On August 11, 2000, the headline on our page one commentary was, "The Caribe Soul Case: A Circus of Lawyers". The story was about how three lawyers and a judge seemingly worked together to kill the dream of two young restaurateurs.
On May 30 of this year, one of the lawyers involved, Tracy Adams, was reprimanded by the Florida Supreme Court for her behavior in this case.
This is another one of those "we told you so" stories. Here is the commentary we published back in August 2000. You decide. Should the other two lawyers involved also be reprimanded? Should the judge be sanctioned?
The popular Caribe Soul restaurant was evicted last Friday. But this followup editorial doesn't have much to do with that landlord-tenant dispute. This is a story about the behavior of the lawyers in the case.
Last year, Caribe Soul partners Michael Weston and Kevin Robinson transplanted their little Bahama Village restaurant to a new location on Grinnell and Fleming, adjacent to the Eden House. But things did not go well. Renovation delays pushed the opening date back from March to June. And a conflict developed with landlord Michael Eden. The Caribe Soul partners received their first eviction notice only 45 days after they opened.
A major blow in April may have been the fatal blow. Concurrent sewer and water main construction on both Fleming and Grinnell literally put them out of business for three weeks.
At a brief hearing last month, Judge Susan Vernon gave Michael and Kevin less than a day to come up with two months rent plus fees— more than $9500.
"Even though that figure sounded high," Kevin said, "we followed our attorney's advice not to contest the order. At that time, we had not had the opportunity to go over the lawsuit in detail, but we certainly assumed that our attorney, Tracy Adams, had done that. That's what we were paying her for."
But the next morning, Michael and Kevin discovered that the landlord's lawyer, Attorney Susan Cardenas had, accidentally or on purpose, attached the wrong lease to her lawsuit. The name on the lease was Martin's, the restaurant that had formerly occupied the courtyard behind the Eden House, not Caribe Soul.
But Cardenas had attached the signature sheet from the current Caribe Soul lease, making it appear that Michael and Kevin had signed the Martin's lease.
Michael and Kevin immediately tried to contact Attorney Adams to file an objection to what they called "falsification" and to request a new hearing. But Adams had seemingly disappeared.
At the final hearing last Friday, Michael and Kevin were there alone, without representation. When they tried to tell the judge that her original order was based on the terms of somebody else's lease, Cardenas argued that it was too late for any "defenses" and that they should have objected at the original hearing.
"Our attorney, who we were paying to represent us, didn't catch the discrepancy," Kevin argued, "and when we caught it the next day, our attorney had disappeared."
No matter. They were evicted.
Before that hearing, however, when it became apparent that Attorney Adams was just not going to be available to help them, Michael and Kevin did try to retain new counsel. They talked to William Friedlander, who had been former Mayor Dennis Wardlow's lawyer in the now-famous Mosquito Control Board job-fix scandal.
"He said he thought that Attorney Cardenas' action represented falsification of court documents," said Michael Weston, "and he said he thought he could delay the eviction and negotiate our departure from the property on terms more favorable than those being demanded."
But when express-mailed money for a retainer fee did not arrive from Weston's father in time, Friedlander dumped out of the deal.
And at last Friday's hearing, Attorney Cardenas somehow knew about that and used it against Michael and Kevin. She told Judge Vernon— who seemed at one time to be considering a continuance because the Caribe Soul partners did not have representation— that the reason they didn't have a lawyer is that there had been "payment problems."
She told the judge that she knew that they had talked to Attorney Friedlander and that he was not there because they had not been able to pay him. She didn't say how she knew that. But she used that to help paint Michael and Kevin as deadbeats who deserved to be thrown out into the street. It worked.
We questioned Attorney Friedlander by fax. Had he shared Caribe Soul's confidential business— business that would be covered by the sanctity of the attorney-client privilege— with Attorney Cardenas and, if so, why? He didn't respond.
We also faxed Attorney Cardenas asking if attaching the wrong lease (and the right signature sheet) to her lawsuit had been inadvertent or on purpose. She didn't respond either, but in court she called that action a "typo."
We couldn't reach Attorney Adams, either. But we understand that her office has offered to refund at least part of the retainer fee she received from Caribe Soul.
We don't know if the Caribe Soul partners plan to complain to the Florida Bar or not. But if they do, this could be a trifecta.
According to the Supreme Court order, Attorney Adams may appeal the reprimand. But, so far, she hasn't even responded to Florida Bar investigators. We attempted to contact Ms. Adams for comment this week. Although she is listed in the phone book, callers get a recording indicating that the number has been disconnected.
NOTE: Kevin Robinson died on January 12 of this year due to respratory complications.