A breach of contract lawsuit against Miami law firm Farrell & Patel has found a new home within the Miami-Dade Complex Business Litigation Division, following recusal orders from Judges William Thomas and Beatrice Butchko.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jennifer D. Bailey will preside over the case, in which Florida accounting firm David Dougherty CPA claims the defendant owes millions in fees for work on cases involving the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico—which spewed about 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf.

The plaintiff provided accounting services to Farrell & Patel's clients, most of whom were motels and hotels alleging business losses caused by the oil spill. Those accounting services, according to the complaint, helped the firm generate about $18 million in legal fees, and included preparing each of the firm's claims, reconciling its trust account and preparing clients' settlement statements.

The two parties joined forces in 2010, according to the lawsuit, which said Dougherty spent almost three years working on more than 2,000 claims. But he claims Farrell & Patel only paid for work on 500 cases that resulted in presuit settlements, and offered "pennies on the dollar" for the remaining 1,500 claims that settled in 2016 and amounted to thousands of hours work.

Lead defense counsel Herman Russomanno III of Russomanno & Borrello in Miami said the firm denies any wrongdoing and has paid what it owed.

"Mr. Dougherty has already been paid for his CPA work in regard to the BP oil spill litigation and the Farrell & Patel law firm looks forward to ending this case in its favor at either the summary judgment phase or at trial," Russomanno said.

The defense has moved to dismiss counts of constructive fraud and breach of implied fiduciary duty, arguing no fiduciary relationship existed between the parties, which conducted "arm's length" transactions.

Dougherty's lawyer William Lewis of Morgan & Morgan's West Palm Beach office declined to comment.

According to a 2010 service contract attached to the complaint, Dougherty charged $150 an hour for his work. But Farrell & Patel never signed that contract.

The dispute revolves around whether the defendant had a contractual obligation to include accounting expenses on the closing statements it sent to clients and whether the firm should have sought reimbursement for accounting costs when it claimed $2 million of its own costs from BP.

|

'Seventh juror'

Dougherty moved to oust the first judge Thomas over his alleged "prolonged questioning of plaintiff's counsel, criticism of plaintiff's factual arguments and prediction of plaintiff's demise," according to his motion to disqualify. Transcripts indicate Thomas was concerned jurors would think the plaintiff had sued the wrong party.

"I think what they're [the jury] going to say is that—by the way, I like to say I'm that seventh juror before the jurors get the case—well, where are the clients? Didn't they get some of this money that you say you're owed? Why should they [defendant] be responsible for paying all the money?" Thomas said, according to a motion to recuse him.

Dougherty claimed Thomas had prejudged his case by accepting the defendant's version of events. The judge initially denied the motion, but later recused himself days later.

When asked if he thought the jury would care about the plaintiff's position, Thomas said, "No, I don't think anybody is going to care," according to the motion, which Thomas denied before recusing himself days later. The baton then went to Butchko, who recused herself sua sponte in October.

The case is expected to go to trial in 2020.

Read more: