Fort Lauderdale attorneys for the heiress to the Texaco Inc. fortune scored a defense verdict in a federal district court in Fort Myers against the U.S. Department of Justice, which was seeking to assess a $21 million penalty for a report of foreign bank and financial account violation.

Jeffrey Neiman and Derick Vollrath, partners at Marcus Neiman & Rashbaum, said one of the challenges in representing the defendant, the estate of Lavern Gaynor, against the plaintiff, the Justice Department, was that the government nearly always wins on summary judgment in FBAR cases.