ARNOLD D. HESSEN, ALFREDO F. DE CASTRO, ROBERT L. SCHIMMEL, AND HESSEN, SCHIMMEL & DE CASTRO, A FLORIDA PROFESSIONAL SERVICE CORPORATION, APPELLANTS/CROSS-APPELLEES,
v.
JOSEPH H. KAPLAN, RICHARD A. SICKING, ROBERT A. SUGARMAN, GERALD ROSENTHAL, HOWARD S. SUSSKIND, STEVEN BLOOM, AND KAPLAN, SICKING, HESSEN, SUGARMAN, ROSENTHAL, SUSKIND, BLOOM & DE CASTRO, P.A., A FLORIDA PROFESSIONAL SERVICE CORPORATION, APPELLEES/CROSS-APPELLANTS

Fla. 3d DCA | 1990-06-26
Nos. 89-2972, 89-2929
Before COPE, LEVY and GERSTEN, JJ.
564 So. 2d 184 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1990) Positive Treatment
Cited by 6 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

Two law firms split from a predecessor firm and disputed how to divide attorney fees from cases handled post-separation under a settlement agreement incorporating an arbitration award. The court held that the 40% payment obligation applied to fees actually received by the retaining firm, not the gross fee award, reversing the trial court's $112,000 judgment to the other firm.


Holding

The court held that the settlement agreement unambiguously required payment of 40% of the fees received by Hessen, not 40% of the gross fee awarded. Therefore, Kaplan was entitled to 40% of the $70,000 Hessen received ($28,000), not 40% of the $280,000 total fee ($112,000).


Headnotes

[1] A court-ratified settlement agreement incorporating an arbitration award is subject to interpretation based on reason, probability, and the practical aspects of the trans…

[2] A settlement agreement's terms should be interpreted in a manner that comports with logic and reason, avoiding strained readings of clearly worded provisions.

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Key Quotes

“We find no ambiguity in the terms of the agreement and therefore find no need to arrive at a strained reading leading to an interpretation of a clearly worded agreement.”

Establishes the court's approach to contract interpretation—avoiding strained readings of unambiguous terms

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Facts & Procedural History

Hessen and Kaplan were attorneys who separated from a single law firm and agreed to divide fees from pre-separation cases pursuant to a stockholders a…

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

Appellants/Cross-appellees, Arnold D. Hessen, Alfredo F. De Castro, Robert L. Schimmel, and Hessen, Schimmel & De Castro, P.A. (Hessen), appeal a trial court’s order pursuant to payments under a settlement agreement. Appellees/cross-appel-lants, Joseph H. Kaplan, Richard A. Sicking, Robert A. Sugarman, Gerald Rosen-thal, Howard S. Susskind, Steven Bloom, and Kaplan, Sicking, Hessen, Sugarman, Rosenthal, Susskind, Bloom & De Castro, P.A. (Kaplan), cross-appeal the trial court’s order denying attorney’s fees and prejudgment interest. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

Appellants and appellees are attorneys in their respective law firms. At one time they were all part of one firm which later separated. This case involves the division of fees from cases existing prior to the separation.

Without going into specific details, unnecessary to this opinion, suffice it to say that each firm kept some of the presep- aration clients and cases. The fees from these cases were to be divided between the two firms. Pursuant to the original firm’s stockholders agreement, the division of the disputed fees was submitted to arbitration.

The arbitrator awarded a division of fees in the pending cases with “40% of the fees received” to be paid by Hessen to Kaplan and 60% to be retained by Hessen. The parties entered into a court-ratified settlement, incorporating the arbitration award.

An attorney’s fee which emanated from a particularly complex medical malpractice case was the underpinning of this litigation. Hessen had referred the case to another attorney, a medical malpractice expert. The case was eventually settled, resulting in a total attorney fee of $280,000. The trial court in the medical malpractice ease awarded Hessen 25% of the fee, or $70,000. Hessen then paid Kaplan 40% of the $70,000 his firm received, or $28,000.

Kaplan brought suit claiming that under the settlement agreement they were due 40% of the total $280,000 fee awarded and not 40% of that amount received by Hes-sen. The trial court agreed and awarded Kaplan $112,000.

We find no ambiguity in the terms of the agreement and therefore find no need to arrive at a strained reading leading to an interpretation of a clearly worded agreement. See Centex Homes Corp. v. Pre-stressed Systems, Inc., 444 So. 2d 66 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984).

However, even if any ambiguity exists, the court should arrive at an interpretation consistent with reason, probability, and the practical aspects of the transaction. Biltmore Systems, Inc. v. Mai Kai, Inc., 413 So. 2d 458 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982).

An interpretation of the agreement necessary to reach the resultant award to Kap-lan, of a larger amount of fees than that earned or received by Hessen strains logic and reason. This court can only approve a construction which comports with logic and reason. Centex Homes Corp., 444 So. 2d at 68. We therefore find that the proper award due Kaplan is 40% of the fees received by Hessen, or $28,000.

Accordingly, we reverse the trial court’s award of $112,000 to Kaplan, and remand for substitution of a $28,000 judgment in its stead. We affirm the denial of attorney’s fees and interest to Kaplan.

Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Wyatt v. Milner Document Prods., Inc., 932 So. 2d 487 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006)
    …e “overriding issue” in the case. Id. In the instant case, the “overriding issue” before the trial court was how to distribute the attorneys’ fees from the Wyatt matter. From the onset, Wyatt and Hewko maintained that, pursuant to Hessen v. Kaplan, 564 So. 2d 184 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990), Montgomery was entitled to claim only 80% of Larmoyeux’s 30% portion of the attorneys’ fee, and none of Hewko’s fee. Wyatt and Hewko never asserted that Montgomery had no claim to any of the attorneys’ fees from the Wyatt matter,…
  • Montgomery v. Wyatt, 922 So. 2d 1018 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006)
    …PER CURIAM. Affirmed. See Hessen v. Kaplan, 564 So. 2d 184 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990). POLEN, SHAHOOD and TAYLOR, JJ., concur.…
  • Miller v. Jacobs & Goodman, P.A., 699 So. 2d 729 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997)
    …h finds that post termination client fee allocation provisions are unenforceable as against public policy. To the contrary, Florida courts’ are uniform in enforcing such fee splitting arrangements between lawyers and law firms. See Hessen v. Kaplan, 564 So. 2d 184, 185 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990) (case involved one law firm that divided into two, court interpreted and ratified payment of the 40%/60% fee recovery formula). Several Florida decisions have held that Florida Rules of Professional Conduct such as Rule 4-5.6…

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