Sean Shaw

 

A Houston seafood company that suffered losses as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is seeking more than $2 million from Merlin Law Group and lawyer Sean Shaw in a legal malpractice suit alleging the defendants mishandled its oil spill claim.

Ocean Harvest Wholesale alleges Tampa-based Merlin Law Group and Shaw failed to notify it of a deadline in 2012 to accept a $2.8 million payment from the Gulf Coast Claim Fund. Its failure to act resulted in it losing out on the money, the company said.

“Ultimately, on March 30, 2018, a final settlement was reached between plaintiff and the BP entities. However, this settlement was only $275,056. This was a loss of over 2.5 million dollars,” Ocean Harvest alleged in a petition filed in state district court in Houston on Nov. 30.

Shaw was the Democratic nominee for Florida attorney general in 2018 but lost in the general election to Ashley Moody, a former circuit court judge. He is also the son of the late Leander Shaw, the first African American chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court.

Neither Shaw nor Craig Kubiak, the firm's Tampa-based managing attorney, immediately responded to a request for comment.

In the petition in Ocean Harvest Wholesale v. Merlin Law Group, the plaintiff alleges that in the wake of the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it hired Merlin Law Group to represent it in claims against BP for damages. Ocean Harvest, a family-owned and operated seafood distributor and processor with operations in Houston and Louisiana, signed a power of attorney contract at the firm's office in Houston on May 11, 2010.

Ocean Harvest alleges that through its attorneys, it filed a claim in the Deepwater Horizon multi-district litigation and received a settlement offer on its claim through the Gulf Coast Claim Fund.

The plaintiff alleges the defendants received the $2.8 million offer on April 12, 2012, which said the offer had to be accepted within 30 days. However, Ocean Harvest alleges in the petition that it had to ask Shaw repeatedly for a copy of the written offer and did not receive it from Shaw's secretary until a little over a week before the deadline to accept the offer.

“There is no discussion at any time about the deadline or the effects of accepting or rejecting the offer. In fact, over the month that defendants had the offer letter knowing it was going to expire, there is no explanation of any kind about the offer from defendant Shaw,” Ocean Harvest alleges in the petition.

The plaintiff alleges that after that deadline passed, it could no longer collect on the $2.8 million settlement offer.

Ocean Harvest brings negligence and breach of fiduciary duty causes of action against the defendants. It seeks more than $2 million in damages from the defendants.

Plaintiff's attorney Michael Lowenberg, of Lowenberg & Kumar of Houston, said his client lost some “valuable funds” by failing to accept the 2012 offer from the Gulf Coast Claim Fund.

“It's just a failure for a lawyer to make his duty to his client. That's job obligation,” Lowenberg said.

Further Reading:

Sean Shaw Campaigns for a Change in the Florida Attorney General's Office