Judge Karen Gievers. Handout photo

Leon Circuit Judge Karen Gievers spent one of her final days on the bench clashing with an attorney  facing disciplinary charges from the Florida Bar and involved in a dispute with former South Florida co-counsel.

During the April 25 hearing, Gievers denied Tallahassee attorney Phillip Timothy Howard's motion for $750,000 in attorney fees and costs in Margaret Harris v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, an Engle progeny case that culminated in a $10 million verdict for the plaintiff. Although Howard served as counsel to Margaret Harris — who filed suit against R.J. Reynolds and alleged the company was liable for her late husband's stomach cancer as well as his ensuing pain, suffering and death — the judge rejected his motion on several grounds, including his failure to advance the case and his subsequent firing by the plaintiff.

“Mr. Howard's involvement in the Harris case was far longer than the two years, and there was no proactive effort to move the case forward, nor was there any motion for waiver of the Supreme Court time standards,” Gievers said. Although Howard represented the Harris' shortly after their suit was transferred from Miami-Dade Circuit Court to Gadsden Circuit Court in April 2014, he was terminated via letter in May 2018. An emergency motion for substitution of counsel filed by Miami attorney J.B. Harris, who served on the plaintiff's legal team alongside Coral Gables litigator Richard Diaz, said Howard had missed two hearings affecting the case, and was “incompetent to try a complex Engle progeny tobacco case” having never tried one previously.

“As of this date, Howard has refused to withdraw as counsel and has refused to hand over Harris files, notwithstanding his agreement to 'forward documents to your future counsel,' “ the attorney wrote in the August 2018 filing.

Despite his removal, Howard argued he was entitled to attorney fees and costs pursuant to quantum meriut, a theory of recovery that compensates for services rendered in the absence of an enforceable contract. His filing cited his commitment to the case over a “nearly nine-year period” with “extensive documentation.”

Read the transcript of the hearing: 

During her remarks, Gievers cited Howard's previous conduct in the case as well as his perpetual tardiness in submitting documents and showing up for hearings. He was late to the hearing on the day in question.

“I think that the position of the plaintiff's trial team that there was inappropriate conduct on Mr. Howard's part regarding the attempt to straighten out inconsistencies probably warrants not allowing the quantum meruit time that Mr. Howard was seeking,” Gievers said. “As noted by plaintiff's trial team counsel, he has not complied with the time frames established by the Court, which he and pretty much everybody else in this area is aware of the Court's retirement.”

The judge said, “Florida law is not based on continuously kicking cases down the calendar” when addressing Howard directly.

“[The lawsuit] got a Gadsden County case number of 2014,” Gievers said. “And at one point during the testimony, the jurors were puzzled as to how come Mrs. Harris had waited so long and why wasn't there a trial while Mr. Harris was alive to be in the courtroom to speak for himself.”

She added Howard's attitude towards his client was “offensive, not accurate, not founded on the law, and did not reflect an appropriate respect that an officer of the court should have.”

Howard, who is currently facing charges of financial impropriety by the Florida Bar, was previously sanctioned by the Florida Supreme Court in 2003 and 2005. He did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

In accordance with the Florida Constitution's mandatory retirement age for judges, Gievers stepped down from the bench Saturday, which marked her 70th birthday.

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