Two board members of the Copper Ridge/Brandon Homeowners’ Association, Inc. found out the hard way that suing your association and some of their fellow board members can get very costly.
The price they paid in this case: $ 62,885.57 in judgments.
And not only did they have to pay this amount, they as well lost their seats on the board due to the fact that they paid the legal fees more than 90 days after payment was due.
On June 15, 2022 Telisha Catchings and Carmen Gay as plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in the Hillsborough County Circuit Court. The Verified Complaint was for Breach, Damages and Equitable and Injunctive Relief. In the lawsuit they made all kinds of claims, stating that the board failed to notice board meetings without notifying the owners, failure to turn over records on request and misappropriation of association funds.
Making claims is one thing – proving them is another. Nobody can win a lawsuit just "On information and belief". If you want to win a lawsuit, you better have some real proof for your allegations.
The court quickly realized that these complaints were seriously defective and ordered both counterclaims to be dismissed:
Counter-Defendants Amended Motion to Dismiss First Amended Counterclaim and Motion for Sanctions
Order Granting Motion To Dismiss Second Amended Counterclaim
The association and the board members accused by the plaintiffs of wrongdoings quickly turned the tables and filed a COMPLAINT against Telisha Catchings, Carmen Gay and Kevin Jeffries – and were in the end successful.
The AMENDED ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT made the association the prevailing party and awarded the association a total of $ 61,225.12 in legal fees and cost.
An Appeal to the 2nd DCA by the defendants was quickly dismissed by the Appeals Court, making the ruling of the Circuit Court final.
And since Catchings and Gay were more than 90 days delinquent in paying any fee, fine, or other monetary obligation due to the association [FS 720.305(3)] they lost as well their seats on the board. Their removal was, according to a well-known attorney specialized in association law, absolutely legal!
Owners have to remember two important things:
1. Association law awards legal fees to the prevailing party!
2. Owners will always find some lawyer taking their case, because lawyers get paid: Win or Lose!
Especially if claiming: Misappropriation of Funds -- owners should rather turn to law enforcement – if they have the actual documents to prove their claims.
Otherwise it may be much less expensive for board members accusing other board members of violations of the statutes to wait for the next election – or to hope that they can convince their neighbors to sign recall petitions.
The lesson to be learned from this case: Don’t publicly accuse others of wrongdoing if you don’t have the documented proof for the alleged wrongdoing! Don’t run around in the neighborhood – or write on Facebook – that the association or some board members are violating the law if you can’t really prove it. And don’t file lawsuits that can seriously backfire!
IT CAN GET REALLY EXPENSIVE!