InsideTrack

Slowing things down to help homeowners

Maybe the "rocket docket" isn’t such a good thing after all. As Lee Circuit Court and others grapple with caseload control by using expedited calendars, Miami solo practitioner Richard Burton is starting a pro bono project to protect homeowners from foreclosure.

He maintains speedy dockets are dangerous because down-on-their-luck homeowners with valid claims might be able to defend foreclosures if they had more time.
 
"No one wants to be the last guy dying in Vietnam," Burton said. "Give these people a chance to see if they qualify for some kind of a modification."

For homeowners to be eligible for representation by the Foreclosure Project launched by Burton, he said they must live in the home as a primary residence and have bought or refinanced it since 2001.

"In the name of expedience, we’re throwing out the trash that happens to be our citizens," he said.

"These people are trying to find someone to give them decent advice. Many of these foreclosures are deficient on their face."

Burton is encouraging other lawyers to jump in.
 
"There is no pride in authorship," he said.

Attorney’s involvement for R. Allen Stanford an unlucky coincidence

Miami banking transaction lawyer Carlos Loumiet, who faced regulatory enforcement action over his work for the defunct Hamilton Bank, has represented accused swindler Robert Allen Stanford at least since the late 1990s, sources say.

Loumiet is the managing member and registered agent of a Stanford company that bought an exclusive three-acre Gables Estates retreat for $10.5 million in 2003 and helped in Stanford’s effort to revise banking laws in Antigua, a Caribbean banking haven.

Stanford still owns the Coral Gables property through a limited liability company, Casuarina 20, using the property’s address, said Carlos Justo, a Miami real estate broker.

The estate was formerly known as the Tyecliffe castle and later the Wackenhut castle for previous owners George and Ruth Wackenhut of the Wackenhut Corp. Stanford lived in the mansion before demolishing it.

Stanford is accused in a civil action brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission of running a massive scam through his Stanford Group by selling $8 billion in certificates of deposit issued by a bank in Antigua bearing the name, Stanford International Bank. A court-appointed receiver is sorting out his fallen empire. Stanford has not been charged criminally.

A call to Loumiet’s office at Hunton & Williams was forwarded to a spokeswoman. Eleanor Kerlow, senior public relations manager at the firm, wouldn’t confirm whether Stanford is a client but said, "Right now, Hunton & Williams is not representing Stanford Group or Robert Allen Stanford in connection with the SEC matter."

Alan Greer, Loumiet’s lawyer in the Hamilton Bank case and a partner in the Miami office of Richman Greer, said Loumiet’s representation of Stanford shouldn’t reflect badly on him.

"Carlos Loumiet represents hundreds of banks," Greer said. "The fact that he may have done some discrete work for Stanford is of no big moment as far as I know."

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This is the second time Loumiet has represented a high-profile client who ended up in trouble with regulators.

He faced potentially career-ending civil penalties when the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency accused him of concealing fraudulent actions by several Hamilton Bank executives. An administrative law judge recommended dropping the OCC charges last year, and

Greer said a new comptroller in the Obama administration may render the decision.

Hunton & Williams issued a statement Tuesday, saying, "Carlos Loumiet, a longstanding and distinguished member of the Bar, was cleared of all charges in the administrative proceedings related to two six-year-old reports he coauthored as a partner at another firm prior to joining Hunton & Williams."

Greer said no attorney who accepts work on a client’s behalf can know what will occur in the future.

"You have someone who wants to employ you on an attorney-client basis," Greer said. "Lawyers do their due diligence, and the entity or the individual appears to be reputable, and the thing you’re being asked to do is a legitimate business matter. You handle it."

But Miami attorney Warren Trazenfeld, who sues attorneys for malpractice, said when regulatory enforcement matters arise, lawyers generally know if a client was involved in risky or illegal activities.

"There are always red flags with what are sometimes called toxic clients," he said. "Invariably, when I take the depositions of lawyers who got caught up, intuitively they know there was a problem."

The OCC’s case against Loumiet alleged he hid illegal actions to protect Hamilton Bank executives while with Greenberg Traurig. Hamilton Bank was shuttered in 2002 in one of the largest bank failures in Miami history. The shutdown cost the federal government $127 million, and investors lost all of their holdings.

The OCC is seeking a $250,000 fine and an order barring Loumiet from representing financial institutions.

Even if the administrative law judge’s recommendations are upheld, Greer said Loumiet isn’t likely to live down the taint of the OCC complaint.

"People have read and heard bad things, and that sticks," Greer said. "Even though he’s innocent, it created a mindset in you. You picked on Mr. Loumiet because he had a problem in the past."

Waterfront condo left to chance

A one-bedroom, waterfront condominium in Miami Beach could be yours for just $100 — and you’d be helping military veterans injured in the line of duty.

Miami Beach-based Veterans Retreat is holding a $100-a-ticket raffle to raise money to fund minivacations and boating excursions for military veterans, many hurt in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Miami Beach resident Tim Suereth, founder and chief executive officer of South Beach Realty, and his wife, Dianne Thorne, are behind the effort. The condo up for grabs is one of three units they own at the South Bay Club, 800 West Ave.

Suereth, an Army veteran and son of a retired Navy fighter pilot and Vietnam veteran, said his goal is to create fun experiences for soldiers, especially those with brain injuries. His brother suffered a brain injury in a motorcycle accident two years ago, and Suereth knows how hard it is to live with that disability.

The raffle also will help Suereth pay off the mortgage on the condo and get rid of it. He stands to collect $700,000 if all 7,000 tickets allowed to be sold by the state are purchased.

A Web site promoting the raffle says the condo is worth about $375,000. The unit is appraised at $237,830 for tax purposes, according to the Miami-Dade County property appraiser.

After paying off the mortgage, the closing costs, property taxes for one year and condo dues — just short of $500 a month — for one year, he hopes to end up with between $100,000 to $300,000.

The raffle will be held April 15 or two weeks after all the tickets are sold.

Suereth said the raffle of condos is not new. During a housing downturn in the late 1970s, owners held similar raffles to get rid of troubled properties.

"In today’s market people can’t sell, so this a creative way to get out of their distressed properties," he said.

However, Suereth said he’s current on all of the condo’s payments. The unit is rented out through March at $1,750 a month.

For more information, visit veteransretreat.com.

The car that really wasn’t

  A $58 million deal for Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod to move the law firm into 100,000 square feet of new office space at Brickell Financial Centre is off.

So what about that zippy little Smart Car the firm was promised by the building’s developer, Foram Group, for being its first big tenant to ink a deal? People took turns having their picture taken in the car the day the deal was announced last April. Turns out the car was only a demo.

There was a delay in getting the car delivered, so the firm never got it, Bilzin managing partner John Sumberg said.

"My understanding was there was a backup on ordering it, and there was a long lead time, and that’s why it didn’t happen," Sumberg said. "I assume now that were not moving into the building, that’s not going to happen."

Foram was the first of three new Miami office developers to announce capturing a major tenant.

Greenberg Traurig announced in July that it plans to leave 1221 Brickell Ave. for 150,000 square feet at Met 2. Greenberg CEO Cesar Alvarez recently said that deal is still on.

Coveted real estate — in the Broward courthouse

Broward Chief Circuit Judge Victor Tobin and Clerk of Court Howard Forman are fighting over courthouse real estate.

Tobin has issued an administrative order taking charge of Courtroom 235 for first appearances in the downtown Fort Lauderdale courthouse.

Forman insists he loaned the room to Tobin after a flood damaged a nearby courtroom a year ago but needs the space back to deal with the crush of foreclosure cases.

According to Forman, Tobin promised he would give up the space previously used by the clerk’s office for a defunct collections court as soon as Courtroom 241 was repaired.

That was a nearly a year ago.

In e-mails obtained by the Daily Business Review, Forman’s office pleaded with Assistant County Administrator Pete Corwin for the space.

Iris Siple, the clerk’s chief administrator, wrote Corwin in November to say her office was ready to move back.

"We can wait no longer. Our plans (furniture, etc.) have been ready and are in ‘wait mode.’ When can we have our room back?" she asked.

The pleas were reiterated last month. Forman said he made arrangements to move starting Feb. 16.

In a Feb. 11 e-mail, Tobin said the labor and money necessary to "demolish a perfectly good courtroom" and reconstruct it 150 feet away "is a disgrace."

"As a judge one of the few things I have is my word, so I will at great expense to the taxpayer do the ridiculous. The county is on board with this correct. [sic] I don’t want to be left in the cold when the critic’s [sic] come and ask what I am doing," Tobin wrote Corwin.

Two days later, he issued an administrative order decreeing Courtroom 235 would be used for first appearance court, as first reported by courthouse blog JAABlog. Citing a state rule on judicial administration that allows chief judges to regulate the use of courtrooms, Tobin said, "No person is authorized to remove any furniture, fixtures, electronic devices or any other equipment ... without the express written permission of the chief judge."

In an interview, Tobin seemed resolute, responding to all questions by saying, "By administrative order, it’s going to remain a magistrate courtroom."

Forman isn’t giving up. He said his attorneys are reviewing the administrative order.

"I feel badly that it had to turn out this way, but you do a guy a favor and he reneges on you," he said.

Corwin said he wasn’t in a position to judge the judge’s order. However, he has drawn one conclusion.

"The one thing everyone agrees with is that we don’t have adequate space."

Bringing a religion down

Ask Barry Silver about Jews for Jesus, and he can give you an earfull.

The Boca Raton attorney insists the organization is based on a fraud and is attempting to bring the Jewish religion down from the inside. Silver enumerated his beliefs in a lawsuit filed against Jews for Jesus on behalf of Edith Rapp, a devout Jewish woman who claimed she was defamed by an online story claiming she had denounced her religion.

The Palm Beach Circuit Court case went to the 4th District Court of Appeal and onto to the Florida Supreme Court, which said Rapp could pursue a defamation claim but not false light.

The 4th District Court of Appeal the first time around in 2006 called Silver’s statements "redundant, bellicose and unnecessary to state the causes of action alleged. A complaint in a lawsuit is not a press release."

With the case headed back to the lower courts, the 4th DCA appeared to remember Silver’s proclivity for polemic statements in the court’s opinion today.

"On remand, Rapp shall be given leave to succinctly re-plead her claims without excessive editorialization," the 4th DCA wrote in the remand opinion. The court issued an almost identical warning in 2006.

Will it change the way Silver pleads his case?

"I will absolutely reintroduce what Jews for Jesus stands for because it’s essential to put those allegations in in order to explain why Edith Rapp considers it defamatory to be associated with such a group," Silver said in an interview. "The trial court will then be free once again to determine if those allegations are superfluous or editorializing."

Mini stimulus package

Developer Alan Hooper, whose name is synonymous with loft condos in Fort Lauderdale’s Flagler Village area, has devised his own economic stimulus plan: Buy one of the remaining units in his new Mill or Foundry condo buildings on Northwest First Avenue, and you’ll get a new Mini Cooper automobile.

With a total of 22 units left in the buildings, Hooper is willing to apply $20,300 to the two-bedroom units only. We’ll assume the freebie excludes the spiffy Mini convertibles, which go for almost $26,000.

The two-bedroom loft prices range from the low $300,000s to mid-$400,000s.

But the car cost is built into the condo price, right?

"People know we’re going to negotiate," Hooper said. "Just go to some of these other buildings, see what their prices are, look at our price and if they think we’re $20,000 over, take that off."

But why a Mini? Why not, say, a Honda Civic?

Hooper did consider offering Honda Civics instead. They’re about the same price and get the same mileage.

"Minis are cooler, and we sell a cool lifestyle," he said. "These are cars that get 36 miles per gallon. You can park them anywhere. Our whole motto behind the Mini is, ‘What’s Your Carbon Footprint?’

But Hooper will give a buyer a Honda, if that’s what they’d prefer.

He’s had two takers since the promotion began in November. But they didn’t want the car, just the discount.

"These aren’t the same buyers as two or three years ago," he said last week. "I think they’re waiting for someone to say the stimulus package has been approved and everything will be better."

Or, with foreclosures rising and prices dropping, they might want a Mercedes-Benz or Lexus thrown in, instead.

Hotel not liable for videotape of banana-sucking teen in wet T-shirt is protected

It’s a decision that may strike fear in the hearts of fathers everywhere.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with its conservative bent, didn’t have any trouble last month siding with a resort and a Web site owner sued by a 17-year-old who was videotaped while participating in bawdy spring break contests.

Julie Amanda Tilton was staying at the Desert Inn Resort in Daytona Beach where she claims she was induced by alcohol to participate in two wet T-shirt contests as well as a banana sucking contest and other sexually suggestive competitions in front of 300 people.

But unknown to Tilton, she was videotaped by at least two men, and her images showed up on Web sites, videotapes and DVDs, according to her 2005 lawsuit.

U.S. District Court Judge James S. Moody in Tampa found in Tilton’s favor on a default judgment against videographer Paul A. Prewitt, ordering him to pay her $100,000 for taping her and selling tapes afterward. Tilton had sought $450,000.

But Moody dismissed claims of sexual exploitation of a minor against the Desert Inn’s owner, Deslin Hotels, and videographer Chad Ciana, who posted Tilton on his Web site, www.bikinivoyeur.com

The three-judge appellate panel of Judges Susan H. Black, William H. Pryor and Emmett Ripley Cox affirmed the decision Jan. 15 but remanded the case for Moody’s explanation of a denial of attorney fees from Prewitt.

The panel found the hotel had no liability for creating the environment for the taping and Ciana could not be blamed for not knowing Tilton was under 18.

Hey Judge, what’s your sign?

U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz balked when flamboyant astrologer Walter Mercado asked if he could speak to her during trial in his breach of contract dispute with a former management company.

An attorney for the star of Univision’s "Primer Impacto" told the judge afterward that Mercado is 72 and might just be asking for a restroom break.

Later in trial with the jury out of the courtroom, Mercado again asked if he could speak to the Miami judge. This time she said yes.

"What’s your sign?" the TV celebrity wondered.

She wouldn’t say.

The three-week trial ended Jan. 28. The jury decided he interfered with the contract but concluded it wasn’t intentional and awarded no damages.

Correction:
Thanks to our readers for pointing out our mistake. The jury concluded that there was a breach of contract but that it was unintentional and no damages were rewarded. The three week trial ended Jan. 28 with Mercado owing nothing.

The handwriting on the wall — and on the order

Woe be to the judge who perseveres without a judicial assistant.

In one of his last cases, St. Lucie Circuit Judge Ben Bryan resorted to handwritten changes, inserts and cross-outs in a nine-page final judgment issued Dec. 31 to end a complicated civil action.

"I apologize for the form of this judgment," he writes. "My judicial assistant retired four weeks ago. She corrected my spelling and gramatical [sic] errors for years."

Bryan, 71, said he asked defense counsel to prepare the order, leaving blanks to fill in his findings, in the defense verdict for Hess Corp. in a suit filed by Jody Caller after her station went out of business. After a weeklong trial and six years of litigation, Caller’s request for millions of dollars in damages was rejected.

Bryan has been on the bench since 1995 and is a former mayor of Fort Pierce. He retired at the end of December.

In his defense, the state budget crisis is keeping judges from automatically replacing staffers who leave.