At the city commission meeting last night city attorney Glen Torcivia threw out a shocking figure for their legal fees: $25,000.
Scott Maxwell had asked him what the fees were in the recent lawsuit. Glen responded by saying they would go after collecting their fees since they won defending their case against Lake Worth citizens in court on the Heights Charter Amendment. Now I like Glen, don't get me wrong. He's doing the job that he is paid to do and reports to the Commission, basically the majority of Maxwell, Triolo and Amoroso.
Some like to point out that it was a "frivolous" case to begin with. No it wasn't...it went to court twice. And speaking of court, the cases of which I have been involved never won in the Appellate Court. If you recall Fane Lozeman of Riviera Beach houseboat fame, he had to go all the way to the United States Supreme Court to win! Steven Michael of Hudson Holdings said it cost him 6 figures to defend the Heights case. It's difficult to believe anything that guy says.
The one thing that we do know is, the voters won this referendum at the polls saying no more than 45 feet in that area. The Trio commission listened to a developer and what he wanted, not what he needed, instead of the people they serve. They literally trashed the vote.
Maxwell asked our city attorney about legal fees and his response--“Court costs are relatively easy to recover and it’s usually a very small amount. Attorney’s fees are harder to recover. My (best estimate) is that attorney fees were $25,000.” The city plans on moving forward to recover legal fees. Asking doesn't mean they will get and it's meant to discourage any citizen filing suit against the City in the future.
If you're a developer/investor in Lake Worth, the city will give you waivers and even change its Land Development Regulations to favor your every desire. The people? Not a problem and in fact, the city will stomp them into the ground by making it impossible for any one of them to ever again stand up for principle.
14 comments:
Did you hear him last night saying he's going after a former employee too for 50k? Not a very nice city government.
I had left the chamber when he started to speak last night. However, if it's the Viera case, it has been going on for 3 years. It involved a couple of accidents. Dragging out legal fees is ridiculous. We never know what happens in these cases or why people sue most of the time. But now we're kicking a guy because of two accidents. We should learn the details of these cases.
The Heights amendment had to do with a post-facto law. I still say it's illegal.
Lynn, we both know, (along with a lot of others in LW) that we don’t see eye to eye on this one. Your criticism and disgust should be pointed to the state legislators that nullified the referendum that took place. If the city would have verified the vote, from the decision the judges made last week the election results would have been overturned by the property owner. This will not be the first time citizens will have had to pay cost from losing a suit. The citizen who sued the city and developers of The Lucerne also had to pay cost after losing their suit. The lawyer who filed the suit should have advised them to withdraw their case like he did after filling and then dropping the first case filed after the election. You think the bill was illegal but the 3 judges didn't.
Putting aside the validity of invalidity of the lawsuit. $25,000 doesn't sound expensive at all. Litigation costs money.
Lynn, and now we'll have the $25K for the LW DOLLAR$ FOR SCHOLARS!
Greg--We can argue, argue and argue some more on this one. I will always remember your ILLEGAL banner flying from The Gulfstream Hotel and all your money trying to defeat the Heights and the bond.
Look, the fact remains that in spite of this stupid post-facto law that the city applied three months AFTER the vote, the commission still could have honored this referendum won by the people.
OK???????????????????????????? So, what I wrote stands. It was a slimy thing this Trio did. the city should start treating the people right and there wouldn't be lawsuits.
As far as The Lucerne goes, there were a couple of reasons why the Plaintiffs lost. One I believe was "standing." However, the developer originally wanted 75' and at least they got it down to 65'. That building NEVER should have been allowed in our downtown.
The Lucerne is a big middle finger in the middle of our lovely downtown. A real shame.
I believe the people should at least be able to voice opposition on such a situation as this. The People believe we voted and had all odds, including the CITY from the beginning and WON! I don't believe these 3 judges saw it the way they ruled. Another 3 could overrule. Who were they anyway??? Would like to know!
Publish the names of these A-hole judges and lets look at their T-Reports.Want to bet how who's name will show up???
Anonymous 8:15pm, you might want to know who the Legislators who passed the bill that made the referendum on zoning, and land use null & void retroactive back to 6/11 were.
Hey, if Joann lost her case, then she should be required to pay the City for the legal fees. In fact, if the Judge determines the case was truly "frivolous" he can require the lawyer to pay those fees too. Knowing Joann, she'll gladly throw her lawyer under the bus for the fees, we know she's not going to dip into her trust fund to pay for that. Funny how all the LW fruitcakes keep filing cases that don't even make it past the initial stages before being thrown out of court. I'd say maybe they'll eventually learn a lesson, but nah, this is L Dub after all, the same $#!+ just keeps happening every day.
Hey, 11:14, you sound like a nasty piece of work.
After the prevailing party is ascertained which is now the city unless it goes to further appeal, the Court must award fees if the party has a contractual or statutory right to fees. Torcivia may be blowing smoke.
Golden should bring a mulitimillion dollar class action law suit against Lake Worth and the state of Florida for not honoring a certified election by the people of Lake Worth.I think the Supreme Court would beat the crap out of Glen Torcivia's OPINION about elections not mattering in America.
Even though the ruling was given against the people it WILL NOT be ruled and CANNOT be ruled as frivolous. Too serious of a concern for the majority of the citizens.
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