Client awarded $500,000 in legal malpractice suit

By Arnold Markowitz and Jay Ducassi
Herald Staff Writers

A Miami jury found one of Florida’s premier law firms guilty of legal malpractice Monday and awarded $500,000 to a former client, an electronics company that claimed its lawyers failed to defend it propertly during a 1983 trial.

A six-member jury In Circuit Judge Richard Fuller’s courtroom deliberated for six hours, then returned the verdict against the Miami firm of Arky, Freed, Stearns, Watson, Greer, Weaver & Harris.

The suit, originally filed by Arky Freed against Bowmar Instrument Corp. of Acton, Mass. Claimed Bowmar had paid $150,000, but still owed its lawyers $98,000. The jury reduced the outstanding amount to $51,500 after it saw the original fee agreement between the two parties.

Bowmar countersued, claiming it was overcharged and that it lost a $1 million verdict in 1983, because Arky Freed lawyers negligently failed to follow upon on a line of defense during trial.

Arky Freed’s trial lawyer, Robert Klein, said Monday he could not comment on the case.

“We still have motions pending for mistrial and for directed verdict,” he said.

Bowmar’s lawyer, Andrew Hall, said Arky Freed defended Bowman in a lawsuit filed by Fidelity Electronics. The Bowmar Fidelity dispute arose over the late delivery of computer keyboards from Bowmar to Fidelity.

Fidelity successfully sued Bowmar for late delivery, claiming it damaged Fidelity’s business. On Oct. 7, 1983, a jury awarded Fidelity $1 million. An appeals court upheld the verdict.

While the appeal was pending, Arky Freed sued Bowmar for $98,000 in legal fees the firm claimed Bowmar hadn’t paid.

Bowmar countersued Arky Freed for negligence, charging the lawyers who handled its case with Fidelity had failed to investigate and present testimony that would have reduced the damages it lost.

Bowmar claimed the damages should have been no more than $200,000, and that the lawyers were at fault because they did not follow Bowmar instructions to investigate its claim that Fidelity could have obtained the keyboards elsewhere.

Arky Freed faces other unrelated lawsuits in state and federal court over its involvement with ESM Government Securities Inc., of Fort Lauderdale, which collapsed in 1985 amid charges that it bilked customers out of $300 million.

Source: The Miami Herald,
Tuesday, March 4, 1986