A Miami-Dade County jury found that the buyer of a modest Golden Beach home cheated his broker out of a commission.
The amount at the center of the case? $84,000 for the $2.8 million sale of a waterfront home in Golden Beach just before the pandemic.
That’s not what caught my eye.
The jury ruled that the client, jewelry store owner Reuben Ezekiel, was on the hook for $47.8 million in damages, including punitive and compensatory damages. That immediately prompted me to ask (first, the Internet, and then real experts) how?
Civil juries have the ability to issue such awards based on defendants whose conduct they considered particularly harmful, malicious or reckless.
The verdict was meant to send a message discouraging Ezekiel’s behavior, said attorney Josef Timlichman, who represented the broker in the case, Alexander Goldstein of Miles Goldstein Real Estate.
Goldstein began working with Ezekiel in 2018. A year later, he submitted an offer for the house at 313 Center Island Drive, which was on the market for $2.9 million. Goldstein negotiated until Ezekiel said he and his partner were no longer interested in buying the house. The deal was over, in Goldstein’s eyes.
But Ezekiel ended up buying the home for $2.8 million, and he gave his sister a $5,000 commission to act as the straw broker, according to Goldstein’s lawsuit filed in 2020.
Ezekiel even had the guts to go on “Help Me Howard,” a consumer investigative segment on Channel 7, asking for help in 2021, alleging the broker was trying to rip him off. Ezekiel was confident he would win and put Goldstein on the hook for his attorneys’ fees.
“He will pay the fees at the end,” Ezekiel told the TV station.
That wasn’t the case.
A jury overwhelmingly sided with Goldstein earlier this month and issued its verdict, which Ezekiel’s attorney, Pete Solnick, said was “so excessive that it shocks the conscience of the court.”
The final judgment has yet to be issued, and Solnick filed a motion for a new trial this week.
A 41-page filing Solnick submitted on behalf of Ezekiel, R&R GB Investment Group and his sister Irene Ezekiel Ishay argues that Goldstein “had no right to recover” punitive damages “because the fraud and interference and corresponding conspiracy claims were not independent of the breach of implied contract claim and sought identical damages in the form of an unpaid commission.”
However it plays out, the verdict resonated with agents and brokers across South Florida — anyone who has ever been cut out of a deal they worked on and should have been paid a commission for.
“There are so many big and small players that think they CAN use and abuse agents,” wrote one real estate agent on Instagram. “I think this is amazing and if anyone tries to do the same to you agents, you send them this so they think otherwise! Great job Goldstein 👏👏👏”
What we’re thinking about: What’s the most expensive office lease ever inked in South Florida? Excluding any credits given to tenants. Send me a note at kk@therealdeal.com.
CLOSING TIME
Residential: The nearly 11,600-square-foot mansion at 757 Island Drive in Palm Beach traded hands for $93.3 million. An LLC tied to Alden Global Capital’s Randall Smith sold the nearly 1-acre property on Everglades Island to a trust. The seller paid $39.5 million for the lot in 2021.
Commercial: The apartment development at 19401 West Dixie Highway in Miami sold for just under $110 million. An affiliate of Chicago-based Fifield Companies sold the 266-unit, 1.8-acre property to Dutch investment firm Breevast U.S.
— Research by Mary Diduch
NEW TO THE MARKET
The waterfront compound at 1400-1420 West 23rd Street in Miami Beach hit the market for $110 million. Jason Wright, a partner at the private equity firm Apax Partners, owns the Sunset Islands III properties. Todd Michael Glaser built and Kobi Karp designed the six-bedroom, six-bathroom primary estate in 2020, according to a news release. It includes 187 feet of water frontage, a detached two-bedroom guest home completed last year, an Olympic-sized pool and waterfront entertaining spaces. Ana Teresa Rodriguez of ATR Luxury Homes Group at Coldwell Banker has the listing.
A thing we’ve learned
Former Miami Beach mayor Philip Levine was accused of sexual assault by Sarah Kellen, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime personal assistant, the Miami Herald reported. Kellen told the House Oversight Committee that she was assaulted by Levine and celebrity hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai, in addition to being sexually and emotionally abused by Epstein for nearly the entire time she worked for him.
Levine, who has invested in real estate including in Miami Beach, previously said that he “never had a friendship or business relationship” with Epstein.