Jennifer Remy-Estorino, of the Miami office, and Benjamin Cohen, of the Ft. Lauderdale office, obtained two final summary judgments in an extremely contested and contentious case involving defamation per se and tortious interference with advantageous business relationships and/or contractual relationships. The underlying dispute arose out of a failed general contractor/homebuilder contractual relationship between the parties concerning the construction of a brand new, single-family residential home. The Plaintiff’s GC was claiming in excess of $2 million in associated damages as a result of our client’s behavior. The case was made all the more complex and convoluted given the nature and tenor of our client’s communications with the GC, many of which included racially charged or egregious statements by the client.
After 2 years of heated litigation and what seemed to be endless discovery (in excess of 25 depositions to date), Jenny and Ben methodically and meticulously set up Plaintiffs’ tortious interference claim for final summary judgment which was granted a 2 hour long heavily contested. The Court ruled that there was no genuine issue of material fact as to the causal connection between our client’s alleged tortious behavior and Plaintiffs’ damages, over Plaintiffs’ objections to the contrary. Ben also successfully argued that summary judgment was not premature at this stage in the litigation over Plaintiffs’ contention that significant discovery was still pending. The ruling was crucial as it effectively eliminated 99% of the damages that Plaintiff intended to board at trial, and totally reversed the tenor of the case in favor of our client.
