Is it worth pursuing a D&O lawsuit against the BOD and the individual members?
Please appreciate that I am not a member of the Florida Bar, only the D.C. Bar, so I can't give legal advice. So please take my comments as the thoughts and suggestions of an Owner/Member of the Coconut Plantation Condo Association.
I am planning to file a Grievance with the Grievance Committee for the 20th Circuit Court in Lee County against ALL of the lawyers involved in the litigation. Feel free to do so too. It would be great if everyone would file a Grievance. I plan to limit my focus to the lawyers because I believe they have clearly violated the Florida Bar Rules. I put myself in the situation of Defendant Kersey Smoot - - I bought the land so that London Bay can build on it. If the Grievance Committee finds that the lawyers violated Florida Bar Rules by not disclosing to the Court the true date of the conveyance of the property, Kersey Smoot should file suit and seek recission of their agreement with PLV. That suggestion can be found in Lisa Van Dien's affidavit attached below. Note that she did not refer to the Deed she prepared when the Deed would be affective; instead only saying that the Deed was recorded on April 25th. Anyway, I plan to follow this path of going after the lawyers for violating Florida Bar Rules. If the lawyers are determined to have violated the Rules, then I would consider filing a lawsuit against the lawyers and the Association.
I have already asked the Association's Board whether there is a Settlement Agreement. I was told that there is not so I guess that there is at most a "Memorandum of Understanding" that provides the highlights of what will be in the Settlement Agreement. God only knows why our Board would approve dismissal of the lawsuit before there was a Final Settlement Agreement - - what was the rush? My thought is with the upcoming election for the Board and with all except for Mr. Rudd running (who I believe would not have agreed to the dismissal based on his comments at the last Board meeting which I attended) I think part of the rush was to increase their likelihood of being reelected. If I'm right, the "Points" owners vote through their trustee and I would bet that those votes will all go to the current Board members now that the litigation has been settled - - probably in the defendant's favor. My guess is that the settlement will be only for about $8 million; a token increase over what was originally offered. I also think that the Board's lawyers were always telling the Board that given the amount of money involved, there will surely be an appeal, so no more money until many years later if we prevail or no money if we lose. Typical BS by lawyers who don't know what they're doing.
The lawyers should have said that we would get interest on the money and London Bay would not build on the property if they didn't have everything they would get from PLV - - which per Van Dien's affidavit that London Bay would not be the Declarant.
With respect to a new lawsuit, I think we need to be patient and wait to see the Settlement Agreement. The Board will probably say we are not entitled to it as being confidential but I plan to see if the Grievance Committee can get access to all of these things related to the Dismissal which will show what really happened.
I would appreciate other people's thoughts/opinions.
