Auto Mogul Norman Braman Again Sues to Stop Miami Casino But Without Mayor as Plaintiff
Braman's suit challenges administrative approval of a casino in Miami's Edgewater neighborhood.
March 26, 2020 at 01:18 PM
6 minute read
Miami auto mogul and fervent casino opponent Norman Braman filed a new lawsuit to stop a gambling project in the city's trendy Edgewater neighborhood — this time with a new attorney and without Mayor Francis Suarez as a fellow plaintiff.
Four limited liability companies affiliated with Braman and Suarez initially sued the city March 4 to stop a plan by West Flagler Associates Ltd., led by Magic City Casino's Havenick family, to open a jai alai fronton with gambling on 12 acres at 3030 Biscayne Blvd.
Miami litigator Eugene Stearns replaced the original filing attorneys March 17 and submitted a new Miami-Dade Circuit Court complaint.
The original filing attorneys were Benedict Kuehne of Kuehne Davis Law and Kendall Coffey of Coffey Burlington in Miami. Braman Management Association assistant general counsel Brian Shack remained an attorney in the new complaint.
Both versions of the lawsuit seek declaratory judgment and injunctive relief arguing the casino was illegally approved by circumventing City Commission consideration and public scrutiny.
Plaintiffs are pushing to enforce Suarez's veto of the City Commission's approval of a settlement of a separate federal lawsuit by West Flagler Associates against Miami. West Flagler had sued the city last year after the commission made it harder for the casino to open, but the settlement allows the casino to move forward.
City Attorney Victoria Méndez and Suarez have been at odds over his veto power with Méndez declaring the casino veto null. She argued Suarez has no right to veto a commission vote on a settlement.
She emailed a brief response to the new complaint.
"The city looks forward to resolving these issues in court," Méndez said.
The complaint also names City Manager Arthur Noriega as defendant. He didn't respond to a request for comment by deadline.
The plaintiffs are 2020 Biscayne Boulevard LLC, 2060 Biscayne Boulevard LLC, 2060 NE 2nd Ave. LLC and 246 NE 20th Terrace LLC, the addresses of Braman dealerships. The others are Brickell Homeowners Association Inc., its president Ernesto Cuesta, Ronald M. Friedman and Paraiso Beachclub Operator LLC. The Morningside Civic Association was added as a plaintiff in Stearns' complaint.
For his part, Suarez, who is quarantined after contracting coronavirus, said he plans to fight for his veto in a separate litigation once the health care crisis is over.
"It's just not the right thing for me at this particular moment to be suing my city when I am in the middle of a health care crisis," he said.
Stearns chairs the litigation department at Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson. Grace Mead, a firm shareholder listed on the new case, said there was a "snafu" with the cover sheet on the first suit, so it technically ended up not being filed.
Joseph DeMaria, partner at Fox Rothschild who represented West Flagler with Hall, Lamb, Hall & Leto partner Adam Lamb in the federal case, said it's notable Suarez is missing from the new state complaint.
"If they want to challenge the settlement by saying the mayor had vetoed it, that's for the mayor to challenge," DeMaria said. "But he is no longer in the lawsuit. Where is the mayor? So the mayor who originally claimed that he had vetoed the settlement and his veto should be respected is nowhere to be seen."
Suarez said it was merely a matter of bad timing as he and Braman couldn't "be at the same pace."
"There's nothing complex about it," he said. "There was a draft of a lawsuit that a certain set of lawyers was working on and my lawyers were working on, and we just couldn't because of timing of it come together at the same moment. So I just did not want to get in the way of them filing their lawsuit."
His attorneys are Colson Hicks Eidson partner Roberto Martínez and Francisco Maderal in Coral Gables. He said they will be the ones to file his lawsuit.
Casino Suit
Stearns' complaint maintains the city erred when then-zoning administrator Barnaby Min issued a zoning interpretation in 2012 that said pari-mutuels, slot machines and other gambling are allowed in areas with entertainment zoning designations.
This allowed gambling without a commission vote or a public appeal option, according to Stearns' complaint.
Min provided no legal support in his letter and failed to explain how he could act without allowing due process options, the complaint said.
A casino attorney, Holland & Knight partner Ines Marrero-Priegues, asked for the zoning interpretation.
In 2018, then-zoning administrator Devin Cejas upheld Min's 2012 interpretation and issued 18 letters to West Flagler to that effect, one for each of the Edgewater parcels identified by the company as the casino site.
Min, now deputy city attorney, didn't return a request for comment by deadline.
Cejas, now the Coral Gables deputy development services director and zoning official, said his letters weren't zoning interpretations but verification letters based on Min's 2012 letter. Cejas added his verification letters were specific to pari-mutuels, an allowed entertainment use under city zoning.
With the letters in hand, West Flagler obtained a state gambling permit, which was followed by a public outcry after media reports of the casino plan. This is when commissioners adopted tighter regulations to require a super-majority four-fifths vote for a casino. West Flagler responded last April with its federal lawsuit. The commission in February voted to settle and then Suarez issued his veto, which Méndez disputes.
U.S. District Judge Robert Scola Jr., who presided over the federal case, dismissed it March 12 without prejudice after the city and West Flagler filed a joint motion to dismiss the same day.
The Miami Herald reported Feb. 14 that Braman played a pivotal role in pushing the commission to adopt the four-fifths rule on casino operations.
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