Attorney Ramon M. Rodriguez, pictured in Judge Ronald Dresnick’s courtroom, pursued sanctions against the Lewis Tein law firm during his representation of the estate of a women killed in a car crash with a member of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. Photo: J. Albert Diaz/ALM

A court-appointed referee has criticized the Florida Bar’s case against Miami attorney Ramon Manuel Rodriguez, recommending the state Supreme Court exonerate Rodriguez of ethics charges alleging he filed frivolous lawsuits against opposing counsel in a wrongful-death suit.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jorge E. Cueto, who served as referee, said that instead of discipline, Rodriguez should get attorney fees.

Rather than finding Rodriguez guilty, Cueto instead raised questions about Lewis Tein—a Miami-Dade law firm that has since disbanded—and its former principals Guy Lewis and Michael Tein, who were opposing counsel in the underlying case.

“I cannot think of a party more worthy of an award of attorney’s fees and costs than this respondent,” Cueto wrote in his amended report to the Florida Supreme Court, which has the final word on attorney discipline.

The ethics case stemmed from Rodriguez’s representation of the estate of Liliana Bermudez, a driver who was killed in a collision with Tammy Billie, a member of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. Rodriguez’s client sued Billie and her father Jimmy Bert, who owned the vehicle.

Cueto’s report said Billie was found to have taken cocaine before the crash. Billie was convicted of drunken-driving manslaughter, and sentenced to eight years in prison. In the civil case, Rodriguez’s client won a $2.9 million judgment, but extensive post-trial litigation ensued.

‘Highly Suspect’

In post-judgment motions, Rodriguez alleged the tribe paid attorney fees for Billie and Bert, even though it wasn’t a party to the case. Then, the Florida Bar accused Rodriguez in January 2017 of pursuing unsupported perjury and fraud claims against attorneys Tein and Lewis, who had handled the tribe’s legal affairs until 2010.

But Cueto’s report found it was curious and “highly suspect” that Lewis Tein’s invoices were addressed to the tribe, its chairman or financial officer for several years before they were directed to Bert and Billie. It also found that attorney Lewis had falsely told the court the tribe paid bills on behalf of Billie and Bert because the individual defendants didn’t have checking accounts.

Cueto found that based on the evidence Rodriguez had, the attorney had acted reasonably in pursuing the litigation, with “a strong conviction that his positions and actions were solidly founded on the facts and the law.”

The referee’s report also dealt a blow to the Florida Bar, which had labeled Rodriguez’s claims frivolous.

“It is not credible for anyone to say that respondent had no reasonable basis in fact for his contention that the tribe was the real party in interest, had paid for the defense, directed and controlled the defense,” Cueto wrote, later adding, “It cannot be said that submitting conflicting facts to a trial court judge for resolution is a frivolous action by a lawyer, particularly when respondent could not resolve the conflicting facts nor rule on his own motions, and he had the quantity and quality of evidence he presented.”

Florida Bar counsel Jennifer R. Falcone and Allison C. Sackett did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

Rodriguez’s attorney, Maria L. Rubio, said she was satisfied with the outcome of what was a lengthy proceeding that placed Rodriguez “under the dark cloud of these allegations for so many years.”

“We always felt confident that Mr. Rodriguez would be exonerated once a referee saw and heard the overwhelming amount of evidence,” Rubio said via email. “From the outset it was perplexing to us that the same attorneys who were sanctioned by the trial court would also be the ones to initiate such proceedings against Mr. Rodriguez, the prevailing party. Mr. Rodriguez has rightfully sought justice and to collect a judgment for the Bermudez family which was severely victimized by a tragic accident and by the implacable evasion by those responsible for Mrs. Bermudez’s death.”

Rodriguez was admitted to the bar in 1989 and focuses on personal injury and wrongful death cases. He has no other disciplinary history, according to the referee’s report.

Major Turnaround

The referee’s conclusion seemed to come as a surprise for at least one former Lewis Tein partner.

Tein said he found the report “irreconcilable” because he said it contradicts what a string of appellate and trial judges have found in this case and two others against Miami attorneys accused of filing frivolous suits against Lewis Tein.

“It’s certainly difficult, really, impossible, to understand this order, given the fact that five separate state and federal judges reached precisely the opposite conclusions, down the line, that have been reached over the past six years after lengthy trials and hundreds of page of independent findings of fact—all of which have been affirmed on the merits by the Florida Supreme Court, the Third DCA and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit,” Tein said. “What’s particularly interesting in reviewing this decision is it does not distinguish, or even cite, a single one of those cases.”

Lewis did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

Long-running litigation involving the Miccosukee Tribe, Lewis Tein and other lawyers have cost at least two attorneys their law license.

In 2010, Bernardo Roman III took over representation of the tribe, which then accused attorneys Tein and Lewis of billing the Miccosukees millions of dollars in fictitious, exorbitant and unsubstantiated legal fees. The Florida Supreme Court found that litigation to be frivolous, and permanently disbarred Roman, the alleged ringleader of the effort, after a court-appointed referee found him guilty of 55 charges, including eight counts of counseling or assisting a client in criminal or fraudulent behavior.

The bar had also charged Miami attorney Jose Maria Herrera with helping Roman file the frivolous litigation. The Florida Supreme Court found Herrera guilty, and disbarred him for 10 years in July.

Read the referee’s full report:

 

Related stories: 

Florida Bar Files Ethics Charges Against Attorney

10-Year Disbarment for Miami Lawyer Jose Maria Herrera Over ‘Frivolous’ Litigation

Lewis Tein to Get $562,000 in Attorney Fees From Lawyer Bernardo Roman