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Tobacco Litigator's Widow Wins Partial Victory
Daily Business Review
June 04, 2009
An appellate court has handed a partial victory to the widow of prominent Palm Beach, Fla., litigator Robert Montgomery in a dispute with her late husband's former law partner, reversing a trial court order that would have required Montgomery's estate to pay more than $100,000.
The 4th District Court of Appeal reversed a trial court order against the estate that required it to pay around $100,000 in attorney fees to former partner Christopher Larmoyeux of West Palm Beach. The appellate court found that Larmoyeux filed his claims too late and ruled they were time-barred.
But the 4th DCA affirmed an order requiring the estate to pay more than $80,000 in attorney fees to North Palm Beach attorney Eric Hewko, whom Larmoyeux brought in as co-counsel in a case originating in Montgomery's firm that Larmoyeux handled afterward. The 4th DCA also found there was no credibility to fraud claims in a suit filed by Montgomery and his counsel against Hewko. The trial court had ordered both Montgomery and the West Palm Beach law firm of Beasley Hauser Kramer Leonard & Galardi to pay fees to Hewko and Larmoyeux.
"The trial court's finding that the claims were not made in good faith was supported by competent, substantial evidence," Judge Fred Hazouri wrote. He was joined in the opinion by Judge Gary Farmer and Judge Carole Taylor.
Carlton Fields shareholder Sylvia Walbolt of Tampa, who represented Montgomery's estate, declined comment on the case. Hewko and Larmoyeux did not return calls seeking comment by deadline.
Montgomery partnered with Larmoyeux in 1989, but the lawyers had a contentious breakup in 2000 after Montgomery won $200 million in fees in a pioneering product liability case against the tobacco industry that resulted in a settlement between the companies and the state of Florida. Those payments were structured so that he received a yearly stipend. The money now goes to his widow, Mary Montgomery.
The present dispute stems from a final judgment won in January 2008 by Hewko and Larmoyeux against Montgomery, who died Aug. 3 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., at the age of 78.
Montgomery sued Larmoyeux for fraud, civil conspiracy, breach of fiduciary duty and other charges over fees won by Larmoyeux and Hewko in a lawsuit that Larmoyeux took with him after the professional breakup with Montgomery.
Hewko and Larmoyeux subsequently filed a suit accusing Montgomery of bringing a frivolous complaint against them and were awarded attorney fees in Palm Beach Circuit Court. The 4th DCA reversed most of that judgment Wednesday.
