Why does it not surprise me that this doofus is involved in an ethics probe? *snicker*
Posted on 03/17/2003 5:05:21 AM PST by veronica
The Florida Bar has reopened its investigative file on courtroom king David Boies after a Palm Beach County Circuit judge rebuked his law firm's actions in a bizarre case known as the Lawn Mower War.
Judge David Crow is the latest in a line of judges to criticize the tactics of Boies, 61, in representing his longtime friend and business partner, Amy Habie, 41, in her marathon legal war with Scott Lewis, the owner of a competing lawn-service company.
At risk is the reputation of Boies, a prominent attorney who built his fame as a litigator in high-stakes and high-publicity cases, such as Al Gore's futile challenge of the 2000 presidential election.
Also at stake is millions of dollars' worth of landscape business among the lush lawns of Palm Beach.
"This case is a sad commentary on the inability of the legal system and the courts of our state to resolve a simple contract dispute, when one is willing to litigate without regard to costs," Crow said in a Feb. 20 order.
Recent testimony included disclosures that Habie is now an official of Boies' law firm, that it has paid all the bills for her during the seven-year-long case, and a former employee's allegations that she vowed to ruin Lewis and have someone break his legs.
The judge denied Lewis' motion to disqualify Boies Schiller & Flexner from representing Habie, saying that wouldn't prevent the firm from continuing to finance the court battle. But he forwarded his findings to the Florida Bar for an ethics investigation, which a Bar spokesman said is under way.
Lewis filed a Bar complaint against Boies in 2001, but a grievance committee of the 2nd Judicial Circuit in Tallahassee declined to prosecute. The file was closed last March and would have been destroyed by the end of this month if not for Crow's order.
Crow cited testimony that Boies' firm not only provided years of free legal services to Habie but also paid more than $400,000 in other lawyers' fees and costs to keep the litigation going.
Boies previously provided nearly $2 million in free legal services to Habie in her divorce and child custody battle with her ex-husband, Guatemalan textile manufacturer Jose "Joey" Habie, his family and their businesses. He also represented her in lawsuits involving Whitestone Games Inc., a now-defunct video game franchising company of which she was an officer in the 1990s.
A Boies Schiller official testified in November that the firm was paying Habie $75,000 to $90,000 a year for unspecified accounting work.
But according to testimony cited in recent court hearings, Habie now has the title of chief financial officer of Boies Schiller & Flexner, one of the most prestigious law firms in the United States, with more than 170 lawyers, annual revenues of $100 million and 11 office locations, including Fort Lauderdale and Miami.
Boies, who is representing scandal-plagued Tyco International, Adelphia Communications and Qwest Communications, has handled such high-publicity cases as Gen. William Westmoreland's libel suit against 60 Minutes, the U.S. antitrust action against Microsoft Corp. and Napster Inc.'s suit against the recording industry.
Neither Boies nor other attorneys for Habie could be reached for comment.
Lewis and his wife, Carol, sold Scott Lewis' Gardening & Trimming Inc. to Habie in 1996 for $800,000 but went back into business several months later after each side said the contract had been breached. Since reaching a settlement in 1998, they have been in court continually over violations of the agreement. Habie and her company, Nical of Palm Beach, have been held in contempt of court three times, sanctioned nine times and lost 11 appeals.
On March 7, Crow awarded $121,000 in legal fees and costs to the Lewises, who say the litigation has cost them more than $500,000. The money was only for appeals court expenses during Habie's attempts to overturn contempt orders and sanctions. Crow said he reserved the right to add more interest to the award after researching the law.
"If there's a way I can award attorney's fees from the date these people paid the money, I think I would do so based upon what I know to be the history of this case," Crow told Habie.
In testimony on March 7, a former supervisor for Habie's company said Habie talked about having Lewis' legs broken. Gary Scudiero said she also vowed to sue Lewis for everything he had.
She said Lewis would "be standing on a corner with a sign, 'Will work for food,' in his hands," Scudiero said.
Staff researcher Dorothy Shea contributed to this story.
I once worked for a company that purchased a bunkrupt firm and it assets. To our owners surprise, many of our vendors, some of long standing, refused to sell to us any more as a result of our owners willingness to profit from a bankruptcy while those vendors got burned.
The guy should have never sold the business to someone like Boise's client/employee/suckretary.
Regards, Ivan
Why does it not surprise me that this doofus is involved in an ethics probe? *snicker*
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
The liberal media figures out what we've been saying all along.
The guy's an idiot. Further dirt on Gore's 2000 attempted election steal.
Now there's a scary thought. ;)
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