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Interest on Attorney Fees Mount in Florida Citrus Standoff

January 26, 2017 | Posted in : Fee Dispute, Fee Entitlement / Recoverability, Fee Issues on Appeal, Interest on Fees

A recent Daily Business Review story, “Attorney Fees Mounting in $21M Broward Citrus Standoff,” by Samantha Joseph reports on the growing legal fees in the Broward citrus standoff.  The story reads:

Here's the $21 million question at the center of a standoff between Florida's agriculture department and thousands of Broward homeowners: Can the legislature prevent judicial enforcement of the state constitution?

The owners of at least 55,000 Broward properties are betting it can't.  They've been fighting Florida's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for 16 years after the agency destroyed about 133,000 uninfected trees in a failed bid to stop the spread of citrus canker.  Meanwhile a judgment to the homeowners is growing by $2,424 in daily interest, while attorneys' fees have mounted into millions on about $538 in interest per day.  The long-running class action involved so much legal maneuvering that District Judge Melanie May once dubbed the case "The Book of Citrus Canker.”

After years of wrangling, the homeowners returned to court Jan. 23 with a writ of mandamus to compel the department and agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam to pay two judgments that have ballooned to more than $20.6 million, thanks to statutory interest accumulating at a rate of about $3,000 daily, or $91,800 per month.  They want judicial enforcement of a constitutional provision, but the agency says their only recourse is with the legislature.

"The plaintiffs have never invoked the claim bill process," Florida Department of Agriculture spokesman Aaron Keller said.  Now the parties are at an impasse, each clinging to separate laws they say govern their rights and protection.

The homeowners say they're owed millions of dollars under the "takings clause" of Florida's constitution, which requires government agencies to provide fair compensation for private property taken for public use.  They've won two judgments to replace the trees and cover attorneys' fees, and insist the agency has a constitutional obligation to pay the debt.

After two trials to determine liability and compensation, retired Broward Circuit Judge Ronald Rothschild in 2008 awarded more than $8 million plus post-judgment interest.  He then granted nearly $4.4 million in attorneys' fees four years later.  Both awards survived challenges in the Fourth District Court of Appeal, but the Department of Agriculture blocked the court's issuance of a writ of execution by citing two sections of state law that require creditors with judgments against the state or its agencies to seek legislative appropriation as the "sole remedy."