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3d DCA Watch -- When Stars (Sleepily) Collide Edition

Hi kiddies, it's our first 3d DCA Watch of the New Year and boy am I excited! I am sure our resplendently robed coffee-swillers to the south have been very very busy, toiling in that cold concrete courthouse by the highway just so all of us good boy and girl lawyers have something to ponder, nod, roll our eyes and/or laugh about each Wednesday. So let's get right into it, shall we:

First off, we wish Judge Melvia B. Green a fond farewell and happy retirement. Thank you for your dedicated years of service and accomplishment. Here is a very nice tribute by the Florida Conference of District Court of Appeal Judges.

We do hope you will stay at least as active as "retired" Judge Schwartz (please, please, and pretty please!).

Let's see, anything else...

Breakstone v. Breakstone Homes:

Hey now. Jeff Crockett on one side, Laurie Waldman Ross on the other, Michael Olin, Manny Dobrinsky, with an opinion from Judge Salter. This is an A-List matchup.

Umm, no, sorry, the opinion is a dud. Shareholders had a broad arbitration agreement. One elects the buy/sell provision. Company then sues for breach of fiduciary duty:

The interpretive question in this case arises because the dispute between Breakstone Homes and Breakstone (Count X of the Breakstone Homes complaint in circuit court, and Count IX of the amended complaint) alleged that Breakstone had breached his fiduciary duties as a corporate director of Breakstone Homes. Relying on Seifert v. U.S. Home Corp., 750 So. 2d 633, 640 (Fla. 1999), Breakstone Homes argues that this is a tort claim ?unrelated to the rights and obligations of the contract? and is therefore not an arbitrable issue. We disagree.

. . . .

The statutory breach of fiduciary duty claim in the Breakstone Homes complaint is related to the rights set forth in section 5.1(b) of the Agreement. That provision arguably anticipates that a director might engage in a competing enterprise, and in that event provides a remedy. . . . In short, the Breakstone Homes claims are significantly related to the rights and obligations in the Agreement, distinguishing this case from the analysis and result in Seifert.

Zzzzzz.

Anyone awake? No, me neither. Hail, this opinion even put Jeff Crockett asleep, and he won the case!

3d DCA Watch has been officially cancelled this week due to excessive boredom.

Come back, Melvia, come back!

Full post as published by South Florida Lawyers on January 07, 2009 (boomark / email).