|
WHAT’S NEXT, DIANA KUKA? |
|
An Opinion By Jan Bergemann Published November 30, 2024
After the Supreme Court of Florida ordered that the petition for review in the case Boca View Condominium Association, Inc. v. Eleanor Lepselter is denied and stated in its ruling that no motion for rehearing will be entertained by the Court, it looks like this will be the end of a long legal fight over the inspection of the financial records of the association.
The attorneys representing condo owner Eleanor Lepselter, Christopher Salivar, Esq. and Andrew Schwartz, Esq., really deserve much of the merits for winning this difficult case. Excellent work, considering all the attorneys Diana Kuka used to fight this record inspection case. Owners are always looking for attorneys willing to represent them, because most of these specialized attorneys rather represent the associations.
Despite the fact that FS 718.111(12) clearly states that financial records have to be open for inspection by the owners, Diana Kuka, as the president of the board of the Boca View Condominium Association, Inc., has waged legal fights in all available courts, including Federal Courts, in order to hide the financial records from the owners.
She plainly ignored court rulings and always found some more attorneys willing to file more appeals and/or rehearing – up to the Supreme Court of Florida. The long list of court cases and appeals makes me wonder about the huge amount of association funds that must have been wasted to pay all these attorneys willing to do her bidding. Now add to this the amount of legal fees that the association now owes the prevailing party – Eleanor Lepselter! I think that many of the other members of the association will have a rude awakening when all these numbers are revealed. I seriously doubt that the association will be able to pay all the legal bills without levying a huge special assessment.
In my opinion, nobody in his/her right mind would be willing to waste hundreds of thousands of dollars to hide the financial records if there are not some serious problems with the finances. Remember the case of the Hammocks Community Association, Inc. where the boards’ attorneys even filed lawsuits in Federal Courts against Investigating Police Officers and the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, trying to quash subpoenas to get the records for their investigations?
And we all know how this ended after law enforcement got hold of the financial records. The board members were arrested and it is estimated that about $4 million were embezzled from association funds.
In my opinion the Boca View case would have long been settled if the association would have been located in Miami/Dade. But since Dave Aronberg, the Palm Beach County State Attorney, considers anything that happens in associations a civil matter, fraud and embezzlement seems to be pretty common in Palm Beach County's community associations. I get lots of complaints from this county, but nothing will ever change since voters always vote for the same kind of candidates, but obviously must be expecting a different outcome. In the recent election Palm Beach County voters elected Alexcia Cox to replace Dave Aronberg. She was Dave Aronberg’s understudy for many years. Do these voters expect a different approach to these cases from her?
In the Boca View case Diana Kuka seems to be out of options to file further appeals, but considering her past actions there may be the possibility that she will as well ignore the ruling of the Florida Supreme Court.
This is a very interesting case that just shows that the Florida Legislature may be able to enact owner-friendly bills, but the enforcement totally lacks and board members have the ability to waste huge amounts of association funds trying to hide the financial records. And in the end all members will pay for the board’s willingness to plainly ignore the laws! |