This year a scathing final judgment
against a Miami international tax attorney was the real
estate litigation story that caught the most eyeballs.
Suzanne DeWitt initiated a “faux romantic” relationship with
much older Belgian investor Marc Van Moerbeke, who truly was
attracted to DeWitt, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael
Hanzman wrote in his final judgment.
Van Moerbeke trusted DeWitt to guide his $15 million venture
into 17 Coral Gables mansions, but instead she kept the
properties and rental income, and also lived in one of the
homes, according to court filings. DeWitt responded in court
that Van Moerbeke had gifted her the homes and sued her to
get back at her for breaking off their engagement.
”In fact, not a shred of credible evidence supports DeWitt’s
claim that Van Moerbeke bestowed upon her such largesse,”
the judge wrote.
Other top real estate litigation news involved allegations
of secret recordings at a high-end Miami condominium tower
as well as claims against two big law firms and separate
claims against baseball’s Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez.
The runner-up top real estate litigation story was a suit
alleging that residents of high-end Miami Palm Bay Tower
condominium were secretly recorded. Fired concierge
Christian Miranda sued the condo association and property
manager KW Property Management LLC for retaliatory
termination. Miranda, who filed his suit under the state
whistleblower and communications security acts, said he was
fired after speaking up about the secret audio and video
recordings at the tower. KW Property vehemently denied both
the allegation of secret recordings and of retaliatory
firing. The Palm Beach condo association didn’t return
request for comment. The issue in part is that Florida is a
two-party consent state, meaning all sides have to agree to
a video or audio recording. The state whistleblower act
protects staff members who report illegal activity. Perhaps
adding more interest to this story is that prominent
Miamians own Palm Bay units. They include well-known city
developer Avra Jain.
The EquiAlt real estate Ponzi scheme already was the subject
of a Securities and Exchange Commission complaint when two
big law firms were sued in a separate civil class action
over their alleged involvement. DLA Piper and Fox Rothschild
were sued in federal court in Tampa in July. Previously, in
February the SEC charged that EquiAlt ran a $170 million
Ponzi defrauding over 1,100 investors, most of them elderly.
They were told their money would go to safe residential real
estate investments, but some of it was diverted to lavish
spending by EquiAlt executives and some repaid existing
investors. As for the civil class action, it focused on Paul
Wassgren, a DLA Piper Los Angeles partner formerly at Fox
Rothschild, who drafted documents distributed to investors.
The suit says Wassgren knew the records included false and
misleading information. Wassgren, DLA Piper and Fox
Rothschild didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Timeshare is big business in Florida so when one timeshare
company sued a firm that promises consumers it can get them
out of their timeshare contracts, readers were interested.
Westgate Resorts, based in Orlando with 13 Florida timeshare
properties, sued Reed Hein & Associates, which operates
Timeshare Exit Team, in 2018 but this year’s story was about
the impending trial. A two-week federal jury trial in
Orlando is to start in January.
Baseball great Alex ”A-Rod” Rodriguez has been locked in a
six-year legal battle with his ex-brother-in-law Constantine
Scurtis over a national multifamily real estate venture that
went awry. Rodriguez was married to Scurtis’ sister, Cynthia
Scurtis, from 2002 to 2008. Scurtis claims the baseball star
pushed him out of their real estate venture and profits
Scurtis claimed were due. Rodriguez, who maintains the
allegations are based on facts Scurtis knows to be false,
filed a counterclaim saying Scurtis took money out of their
partnership without authorization. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge
Maria de Jesus Santovenia in June allowed Scurtis to add
punitive damage claims in his amended complaint against
Rodriguez.