Chief Judge Spencer D. Levine. Courtesy photo.

A Coral Gables law firm hit with sanctions over misconduct in an insurance lawsuit received a partial reprieve Wednesday when the Fourth District Court of Appeal overturned $22,877 in sanctions.

The appellate panel agreed the case should be dismissed as punishment but found the trial court shouldn't have gone a step further by imposing monetary sanctions.

Gregory Saldamando of the Strems Law Firm in Coral Gables represented plaintiffs Obrian Frazer and Latoya Byfield in their 2016 Broward Circuit lawsuit against Avatar Property & Casualty Insurance Co. over coverage of $22,877 in water damage.

But the lawsuit morphed into a different kind of fight after the plaintiffs and their lawyer allegedly neglected the case and failed to show up to scheduled events, and the defendant moved to dismiss with prejudice.

According to Broward Circuit Judge Carlos Rodriguez's sanctions order, the plaintiffs didn't comply with their insurer's policies on notifying of a loss and supplying proof. And attorney Saldamando missed deadlines for discovery requests, repeatedly "did nothing" in response to motions, and along with his clients and experts, failed to show up at depositions, according to the order.

Dismissing the suit, Rodriguez ordered additional sanctions for bad faith, noting that, "the conduct appears attorney-driven" and "the prejudice to the defense has been extreme, rendering them totally unable to defend the case."

Saldamando offered no justification, according to the trial court, "other than an obvious, and observed by the court, in the courtroom, animosity towards the defense."

But that was the wrong call, according to the Fourth DCA, which found the extra sanctions were improper. The sanctions violated due process, and no one had requested them, the appellate panel found.

"Because the trial court awarded relief not sought, and without notice, it did not comply with due process," the opinion said.

With no Florida case law to go from, the appellate panel looked to a case in the Arkansas Supreme Court, Williams v. Martin, which reversed sanctions against an attorney in 1998 because the client hadn't sought them and could have filed a malpractice lawsuit over any misconduct.

The appellate panel also found Rodriguez "improperly prejudged" the merits of the lawsuit by awarding the sanctions because it "presupposes that the clients would have prevailed on the merits of their lawsuit and as such would be entitled to the entire $22,877.02 in damages."

Melissa A. Giasi of Giasi Law in Tampa represents Strems Law Firm and Saldamando. She said they were disappointed with the ruling. Plaintiffs Frazer and Byfield also filed a separate appeal, but the Fourth DCA affirmed Wednesday without an opinion.

"My clients felt that the sanction of dismissal was unwarranted, and wanted to do what they could to ensure that their clients got their day in court," Giasi said.

Giasi also stressed that Saldamando complied with all court orders, and instructed his clients not to answer certain questions during depositions only because he felt they were harassing.

"On the day of trial, Avatar's counsel had violated most if not all of the deadlines in the order setting trial and showed up without a witness," Giasi said. "My clients were present, with their clients, ready to go to trial and had complied with every single court order in the case."

Avatar Property's lawyers Carol M. Rooney and Adam M. Topel of Butler Weihmuller Katz Craig in Tampa did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Fourth DCA Chief Judge Spencer Levine wrote the opinion, with Judges Dorian Damoorgian and Jeffrey Kuntz concurring.

Read the ruling:

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