A recent Law 360 story, “Fla. Firm Fights For Cut of Fee From $12M Insurance Award,” reports that Rosenbaum Mollengarden PLLC argued for a cut of the fee award from a $12 million insurance judgment that a Florida condominium association says should revert back to its own coffers.

In oral arguments before the Eleventh Circuit in Miami, Laurel Wiley, representing Rosenbaum Mollgarden, argued that Buckley Towers Condominium Inc. already got a $7.4 million cut of the final judgment from QBE Insurance Co. over wind damage sustained by two of its condominium towers during 2005's Hurricane Wilma.  “Now it's trying to dip into the $4.6 million set aside for its three former counsel,” Wiley said.

But U.S. Circuit Judge William Pryor brought up a footnote in a panel opinion in a previous appeal on the issue that contemplated there might be leftover money returned to Buckley Towers.  “It's kind of hard to get around that,” the judge said.

The dispute stems from a $3 million fee award Rosenbaum Mollengarden received after a $12 million appeals judgment for Buckley Towers in 2011 in its dispute with QBE.

Daniel Rosenbaum, the owner of Rosenbaum Mollengarden, was a partner with three firms — Becker & Poliakoff PA, now-defunct Katzman Garfinkel & Rosenbaum LLP and Rosenbaum Mollengarden — during the course of handling Buckley Towers' case.  The three firms resolved their fee dispute in a settlement in which Becker & Poliakoff agreed to waive its rights to any fees.

“The Rosenbaum law firm could've reached a different agreement with Becker & Poliakoff,” Leigh Katzman of Katzman Garfinkel, who represents Buckley Towers, said.  “They could've said, 'assign your rights to the fees to us.'  They could've stood here in the shoes of Becker & Poliakoff.  They did the opposite.  They just wanted Becker & Poliakoff to waive their rights and go away.”

The appeal is one of three by Rosenbaum Mollengarden and Buckley related to the fee dispute that are pending before the federal appeals court.  In the instant appeal, filed in July 2015, Rosenbaum Mollengarden seeks to overturn the portion of the district court's judgment on remand that ordered the remaining funds posted by the firm in the court registry be paid to Buckley Towers.

Buckley Towers has argued that Rosenbaum Mollengarden’s appeal of the order is frivolous because it rests upon the false argument that the association was party to a settlement among Becker & Poliakoff, Katzman Garfinkel & Rosenbaum and Rosenbaum Mollengarden regarding stay and disbursement motions in their fee dispute.

Rosenbaum Mollengarden argues that Buckley Towers waived its claim to the $4.6 million held in the court registry for attorneys’ fees long before the settlement hearing.  The firm contended that Buckley insisted it had no interest in the money as long as the firms shared the funds, pointing out that the association never appealed the order on the charging liens.

In January, Buckley Towers called for sanctions against Rosenbaum Mollengarden for its allegedly frivolous appeal, a move that Rosenbaum said was part of a six-year campaign by his former law partners Leigh Katzman and Alan Garfinkel to harm him after the bitter dissolution of their firm.

The case is Buckley Towers Condominium Inc. v. Rosenbaum Mollengarden PLLC., case number 15-13012, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.