SOULE, LEAL & ASSOCIATES, P.A., APPELLANT,
v.
JAMIE DEE ZIPNICK AND CLIFFORD S. ZIPNICK, APPELLEES

Fla. 4th DCA | 2000-11-15
No. 4D99-3276
DELL and GROSS, JJ., concur.
770 So. 2d 1282 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (2000) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 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

A law firm sought to enforce a charging lien for unpaid attorney's fees after being discharged by a client in a dissolution proceeding. The trial court approved a stipulated settlement between the divorcing spouses that left the client with no assets against which the firm could enforce its lien. The appellate court affirmed, holding that the settlement was equitable and that the firm was not defrauded.


Holding

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in approving the settlement. The law firm was not defrauded because it received notice of the settlement hearing and had an opportunity to be heard, and the firm's replacement counsel had attempted to negotiate the fee before the settlement was finalized. The court entered a judgment in favor of the firm against Mr. Zipnick despite the lack of assets available to enforce it.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court does not abuse its discretion by approving a stipulated equitable distribution of marital assets, even if it leaves no assets available for a former attorne…

[2] A settlement agreement in a dissolution proceeding that leaves no assets for a former attorney's charging lien is not automatically considered a fraud on the attorney.

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Key Quotes

“settlement without the knowledge of or notice to counsel and the payment of their fees is a fraud on them whether there was an intent to do so or not”

The standard articulated in Miller v. Scobie that the law firm attempted to rely upon to establish fraud in this case.

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Facts & Procedural History

Soule, Leal & Associates represented Mr. Zipnick in his divorce proceeding and was paid $16,000 before being discharged. The firm filed a notice of ch…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

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Opinion of the Court
KLEIN, Judge.

KLEIN, Judge.

The appellant law firm, after being discharged by Mr. Zipnick in his dissolution proceeding, filed a notice of charging lien in the amount of $28,000 for attorney’s fees, having already been paid $16,000 by Mr.' Zipnick. The law firm appeals the trial court’s approval of the Zipnieks’ settlement of the equitable distribution of their property, which left no assets with Mr. Zipnick on which the firm could enforce its lien. We affirm.

Approximately five months after the law firm withdrew, the Zipnieks filed a stipulation to distribute their assets and a joint motion for the court to approve the distribution. Their assets consisted of $43,000 netted from the sale of the marital home, Mr. Zipnick’s 401-K plan worth $29,000, of which $21,000 was marital property, and a viatical insurance policy which would pay $5,000 at an uncertain date in the future. Because Mr. Zipnick had already spent $31,000 of marital funds without authorization, he agreed that Mrs. Zipnick should receive all of the funds netted from the sale of the marital home as well as the $5,000 insurance policy. Since that would still result in Mrs. Zipnick receiving $4,000 less than Mr. Zipnick, he was willing to pay her $2,000 within the next year, and $7,200 towards her attorney’s fees.

The trial court approved this equitable distribution over the objection of Mr. Zip-nick’s former law firm, which argued that this would prevent their lien from being effective since it. could not be enforced against Mr. Zipnick’s 401-K plan, and that the firm was being defrauded.1

The law firm relies on Miller v. Scobie, 152 Fla. 328, 11 So. 2d 892, 894 (1943), for the proposition that “settlement without the knowledge of or notice to counsel and the payment of their fees is a fraud on them whether there was an intent to do so or not.” In that case, the trial court had denied the attorneys’ motion that they be permitted to continue the prosecution of the cause in the name of the plaintiff for the purpose of recovering their fee. The supreme court reversed, explaining that the adjudication of any controversy contemplates that the claims of all the parties have been considered and set at rest. To uphold appellee’s contention would shut the door in the face of Ruff and Ready and leave their claim in limbo or compel them to resort to some other means to satisfy it.

This case bears no resemblance to Miller. In the present case, the counsel re-tairied by Mr. Zipnick to replace the law firm seeking the lien explained, at the hearing to approve the settlement agreed to by the parties, that he had attempted to negotiate the fee with the former' law firm but that the firm was not interested. After the parties agreed on the settlement, the former firm was notified that there would be a hearing before the court to approve the settlement, and the former firm was present and advocated the position it is taking here at the hearing. The trial court approved the settlement and entered a judgment in favor of the former law firm against Mr. Zipnick. There was, accordingly, no evidence of the type of fraud which existed in Miller. We conclude that the court did not abuse its discretion in approving this stipulated equitable distribution. On the contrary it would have been an abuse of discretion if the trial court had disapproved this settlement in order to accommodate the law firm. Affirmed.

DELL and GROSS, JJ., concur. . Although it is not necessarily pertinent to the issue before us, we understand the trial' judge’s dismay at the amount of attorney’s fees which had been run up in a case involving the amount of assets involved in this case, where the husband, a police officer, had lost his job.


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Citator

Cited By

  • …ke Mabry and Scobie, where the settlements “included no provision for payment to the attorneys.” Sinclair, Louis, Siegel, Heath, Nussbaum & Zavertnik, P.A. v. Baucom, 428 So. 2d 1383, 1385 (Fla.1983); see also Soule, Leal & Assocs., P.A. v. Zipnick, 770 So. 2d 1282, 1283 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000) (holding that Mabry rule did not apply in case where attorney informed of settlement after the fact and attempts were made to negotiate the fee). Although it does not involve a tortious interference claim, Sinclair is inst…

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