After a client died, his Florida lawyers settled his cases and took the money
Attorneys from South Florida didn’t let their plaintiff client’s death keep them from putting his name on lawsuit settlements and collecting money from the defendants, according to the state Supreme Court.
Both the defendants and courts fumed at this because, while attorney-client privilege survives death, this death killed the power of Boca Raton’s Lee Sarkin and Ocean Ridge’s Drew Levitt to act on their client’s behalf. That’s why Sarkin and Levitt began serving matching three-year suspensions of their law licenses Monday.
The suspensions by the state Supreme Court followed guilty pleas by Sarkin and Levitt, Florida Bar members since 1992 and 1988, respectively.
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Dead men make no settlements
Both guilty pleas said David Poschmann “was a ‘tester’ in hundreds of ADA cases and had been represented by [Levitt and Sarkin] in many lawsuits.”
One of those cases, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, cast Ormond Beach’s Oceanside 99 Condo Association in the defendant role. As settlement negotiations progressed, Poschmann died on Nov. 12, 2021. Both sides filed a joint notice of settlement on Nov. 17, 2021.
“The next day, unable to reach Poschmann, [Levitt and Sarkin] signed Poschmann’s name to the settlement agreement with an ink signature,” the guilty pleas say. “The settlement proceeds were paid into respondent’s trust account, per the settlement agreement.”
Almost a month later, Dec. 16, 2021, Levitt and Sarkin learned their client had died 29 days earlier. They didn’t share this information with the Oceanside folks, who didn’t find out about Poschmann’s death until “approximately a year and a half later.”
So informed, Oceanside argued the settlement should be vacated.
“The court found that because the settlement was reached after Poschmann’s death, [Sarkin and Levitt] no longer had authority to act on Poschmann’s behalf, thus the settlement was unauthorized, and that their conduct constituted a fraud on the court,” the guilty pleas said.
In addition to owing Oceanside a $11,287 fee award, each lawyer received a nine-month suspension from appearing in the Middle District of Florida federal courts.
Around the time of the Oceanside settlement discussions, another 2021 Poschmann lawsuit in the Middle District of Florida federal court, against Linda Young Reffitt Revocable Trust, reached the settlement discussion stage.
“Despite Poschmann’s death on Nov. 12, 2021, [Sarkin and Levitt] reached a settlement agreement with the defendants on Dec. 7, 2021,” the guilty pleas said. “On Dec. 15, 2021, [Sarkin and Levitt] circulated a settlement agreement that included a handwritten signature for Poschmann, dated Dec. 9, 2021. The defendants paid the agreed settlement amount and the case was dismissed.”
Almost 17 months later, on May 3, 2023, the Linda Young Reffitt Trust attorneys found out when Poschmann had died and what happened in the case against Oceanside.
Levitt and Sarkin returned the settlement money on May 8, 2023.
