After Stiffing Paint Co., Trump Doral Ordered To Pay Hundreds Of Thousands

[Hamlette]

A state appeals court in Florida on Thursday affirmed a circuit court’s decision to order Trump National Doral Miami golf resort to pay a small paint company and its attorney hundreds of thousands of dollars after failing to pay a tenth of that for paint and other materials during a renovation project.

Lawyer fees — in addition to the initial missing payment of $32,535.87 — were originally awarded to The Paint Spot, a local store nearby Trump National, in July 2016, as reported by the Miami Herald. Circuit Court Judge Jorge Cueto applied a 75 percent additional fee on top of the attorney Daniel Vega’s billed time as well, because his firm, Taylor Espino Vega & Touron, had taken the case on a contingency fee basis. The total at the time was $282,949.91.

...

The court also pointed to an unfortunate bit of testimony from contractor Straticon’s construction manager, Jamie Gram.

“[T]he decision not to pay [Paint Spot] had nothing to do with a defective Notice to Owner,” Gram said, according to the decision. “They weren’t paid because Mr. Trump had already paid [subcontractor] M&P a decent amount of money of the contract … and there was still a lot of work that needed to be completed, so we used the money, M&P’s remaining balance, plus additional funds to pay to get the work done.”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-national-doral-miami-paint-lawyers-fees

So, Trump owed $32K and now has to pay over $300K.

[democratisphere]

1. Screwing the little guy then, now and later!

This vermin is running our country. What kind of crazy person would ever trust him.

[Xipe Totec]

2. Talk about painting yourself into a corner. nt

[Phoenix61]

5. +1

[gratuitous]

3. Obviously a law that needs to be changed

Can't a wealthy white guy catch a break? First he has to pay for the service he hired, and he barely gets to stiff them, and some so-called judge decides that the attorneys who brought the case get paid, too. Why, it's impossible for a wealthy businessman to get by if he has to pay for stuff! Government overreach!

[Jim Lane]

6. The law is OK. The problem was elsewhere.

From the excerpt:

Circuit Court Judge Jorge Cueto applied a 75 percent additional fee on top of the attorney Daniel Vega’s billed time as well....

It wasn't just any so-called judge; it was a Latino so-called judge ruling in favor of the Latino lawyer. How could anyone expect justice to be done?

The scary thing is that if Trump ever saw this thread, it's at least even money that he'd use some of our ideas.

[oasis]

4. Swindler in Chief. nt