Galindo v. The Ivy Condominium Association, Inc.

Evelyn Greenstone Kammet (Miami, FL) (D&O/Appeal) Evelyn Greenstone Kammet successfully defeated two appeals filed by a unit owner against his condominium association regarding an award of attorney’s fees (note, Ms. Greenstone Kammet also handled the evidentiary hearing regarding attorney’s fees at the trial court level). Specifically, the unit owner sought $189,900.00 in attorney’s fees, and when the trial court awarded fees in the amount of $39,960.50, the unit owner appealed. The appeal regarding the amount of fees awarded by the trial court was successfully defended by Ms. Greenstone Kammet on the basis that the unit owner’s oral contingency agreement with his counsel was void, the unit owner’s counsel failed to satisfy the requirements of a fee multiplier, and competent, substantial evidence supported the trial court’s application of the federal lodestar approach. The unit owner then filed a second appeal, which was again successfully defended by Ms. Greenstone Kammet, in which the unit owner claimed that the trial court committed reversible error by finding that the association’s tender of the judgment award suspended any accrual of interest. In the second appeal, like the first appeal, Ms. Greenstone Kammet obtained a per curiam affirmance of the trial court’s decision by arguing: (1) the association’s tender of the judgment award was unconditional, and thus it suspended any additional accrual of interest during the pendency of the first appeal; (2) the unit owner was precluded from rejecting the tender to later seek additional compounding interest; and (3) the unit owner’s own conduct, including his counsel’s violation of the Florida Bar Rules of Professional Conduct, prohibited him from collecting additional compounding interest.