their relatives. Often they wait until a criminal proceeding concludes to pursue a civil case in an effort to avoid appearing to be motivated by money.

A civil lawsuit in the Martin case, legal experts said, would be predicated on establishing a relationship between Zimmerman and the Retreat at Twin Lake association, as well as establishing a relationship between Twin Lakes homeowners and a crime watch group that Zimmerman led.

The homeowners association acknowledged Zimmerman and the neighborhood crime watch in a February newsletter, according to the Associated Press. The newsletter encouraged residents to contact Zimmerman in case of an incident, it said.

“If you’ve been the victim of a crime within the community, after calling the police, please contact our captain, George Zimmerman … so we can be aware and help address the issue with other residents,” the newsletter said.

That relationship is likely to come into play, said Donna DiMaggio Berger, a founding partner at the law firm Katzman Garfinkel & Berger, which represents community associations in Florida.

“It’s not as if the association can say we had no idea … that Zimmerman held himself out as a neighborhood watch captain,” she said.

Efforts to reach board members for Retreat at Twin Lakes Homeowners’ Association were unsuccessful.

WHAT COVERAGE?

A crucial factor in such a lawsuit would be the insurance Twin Lakes carries and whether it would cover any payout stemming from litigation over the Martin shooting.

Most homeowner associations have policies with at least $1 million in coverage, according to insurance attorneys, but it is unknown what kind of insurance, if any, Retreat at Twin Lakes carries.

The vast majority of homeowner associations do not have insurance policies that cover the acts of their volunteers, according to Berger.

If that is the case with Retreat at Twin Lakes, the residents could be responsible for satisfying any judgment against the association, said Berger, the community associations lawyer not involved in the case.

Such a scenario would not be unprecedented. In the mid-1990s, a Tarmac, Florida, homeowners association was hit with a $1.2 million judgment in an age-discrimination case. The group was unable to pay and had to file for bankruptcy. That left individual residents to pick up the tab, which came to more than $7,000 for each homeowner.

Read the rest of the analysis here.

Fired For Wearing Orange?

Posted on by
Reply

14 workers at a South Florida law firm were fired for wearing orange. The former employees claim that they would wear orange on pay day so they could be easily recognized during happy hour after the workday was over. Or were they wearing their shirts in protest?  Florida is an “at will” state for employment, which means that an employer can fire an employee for any lawful reason if there is no contract.

Read the full Sun-Sentinel story here.

14 fired at law firm for wearing orange shirts, workers report
By Doreen Hemlock, SunSentinel

Were they wearing orange shirts on Friday to protest management? Or to get psyched for happy hour?

Either way, orange-shirted workers no longer have jobs at the Deerfield Beach law firm of Elizabeth R. Wellborn P.A.

A spokeswoman said the law firm had “no comment at this time.”

Four workers tell the story this way: For the past few months, some employees have worn orange shirts on pay-day Fridays so they’d look like a group when they went out for happy hour.

This Friday, 14 workers wearing orange shirts were called into a conference room, where an executive said he understood there was a protest involving orange, the employees were wearing orange, and they all were fired.

The executive said anyone wearing orange for an innocent reason should speak up. One employee immediately denied involvement with a protest and explained the happy-hour color.

The executives conferred outside the room, returned and upheld the decision: all fired, said Lou Erik Ambert, 31, of Coconut Creek, a litigation para-legal who said he was terminated.

“There is no office policy against wearing orange shirts. We had no warning. We got no severance, no package, no nothing,” said Ambert. “I feel so violated.”

Meloney McLeod, 39, of North Lauderdale, said her choice of shirt puts her in a tough spot: “I’m a single mom with four kids, and I’m out of a job just because I wore orange today.”

Janice Doble, 50, of Sunrise,said she wore orange Friday because she was looking forward to happy hour with colleagues after a busy work week.

“Orange happens to be my favorite color. My patio is orange,” said Doble. “My lipstick was orange today.” She said she supervised 12 people who scanned, copied and mailed documents for the firm.

Now she’s worried for relatives employed at the law firm. “I have four kids who work there,” said Doble. “I don’t want them to retaliate and fire my kids.”

Yadel Fong, 21, of Miami, wonders where he’ll find work after losing his job in the mail room. He was not aware of anyone in the group involved in a protest.

Read the rest of the story here.

Bill to give Rick Scott more power to pick judges stalls

Posted on by
Reply

A bill from the State of Florida House that would allow Gov. Rick Scott to fire former Gov. Charlie Crist’s appointees and replace them with his own is now dead in the Legislature. What do you think?

Read the full Miami Herald story here.

By Katie Sanders
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE — A proposal to give Gov. Rick Scott more power over the courts appeared dead Wednesday amid a disagreement whether Scott should have the power to fire people appointed by former-Gov. Charlie Crist to a panel that helps select judges.

The panels, known as Judicial Nominating Commissions, screen potential judicial nominees for the governor. A House bill, HB 971, would allow Scott to fire Crist’s appointees and replace them with his own.

Sponsor Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, said the proposal would allow voters to hold Scott more accountable for the decisions made by state judges.

But the Senate amended the provision Wednesday so that it would not apply retroactively to Crist’s appointees. Senate sponsor Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, said Scott had no intention of terminating Crist’s appointments anyway. “Gov. Scott agreed to it without any hesitation,” Simmons said.

But Gaetz said the change defeats the purpose of the bill and that he would not bring the amended measure back to the House floor before the session is scheduled to conclude Friday.

“The Senate bill preserves the dead hand of Charlie Crist,” Gaetz said. “So the issue’s dead.”

The Senate bill passed 24-14, with Republican Sens. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, and Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, joining Democrats in opposition.

Democrats said the proposal consolidated too much power in the hands of the governor.

“I think that by doing what we’re doing here, we’re deteriorating the entire process,” said Sen. Oscar Braynon, R-Miami Gardens.

Other Democrats said they would not be okay with the proposal even if Florida had a Democratic governor.

Read the rest of the story here.

Bill to streamline foreclosures clears key state Senate committee

Posted on by
Reply

A foreclosure bill that would require a homeowner to present a sound defense or face an immediate judgment in some cases moved closer to a full legislative hearing Monday with the blessing of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Many organizations are taking sides on this controversial issue.

Read the full story from the Palm Beach Post here.

By Kimberly Miller, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

A quickie foreclosure bill that would require a homeowner to present a sound defense or face an immediate judgment in some cases moved closer to a full legislative hearing Monday with the blessing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Monday’s vote marked the farthest a proposal to streamline Florida’s strained foreclosure process has advanced in the Legislature since the housing collapse, but it’s in no way a done deal, lawmakers and lobbyists say.

The 5-2 approval of Senate Bill 1890 came with hesitation from some committee members and firm opposition from homeowners and foreclosure defense attorneys. One man, who called the sponsors of the bill a “disgrace” during public comment, brought blown-up images of his own foreclosure documents that he said show evidence of fraud.

The plan, which contains some consumer protection language, such as reducing the time a bank could pursue a homeowner for unpaid mortgage debt from five years to one year, has earned support from the Real Property Probate and Trust Law section of the Florida Bar.

But the Florida Bankers Association has yet to take a position, and it is flatly opposed by the Florida Consumer Action Network.

“We cannot support this bill because it places too much of the burden of repairing the foreclosure problem on the backs of homeowners and (community) associations,” said Alice Vickers, a network attorney.

House sponsor Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, and Senate sponsor Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg, said Monday that they will work through constituent concerns this week to get matching bills. They are seeking approval in the plan’s two remaining Senate committee stops. The House version of the bill (HB 213) has one committee stop left.

“This bill won’t solve everything overnight,” Passidomo said. “It will take a while for these things to sort themselves through, but if we do nothing, how many years will we be in this situation?”

The House and Senate foreclosure proposals aim to streamline foreclosures by allowing any lienholder to hasten a foreclosure case if a property is abandoned or the homeowner does not respond with a defense within 20 days of being served.

Currently, only the bank that owns the primary lien can file for what is called a “show cause” order in which a homeowner must show why the bank doesn’t have a foolproof case. If a judge sides with the bank, a final foreclosure judgment can be issued immediately.

In most cases, even a weak defense is enough to have a judge stop the show cause proceeding and force the traditional foreclosure process to occur, said Pete Dunbar, legislative counsel for the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law section of the Florida Bar.

That’s why most properties affected by the proposals would be abandoned or ones where the homeowner doesn’t respond to the foreclosure, Dunbar said.

“We’re dealing with a statute that was written decades ago and that never contemplated the situation we face today,” Dunbar said about current foreclosure law.

Consumer advocates, however, have several concerns with the bill, including a restriction that would allow a homeowner only monetary restitution if property was taken fraudulently. Passidomo said the provision is to protect future owners of the home from having to defend their claim to title.

Also, the bill requires the lender to prove on the front end their right to file for foreclosure – a rule already on the books, but not enforced, lawyers said Monday.

Lynn Drysdale, an attorney with the Jacksonville-based Legal Aid Society, said the banks also already have the power to foreclose more quickly, but choose not to.

Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, said he’s heard similar concerns.

“The judges are saying that they can easily move these cases along but when they come in the attorneys aren’t prepared,” said Simmons, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who voted to approve the bill. “It’s the attorneys the banks hired that aren’t doing the jobs they need to do to move the cases along.”

Read the rest of the article here.