The Magic City Harvard Lawyer: Litigation

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Litigation

The Magic City Harvard Lawyer

Developments in business litigation with a particular emphasis on Florida commercial, real estate, and condominium law.
By Jared H. Beck, Esq.

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Last Entry: October 09, 2009 at 21:44:12

Stein And Starwood: Two Important New Chapters In The Great American Real Estate Crash Story

Posted on October 09, 2009
September and October of 2009 saw two momentous new chapters in the ongoing saga of the great American real estate crash: a new titan in South Florida real estate development, and a major new opinion on the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals...

Navigating The ILSA Minefield: How Have Courts Applied The Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act In An Era Of Economic Crisis?

Posted on July 06, 2009
Back in October 2007 — when the Florida real estate market had just started its precipitous decline, but before the onset of the global credit crunch — I asked whether the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (ILSA) was a “land mine ready to explode” for developers...

The Trump Facade Is Cracking (Again); With It, The Licensed Condo-Hotel Model

Posted on May 15, 2009
Donald Trump and his businesses have had their share of financial problems over the years, typically the result of being over-leveraged at the wrong time. Now, the vaunted Trump name faces a new type of tarnishment: the kind that comes from branding a new condo-hotel as a “Trump” property, and then pulling off the “Trump” [...

The New Wave Of ILSA Case Law: Charting The Course Of Consumer Protection For The Next Real Estate Boom Out Of Lessons Learned From The Present Crisis

Posted on April 12, 2009
When I began writing about the explosion of lawsuits filed in Florida in 2007 under the federal Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (ILSA), these cases were often characterized simply as “buyer’s remorse” suits. At the time, with the Florida real estate market starting its dramatic freefall, the generally accepted wisdom was that such cases [...

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Some Notes On This Blog, Twitter, And An Upcoming Talk On Condo Law

Posted on March 05, 2009

No Magic Bullet Theory Of Recovery For Jorge Perez Or Other Real Estate Speculators

Posted on March 02, 2009

Can ILSA Provide Troubled Mexican Trump Resort Buyers With American Justice?

Posted on February 12, 2009
Donald Trump, Trump Ocean Baja Resort, Arbitration Clause, ILSA, ILSFDA

As Real Estate Market Stays Sour, Courts Punish Builders Who Stray From Construction Schedules, Relieving Buyers From Contracts

Posted on January 19, 2009
Back in September of 2008, as knowledge of the global financial crisis was both broadening and deepening, I predicted that of the myriad lawsuits being filed by real estate buyers in hopes of recovering their initial preconstruction deposits, among those with the highest probability of success were scenarios in which the developer failed to deliver [...

Federal Court Endorses Financial Crisis As Basis For Relief From Pre-Existing Contractual Duties; Could Real Estate Contracts Be Affected?

Posted on December 31, 2008
My recent post on Donald Trump’s legal arguments in defense of his failure to pay off a contruction loan on the Chicago Trump Tower project has spawned a number of inquiries. Many have asked specifically about the theory that the “world financial crisis” could constitute a valid defense to Trump’s performance of a contractual obligation...

New Rules Under Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) Could Trap Unwary Developers And Lenders

Posted on December 28, 2008
Passed into law by the U.S. Congress in 1974, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) was intended to shield homebuyers from the predatory practices of settlement service providers such as lenders, realtors, and title insurers. Owing to their vulnerable position at the closing table, homebuyers were historically ripe for exploitation by such companies, many [...

Appellate Courts Weigh In On Both Sides Of The Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act

Posted on December 10, 2008
Yesterday, in a closely watched contract rescission lawsuit brought by buyers under the federal Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (ILSA), the Eleventh Circuit reversed the lower court’s controversial interpretation of the statute and its award of the deposits back to the buyers...

Global Financial Crisis As ?Force Majeure?: A Trump Card For Donald Trump?

Posted on December 03, 2008
Legal doctrines are typically pushed to their logical extremes in times of crisis. The litigation surrounding Donald Trump’s 92-story condo project in Chicago offers a prime example. As reported last week in Chicago Business Today, Trump and one of the project’s main lenders, Deutsche Bank, have filed countervailing lawsuits over Trump’s failure to timely pay off [...

Courts? Disagreement On ILSA Reflects Uncertain Times

Posted on November 03, 2008
Since my last post over one month ago posing questions about what was a then-proposed Wall Street bailout, key events have unfolded at an almost shockingly rapid pace. For better or worse, we now have an economic bailout package. On the political front, a historic U...

What Will A Wall Street Bailout Mean For The South Florida Housing And Condo Market?

Posted on September 29, 2008
September 2008 will be remembered as an extraordinary month in the history of financial markets: It started with the federal government’s decision to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (September 5). Then, Bank of America agreed to buy out Merrill Lynch, while Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy (September 15)...

A Word On The Opera Tower Decision, Boilerplate Disclaimers, And The Teeth Of ILSA

Posted on September 12, 2008
Among recent decisions in lawsuits pitting condo buyers against developers, a federal opinion from the Southern District of Florida concerning the Opera Tower Condominium in Miami has garnered an exceptional amount of media attention. In Weaver v. Opera Tower LLC, the Court dismissed claims brought by buyers seeking to rescind purchase contracts due to alleged misrepresentations in advertising [...

Developers Suing Lenders: Paving The Way To Lender Liability Claims From Real Estate Buyers?

Posted on August 28, 2008
In the litigation fallout from the real estate market crash, the latest round of lawsuits in Florida involves developers of troubled projects bringing claims against their lenders. Here are three major examples from recent weeks: the original developer of the Il Lugano condo hotel in Fort Lauderdale sued KeyBank for allegedly erecting “unreasonable hurdles” as a [...

Has The ILSA Land Mine Exploded Yet? A Mid-Summer Update On Recent Federal Cases Interpreting The Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act

Posted on August 01, 2008
It was back in October of 2007 when I asked on this blog whether the federal Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (ILSA) was a “land mine ready to explode for condo developers.” (Based on the number of page views, that article remains one of the most popular on this site)...

The Hypocrisy Of Jorge Perez: Chasing Ambulances And The Morality Of Litigating To Recoup Your Investment

Posted on July 22, 2008
Time Magazine recently published a general overview of the current economic malaise enveloping Florida. Of course, a big chunk of the report is devoted to the Miami condo glut and the resultant explosion in foreclosures, as well as lawsuits brought by buyers seeking to recover preconstruction deposit monies paid under purchase contracts to developers...

The Shame Of HUD And Its Abandonment Of The Real Estate Buying Public

Posted on July 07, 2008
As loyal readers of this blog know, the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (ILSA) is an often overlooked federal law that has ascended in importance over the past year, owing to the fact that it is one of the major sources of potential rights for buyers under real estate purchase agreements, including contracts for [...

Will Condo Deposit Lawsuits Slow Down In The Wake Of The Marina Grande Decision? The Answer Is No

Posted on June 24, 2008
There is no doubt that the recent Marina Grande opinion from the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Florida is a key decision and, as I’ve written about here, it is an important object of analysis on the issue of what constitutes a “material and adverse” change sufficient to enable a condo buyer to recover his [...

Score A Win For The Developer In The Marina Grande ?Material And Adverse? Battle: But Is It Really A Victory For Developers In The Long Run?

Posted on June 23, 2008
The Fourth District Court of Appeal has spoken in likely the most watched condominium contract case in recent memory, D & T Properties v. Marina Grande, and the Court has sided with the developer against condo buyers seeking to recover their preconstruction deposits...

Reaching For The Deep Pocket In Real Estate Litigation: Does The Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (ILSA) Have A ?Long Arm??

Posted on June 02, 2008
From my vantage point as a practitioner in the trenches, the ongoing litigation battle between residential real estate developers and buyers (which, in my opinion, is but a subset of the broader category of litigation related to the subprime crisis) has entered a new dimension...

A Federal Court?s Strong Analysis Of The Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act, And Some Thoughts On How The HUD Regulations Can Shed Light On ILSA

Posted on May 27, 2008
Due to a busy month, it has been several weeks since my last post. Numerous topics call out for exploration, owing to the worsening U.S. residential housing market and attendant legal developments. Fortunately, the Memorial Day weekend permitted me to catch up on some writing...

Turning Condo Cancellation Cases Into Divorces: More Thoughts On The Legal Definition Of ?Material And Adverse? As A Florida Appellate Court Ponders The Condo Contract Case That Everyone Is Watching

Posted on May 06, 2008
Oral argument was held last week in the D & T Properties vs. Marina Grande Associates appeal in Palm Beach County. As I wrote on this blog some months ago, Florida real estate market watchers and condo lawyers have an intense interest in the outcome because the court is being asked to clarify under what [...

My Response To A Call By Developers? Attorneys To Gut The Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act

Posted on April 21, 2008
In recent days, a number of readers kindly sent me this opinion piece which appeared in last week’s South Florida Sun-Sentinel. The commentary, entitled “HUD, congressional action needed to stop tide of condo lawsuits,” was written by Alan S...

Condo-Hotel Litigation: The Lawsuit Boom Following The Burst Of Some Of The Riskiest Real Estate Investment Vehicles

Posted on April 14, 2008
Recently, the Wall Street Journal had a short but incisive item provocatively titled, Rooms With a Bubble View: Condo-Hotel Buyers See Investments Sour as the Market Weakens. The article characterizes condo-hotels as “one of the most dangerous investments of them all,” and then briefly discusses some of the lawsuits being brought against condo hotel developers [...

A Federal Court In Florida Tosses Out Developer?s ?Real Estate Speculator? Defense In Condo Contract Rescission Case

Posted on April 10, 2008
The Middle District of Florida recently chimed in somewhat negatively on a defense often raised by developers in the many lawsuits brought by buyers of condominiums looking to recover their preconstruction deposit monies in oversupplied and tanking residential real estate markets such as Florida...

Some Important Notes For New Readers Of This Blog

Posted on April 05, 2008
In the past couple months, I have received a noticeable uptick in calls from individuals who have been directed to my law office through this website. The vast majority of these callers have a specific interest in my articles on the federal Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (ILSA) and Florida condominium law...

New York Attorney General?s Office Orders The Related Group To Pay Back Buyers? Florida Condo Deposits

Posted on March 27, 2008
As reported in the Miami Herald and the South Florida Business Journal, the New York Attorney General’s Office recently ordered developer giant The Related Group to refund preconstruction deposits to buyers who were marketed and sold certain Florida condo units in New York State...

As The Condo Market Worsens, The Significance Of Buyers? Deposits Held In Escrow Grows

Posted on March 26, 2008
Two recent national news items track the ongoing crisis in the condo/residential real estate market, with a particular emphasis on the bad and worsening state of affairs which continues to envelope Miami and South Florida in general. From CNN, the S&P Case/Shiller Price index, which charts home prices in 20 major U...

Preconstruction Deposits: The Final Scraps On The Table In The Current Condo And Housing Market Crisis

Posted on March 16, 2008
This recent item from Miami realtor Lucas Lechuga’s blog caught my attention and prompted me to provide a brief commentary. In sum, Lechuga reports on a cancelled Miami Beach project where, allegedly, some buyers have requested through their brokers that their deposit monies be refunded, but the developer has taken the position that it will [...

Real Estate Contract Lawsuits In The Context Of Subprime Litigation And The Impending Battle Over Information

Posted on March 16, 2008
While lately this blog has focused on pressing issues in Florida real estate litigation, including the wave of lawsuits involving Florida condominium contracts, from time to time it can be insightful to frame the issues in a larger context. One such context is a buzzword heard frequently these days in reports on the current state of [...

New Federal Decision Provides Pro-Buyer Reading Of The Federal Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (ILSA)

Posted on March 04, 2008
A new opinion from the Middle District of Florida, Bush v. Bahia Sun Associates Ltd., 2008 WL 516825 (M.D. Fla. Feb. 22, 2008) is relatively short, but the result could be sweet for real estate buyers looking to cancel their contracts and obtain refunds of their preconstruction deposits...

Can The Developer Sue Me To Close? Some Specific Thoughts About Specific Performance

Posted on March 04, 2008
One question I get frequently from individuals who have signed a purchase agreement for residential real estate in Florida, such as a condominium, is whether they risk being faced with a lawsuit from the developer in the event they don’t (or can’t) show up for closing...

Beyond The Numbers: Visualizing The Condo Crisis In Miami

Posted on February 25, 2008
As I’ve posted here and here, it seems that new case law under the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (ILSA) is being made in Florida courts on what might be a weekly basis, owing to the great surge of lawsuits brought by Florida condo purchasers looking to recover their preconstruction deposit money...

ILSA Case Law Alert: Southern District Of Florida Holds That A Violation Of The Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act Is Also A Per Se Violation Of The Florida Deceptive And Unfair Trade Practices Act

Posted on February 24, 2008
A hat tip goes out to Tim O’Neill, who brought a brand new and crucial opinion interpreting the federal Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (ILSA) to my attention. The case is Trotta v. Lighthouse Point Land Company, LLC, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10559 (S...

Recent Case Law Roundup: Some Key Decisions Interpreting The Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (ILSA)

Posted on February 18, 2008
As predicted, the current condo litigation wave in Florida is continually adding to the stock of judicial opinions interpreting the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act, the primary federal law regulating sales of condominiums. Here is a summary of the most important decisions: Meridian Ventures, LLC v...

Singer Island Resort Buyers File Securities Class Action Against WCI Communities

Posted on February 10, 2008
Add a new breed of condo buyer lawsuit to the growing pile of cases which have been and are being filed under Florida condominium law and the federal Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act in Florida courts. As reported on CNN, troubled Florida homebuilder WCI Communities has been hit by a class action brought under federal [...

New Blog On California Condo And Real Estate Law

Posted on February 08, 2008
My law school classmate Greg Weston, whose firm is based in San Diego, California, has started a new blog that I know will be of interest to some of my readers. Greg has been taking a close look at some of the legal isses relevant to the housing market crash from a California perspective, including the California [...

A New Kind Of Condo Lawsuit: Related Group Sues Brokers To Claw Back Commissions On Defaulted Condo Units

Posted on February 01, 2008
The Miami Herald reports on the newest flavor of lawsuit directly attributable to the South Florida condo market crisis: a developer suing real estate brokers to claw back commissions for condo units on which the buyers failed to close. According to the Herald, Miami condo titan Related Group filed at least 15 lawsuits in the [...

The Short And Tricky Statute Of Limitations Framework For Claims Under The Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (ILSA)

Posted on January 15, 2008
Previously on this blog, I described the federal Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (”ILSA”) as a possible “land mine” for condominium developers, owing to the statute’s poorly understood exemption provisions which can be and are subject to competing judicial interpretations...

Big News On The U.S. Housing And Florida Condo Market Crises: Big Deal, Big Gamble, Big Foreclosures, And Big Buyers

Posted on January 11, 2008
The New Year is still relatively young, but the news on the troubled U.S. housing and Florida condo market is already coming fast and furious. Here are the latest highlights: 1. Everyone has their eyes on Bank of America’s takeover of Countrywide, which was announced today...

Blogging On Florida Condo Contract Law: A Look Back At 2007

Posted on January 03, 2008
With 2007 done and gone, and 2008 upon us, I thought it a good opportunity to review some of this blog’s highlights from last year. When I started blogging about condo contract issues under federal and Florida law in the summer of 2007, there was a noticeable void in the quality and availability of information on [...

?Buyer?s Remorse? Versus ?Developer?s Remorse? And The Continuing Saga Of The Florida Condo Market Tailspin

Posted on December 26, 2007
The notion of “buyer’s remorse” as applied to the Florida condo market downturn should be familiar to anyone with even a passing interest in the market trends of the past couple years. Here, by way of example, is a rather lengthy recent article from the New York Times entitled “This is the Sound of a [...

Sarnoff Memo Case Update: Third District Court Of Appeal Holds That Memo Is A Public Record

Posted on December 19, 2007
The Daily Business Review has the latest from the Marc Sarnoff/Related Group controversy (about which I posted previously here), including the infamous memo itself, which is a whopping one page long and recounts a conversation which Miami City Commissioner Sarnoff had with City Manager Joe Arriola concerning bribes allegedly sought by city officials for approval [...

Key Miami Condo Closing Rates: The Numbers Which Tell The Contract Cancellation Story

Posted on December 10, 2007
Miami realtor extraordinaire Lucas Lechuga has posted the latest closing rates for several key projects in Miami: Latitude on the River, Star Lofts on the Bay, Onyx on the Bay, Ten Museum Park, 2 Midtown, 50 Biscayne, and One Bal Harbour. Providing this kind of quality information has allowed Lechuga to make a name for [...

Choosing An Attorney For A Florida Condo Contract Case: It Pays To Do Your Research

Posted on December 07, 2007
The anonymous South Florida Lawyers Blog recently posted an article on one of the so-called “deposit recovery services” which have sprouted up in recent months among South Florida law firms and lawyers looking to “cash in” on the wave of condo purchasers seeking to cancel their contracts and get their deposits refunded...

Florida?s $14 Billion Investment Pool For Local Governments Is The Latest Casualty Of The Subprime Crisis

Posted on December 04, 2007
This report shows the gravity of the current subprime crisis, which has effectively shut down a $14 billion investment pool relied on by Florida towns and school districts for their routine expenditures. Apparently, 14% of the fund was placed in troubled investments, causing local governments to try to get their money out at the same [...

Pugliese v. Pukka Development, Inc.: The ILSA Quagmire Gets Thicker For Developers As A New Opening For Condo Contract Revocation Emerges

Posted on November 27, 2007
I’ve received a number of requests to address the Southern District of Florida’s recent decision in Pugliese v. Pukka Development, Inc., so it appears that the topic of this post will be of some interest to this blog’s readership. For those who are unfamiliar with the Pugliese opinion, Greenberg Traurig (the law firm, par excellence, for [...

The Battle For ?Material And Adverse?: A Tale Of Two Florida Appellate Courts, And Two Florida Condominiums

Posted on November 11, 2007
One of the more popular articles on this blog provides a short discussion of Florida case law on what constitutes a material and adverse change to a condominium purchase agreement sufficient for the buyer to rescind the contract and recover his or her deposit money...