Coral Gables lawyer Stephen J. Kolski is out of a case after Florida's Third District Court of Appeal ruled he couldn't represent Juan Menadier in a suit against Francisco Aracena Blamey and Above Ground Level Aerospace Corp., a Federal Aviation Administration-licensed repair station and aircraft part vendor for which the attorney had previously worked.

Kolski had previously performed legal work for AGL and Menadier separately. Menadier, a former managing partner with AGL, had brought the attorney in to provide services for the company and subsequently retained him to pursue litigation after he was removed from his position.

Menadier filed a complaint against Aracena and AGL in January. The nine-count amended complaint entered in Miami-Dade Circuit Court accused the defendants of breach of oral agreement and unjust enrichment. The plaintiff alleged Aracena had orally agreed to give him 50% of the company's stock. However, Menadier contended he was fired after an October 2018 discussion with Aracena over the terms of their partnership went poorly.

The dispute reached the Third DCA after the defendants appealed a Feb. 15 lower court order denying a motion to disqualify Kolski as Menadier's lawyer.

"When Menadier's employment with AGL ended, Kolski also stopped doing legal work for AGL," the appellate panel said. "While Kolski represented AGL, he never represented Aracena personally."

Read the appellate order:

Kolski did not immediately return requests for comment.

Both the motion to dismiss Kolski and the Third DCA cited Rule Regulating the Florida Bar 4-1.9, which concerns conflicts of interest with regards to former clients. The rule stipulates an attorney who has represented a client cannot subsequently "represent another person in the same or a substantially related matter in which that person's interests are materially adverse to the interests of the former client unless the former client gives informed consent."

The Third DCA held Kolski's work on behalf of AGL was substantively related to the litigation, as he'd been paid by the company to draft up the term sheet referred to by Aracena and Menadier in their meeting to sort out AGL's ownership.

"The lawsuit stems from the fact that Aracena failed to honor his alleged oral promise to give Menadier 50% of AGL's stock," the opinion said. "The unconsummated transfer on which Kolski worked for AGL is at the heart of the lawsuit. … Because Kolski's prior work for AGL in drawing up the term sheet for the transfer is substantially related to the current lawsuit over the failure to consummate the transfer, Kolski is disqualified from suing his past client, AGL."

The plaintiffs attorneys, Miami solo practitioners Jonathan A. Heller and Jay M. Levy, declined to comment. Coral Gables lawyer Menadier's appellate counsel, litigator Charles M P George, did not respond to press inquires by deadline.

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