Greenberg Traurig lawyer Stephen Mendelsohn represents the Florida shopping center investors awarded $1.2 million in attorney fees. Photo: Melanie Bell/ALM.

One of the longest-surviving cases in Palm Beach County is nearing its death rattle after the Fourth District Court of Appeals settled an attorney fee fight Wednesday, ruling that the owners of two shopping centers in Juno Beach and Brooksville can keep a $1.2 million fee award.

Litigation began in 1995, when Delray Property Investments Inc. and SOSQ Property Investments accused two Florida entities of defrauding them by receiving $144,000 in commission for the sale of the properties — betraying a profit-sharing agreement the two parties had set up.

A jury found that the entities, Plaza La Mer Inc. and South Square Development Inc., committed fraud and awarded the property owners $144,000 in damages, plus attorney fees and interest.

But the defendants claimed they were entitled to millions in net cash flow, sparking extensive hearings looking at the methodology for calculating whether Delray Property Investments and SOSQ Property Investments owed anything. About five years later, the court concluded nothing was due.

Defendants Plaza La Mer and South Square appealed that judgment, but it was affirmed in 2015 and the plaintiffs moved for attorney fees. The trial court approved a $1.2 million award — covering all fees since 2008, when Greenberg Traurig took over the case. Some attorneys billed up to $785 per hour, according to the trial court's ruling.

A 'marathon' case

When Stephen A. Mendelsohn of Greenberg Traurig's Boca Raton office took on the case, he never expected it to last this long.

“I wasn't anticipating another 12 years and a total of 24 years of litigation in this case, but after a little while I came to the conclusion that I'd better train for a marathon rather than a sprint,” Mendelsohn said.

Counsel to Plaza La Mer and South Square — Robert J. Hauser of Pankauski Hauser in West Palm Beach and Robert Sweetaple of Broeker & Varkas in Boca Raton — did not respond to requests for comment before deadline.

The defendants contested the plaintiffs' right to fees but didn't challenge the amount once the court did award them. Instead, they implored the Fourth DCA to look at how the fees were allocated. The trial court ordered Plaza La Mer and South Square Development to pay $969,571 between them, with Plaza La Mer liable for an additional $234,280 for a court-appointed expert.

But one of the entities, South Square, claimed it wasn't liable for any fees and shouldn't have to pay. The defense argued the litigation comprised two “similar but misjoined cases,” while the plaintiffs protested that the litigation was inherently linked.

The Fourth DCA settled the dispute with a per curiam opinion, finding the defendants' cases were far from distinct.

“From the start, the appellants presented singular arguments and shared a legal strategy, witnesses, lawyers, motions and briefs,” the opinion said. “This involved two parties acting as one, making it nearly impossible to apportion fees absent arbitrarily assigning each half the burden.”

The decision was a long time coming, stemming from a 2016 appeal, but for Mendelsohn it was worth the wait.

“[The court] really got it correct, but it took a long time to work themselves through these thousands of entries and the multivolume of records that this case generated,” Mendelsohn said.

The case has had more than 1,539 court filings.

Now, Mendelsohn awaits the defense's next move.

Read the full court opinion:

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