A North Miami Beach lawyer is saying he misspoke and settled a long-running case without his client’s permission.

David Javits of Javits & Associates represented St. Mary’s School of Medicine, fending off a lawsuit by a former student upset over never getting a degree. A footnote in the appellate ruling notes that St. Mary’s, which operates in St. Lucia and the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, shuttered in 2009 and never reopened.

Judge Richard J. Suarez. Photo: J. Albert Diaz/ALM