• A unit owner sued the condo board at the Yacht Club at Portofino.
• The defendant claimed it was taking steps to remedy the problem, but ultimately, a state court judge had to enter an emergency motion for a mandatory temporary injunction.
• The multimillion-dollar settlement followed soon afterward the judge’s ruling but ahead of an upcoming trial.

After a state court in Miami entered an emergency motion for a mandatory temporary injunction, a South Florida attorney leveraged the ruling to obtain a $3.1 million settlement for his client, who sustained over a decade of delays by the condo association in the repairs of his unit.

“It was just a horror show,” said Ronald Weil, a partner at the Weil Law Firm, whom associate Julio Ayala joined in representing the plaintiff, Igor Ger. In Ger’s lawsuit against the defendant, the Yacht Club at Portofino Condominium Association Inc., Weil said his client demanded accountability. “Don’t ignore various components that are available to condo owners whose board has failed them in this way,” Weil said. “Realize that you can recover for loss of use, diminished value if it goes on for a period of time; and if there are elements of deception, the Florida Deceptive Trade Practices Act provides for protection and can also pay for the legal fees that accompany this.” Bradley Silverman, a partner at Hamilton, Miller & Birthisel in Miami, who represented the Yacht Club, did not respond to a request for comment. The case dates to the last months of 2006, when Ger, who owns a Miami Beach penthouse at the Yacht Club, allegedly requested repairs for water penetration to his unit, as required under his agreement with the condo owners association, according to the complaint. In addition, in 2019, Ger allegedly alerted the association to mold and fungus growth in the hallway leading to his unit.

The Yacht Club at Portofino in Miami

 

However, in both instances, the association failed to eradicate the conditions Ger reported, resulting in damage to the ceilings, electrical circuits, carpets, marble and more. As a result, In December 2013, Weil sued the association in the Miami-Dade Circuit Court, asserting claims of negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and violations of the Florida Deceptive Practices Act.

In February 2018, Weil filed his first emergency motion for a temporary injunction. In response, the defendant claimed to have taken steps to “expeditiously resolve the water intrusion in plaintiff’s unit,” court records show. Five years later, the plaintiff asserted that the water intrusion into his home had continued, and the defendant failed to correct it.

Weil sought the emergency temporary injunction on behalf of the plaintiff, to prevent the defendant from continuing to allow damage to his unit.

Sanford Kaminsky, a licensed architect, testified at the hearing on the motion about his inspection of the property in August, leading Broward Circuit Judge Antonio Arzola to make multiple findings in December, that warranted entry of the injunction.

First, Arzola held that the plaintiff had been irreparably harmed by the defendant’s actions; second, the plaintiff has no adequate remedy at law because the plaintiff could not repair the damages himself due to the contract terms; third, the plaintiff had a substantial likelihood of success on the merits based on the continuous water intrusion; and fourth, the public interest favored an injunction, “especially given the life safety issues” to which Kaminsky testified.

And on Friday, Weil obtained the settlement from the defendant, ahead of an upcoming trial.

He said, “It is important for people to be invested in whatever the board decides.”