By Steve Plunkett
Gulf Stream must pay $148,438 for resident Martin O’Boyle’s attorney fees, roughly 25% of the more than $586,000 his lawyers originally sought, and $31,824 in costs mostly for two expert witnesses.
The Oct. 4 decision by Circuit Judge Donald Hafele brings to a close an almost 10-year war between O’Boyle and the town that entailed hundreds of requests for public records, the hiring of additional workers to process the requests, dozens of lawsuits and countersuits, and a hefty increase in the town’s property taxes to pay for it all.
Taking big hits in the judge’s ruling are Fort Lauderdale attorney Mitchell Berger, who asked for $99,255 and was awarded $7,920, and the law firm of O’Boyle’s son, Jonathan, which billed $131,155 but will receive $33,865.
Jonathan O’Boyle declined to comment on the ruling.
Trey Nazzaro, the assistant town manager and in-house attorney, said the judge’s order was “Gulf Stream’s last remaining case in which fees were to be determined.”
Robert Sweetapple, an outside attorney for the town, once estimated the town would be liable for no more than $20,000.
O’Boyle will funnel most of the money to Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Co. His umbrella liability policy covered his legal expenses in this and four other cases in which he was involved, court documents show.
The policy “requires O’Boyle to pursue recovery of the expenses incurred in these matters and reimburse Liberty Mutual for the attorneys’ fees and costs advanced on [his] behalf,” his attorney, Elaine Johnson James, told the judge in an earlier filing.
Hafele reserved jurisdiction in the case to consider a potential further reduction of the fees while the town’s attorneys explore what fees Liberty Mutual paid in a separate but related legal action.
The lawsuit sprang from O’Boyle’s request for records concerning the town’s removal of his campaign signs from public rights of way during his unsuccessful 2014 run for Town Commission.
O’Boyle sought all police reports for March 3-4 that year, including “appointment calendars, sign-in sheets and radio communications.”
The town quickly delivered seven pages of incident reports but did not turn over sign-in sheets until three weeks after O’Boyle sued. Six weeks later, Gulf Stream gave him a CD of the police radio transmissions, which the Delray Beach Police Department records and stores for the town.
Hafele issued his decision in the underlying case in September 2016 and O’Boyle’s lawyers asked for reimbursement the following month. In the Oct. 4 ruling, Hafele said the “significant” time lapse was not the court’s fault, but “was primarily caused by issues relating to the parties’ experts” as lawyers on both sides battled over how much Gulf Stream should pay.
Beginning in 2013, O’Boyle and Chris O’Hare, who no longer lives in the town, flooded Gulf Stream with public records requests. In the six months before O’Boyle sought the police records, the town received more than 700 requests.
To accommodate the requests and fight the lawsuits, the Town Commission raised the property tax rate almost 38% in 2015.
In mid-2017, O’Hare and the town agreed to dismiss 36 lawsuits and appeals between them and withdraw all pending records requests. Neither side paid the other’s attorney fees.
O’Boyle’s other notable win came with the dismissal of a federal lawsuit the town filed alleging a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations conspiracy by O’Boyle, O’Boyle entities and O’Hare to extort cash settlements of public records requests. A federal judge dismissed the suit in June 2015; his decision was upheld on appeal a year later.
O’Boyle also tasted victory in July 2013. The town paid him $180,000 to settle 16 lawsuits and about 400 requests for public records he filed after he was denied variances for building projects at his Hidden Harbour home.
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