Less than two weeks ago an attorney representing Flagler County government argued a motion for a final judgment against the owners of the Old Dixie motel in a three-year-old dispute over money owned, pledges broken and a pending order to demolish the long-disused building. Circuit Judge Rick Orfinger, sitting in for Judge Chris France, appeared to favor the county and asked for a written order that would grant the judgment.
“So that’s obviously a big benefit to us,” County Attorney Al Hadeed told the County Commission on Monday, by way of an update. “We’ll have to see what the judge ultimately signs. But basically, the motion was granted.”
Not so fast.
The March 11 hearing took place in the absence any representation for the motel owners, or of the owners themselves. The owners had just lost that representation when France on Feb. 19 allowed Theodore D’Apuzzo to withdraw. The owners had not yet secured new representation. Now they have: Dennis Bayer, the Flagler Beach attorney who has more often worked with Hadeed than against him over their many decades of crisscrossing the same legal terrain. (Hadeed is not actually the attorney of record on the Old Dixie case; Abraham McKinnon is, with Assistant County Attorney Sean Moylan usually appearing in court with him.)
Bayer has been representing the motel owners–known as David Shebeiro and Manny Gomez, along with Ofer Biton–on a parallel case resulting from an order by the county’s chief building official to demolish the dilapidated motel. The owners contested the order, which has twice been argued before a special magistrate. Both times the magistrate ruled that while the county has proven that the building is a nuisance, the demolition order is too drastic. The owners have to have a chance to make good on their promise to rehabilitate the building. They have not done so yet. In January, the special magistrate gave them a drop-dead, five-month deadline.
Meanwhile in court, the county successfully argued that the owners broke their pledge to put up a $250,000 bond that the county would use to level the building if the owners don’t fix it. France ordered the owners to put up that bond. Their previous attorney said in open court that they would not do so. France imposed a fine of $1,000 a day as long as the bond wasn’t paid. That bill has run up to $115,000. When the county argued for a final judgment, the judge saw no reason not to grant it.
Bayer in his motion for a rehearing, filed on March 13 and amended on Tuesday, argued that “David Shebiro, who is alleged to have been served with notice, was in Israel at the time, and is still there.” He also noted that he will “in good faith attempt to resolve this matter with opposing counsel.” He also argued that granting a final judgment, which would lead to foreclosure of the motel, “without proper notice to Defendant would be a violation of due process related to property rights.”
If not much trust existed between Flagler County and D’Apuzzo, the same can’t be said now that Bayer is the motel owners’ counsel. But that doesn’t mean the county will be any less skeptical of a resolution.
The court has been silent so far–neither signing the county’s final judgment nor responding to Bayer’s motion.
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