EFTA00594713.pdf

1 1 IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE FIFTEENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, IN AND FOR 2 PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA CASE NO.:502009CA040800X 3 JEFFREY EPSTEIN, 4 Plaintiff, 5 vs. 6 SCOTT ROTHSTEIN, individually, 7 BRADLEY J. EDWARDS, individually, and MI ORIGINAL individually, 8 Defendants. 9 West Palm Beach, Florida 10 August 10, 2015 9:50 a.m. - 10:05 a.m. 11 12 The above-styled cause came on for hearing 13 before the Honorable DONALD HAFELE, Presiding Judge, at the 14 Palm Beach County Courthouse, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach 15 County, Florida, on the 10th day of August, 2015. 16 APPEARANCES: 17 For The Plaintiff: 18 SEARCY DENNEY SCAROLA, BARNHART & SHIPLEY 2139 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd. 19 West Palm Beach, FL 33409 By JACK SCAROLA, ESQUIRE 20 For The Defendants: 21 WILLIAM CHESTER BREWER, ESQUIRE 22 250 S. Australian Avenue, Ste 1400 West Palm Beach, FL 33401 23 By WILLIAM CHESTER BREWER, ESQUIRE 24 25 PALM BEACH REPORTING SERVICE, INC. (561) 471-2995 EFTA00594713  2 (Whereupon, the following proceedings were had.) MR. SCAROLA: Good morning, Your Honor. THE COURT: Hi, Gentlemen, how are you? MR. SCAROLA: Pine. Thank you, sir. MR. BREWER: Good morning, Your Honor. MR. SCAROLA: Your Honor, we're here on a motion to compel disclosure regarding fee claim in this case. 10 Your Honor may recall that you entered an 11 order a little bit more than six months ago 12 entitling Mr. Epstein -- yes, Mr. Epstein to 13 recover fees against Bradley Edwards following 14 Your Honor's entry of a motion for summary 15 judgment in this case. 16 We have been attempting, since the entry 17 of that order, to determine the amount of the 18 fee claim. While we have been told generally 19 that it is a fee claim and that is in the seven 20 figure range, our efforts to obtain discovery 21 as to where within the seven figure range it is 22 have been unsuccessful. We've been informed 23 that Jay White was retained as an expert in 24 this case. According to information provided, 25 he has devoted at least 20 hours to the PALM BEACH REPORTING SERVICE, INC. (561) 471-2995 EFTA00594714  analysis of this claim. Most recently, we got unexecuted answers to interrogatories back that indicate that Mr. White has not yet arrived at an opinion with regard to the amount of the claim. This is a matter that was set on Your Honor's trial calendar currently. We've been trying to get this information for quite some time. We have a September 1 mediation that has been ordered with regard to this. I've asked to either have complete answers to interrogatories, a report from Mr. White, or an 12 opportunity to depose Mr. White sometime 73 between now and the 1st of September. I'm told 14 he's unavailable, including no availability 15 evenings and weekends. And I offered to take 16 the discovery in the evening and on the weekend 17 if necessary in order to get an opinion or just 18 to get a report from him. I just want to know 19 what the number is. 20 THE COURT: Yes, sir. 21 MR. BREWER: There are so many 22 inaccuracies in what you just heard that I'm 23 really, frankly, taken aback. First of all, if 24 we did not provide them information, that's the 25 booklet of attorney's fee records that have PALM BEACH REPORTING SERVICE, INC. (561) 471-2995 EFTA00594715  4 been provided to Mr. Scarola. We are set for mediation, that is correct. To say that we have stated that Mr. White is not available nights and weekends -- if I might approach? THE COURT: Give a copy to Mr. Scarola. MR. BREWER: Certainly. THE COURT: Okay. MR. BREWER: Additionally, Your Honor, I'm really almost at a loss for words from what I 10 just heard. 11 THE COURT: Relax. It's not worth a hear: 12 attack. 13 MR. BREWER: Okay. We have had no 14 response to that letter or e-mail. Those dates 15 are still open. Mr. White is very, very busy 16 this month. He's got a two-week construction 17 defect case. He's the expert in a doctor/firm 18 split up case, and he's got two JQC trials that 19 he's having to deal with. And we were trying 20 to get this deposition pushed back into 21 September because of his schedule. 22 THE COURT: All right. Well -- 23 MR. BREWER: And so we have now gone back 24 and said, you know, Mr. Scarola is quite 25 adamant, could you give us some dates, please. PALM BEACH REPORTING SERVICE, INC. (561) 471-2995 EFTA00594716  And we've given dates and we've had no response. THE COURT: August 26th or the 27th? MR. SCAROLA: Your Honor, what this message says is Jay White doesn't have final opinions, and I've told him to stop working on this matter. I'm not going to take a deposition only to have him say, I don't have a final opinion in this matter. What I need is 10 for purposes of this mediation to know what the 11 amount of the claim is. That's all I've been 12 asking for. 13 THE COURT: Well, that's what I'm willing lc to do. / mean, you know, you pushed mediation. 15 We've now had an opinion of the 4th District 16 Court of Appeal that specifically and 17 unequivocally created a conflict with the 3rd 18 District Court of Appeal's opinions upon which 19 I and Judge Blanc relied upon; Judge Blanc in 20 the case that the 4th decided, me in this case, 21 which we've gone through at length in both 22 writing and orally as far as the court was 23 concerned in terms of -- that case being the 24 3rd District Court of Appeal case citing 25 extensively from the leading cases from the PALM BEACH REPORTING SERVICE, INC. (561) 471-2995 EFTA00594717  6 1 Florida Supreme Court on the motion of 2 prosecution issue. 3 But irrespective of that, Mr. Brewer, you 4 and your client have been pushing for 5 mediation. I have been stedfast in requiring mediation. Now with respect to that opinion 7 from the 4th have required mediation on all of 8 the matters relating to the case, including the 9 attorney's fee claim and seeing where you-all 10 stood now that the 4th has spoken on the issue. 11 And again, while there may be distinguishing 12 characteristics between the case from the 4th 13 and the case from the 3rd, I'm not in a 14 position to make that call. The 4th District 15 Court of Appeal is in a position to do that. 16 But I am going to require that Mr. White be 17 deposed as long as Mr. Scarola's available on 18 August 26th, to be deposed on that date with 19 full opinions within five days -- or strike 20 that. At least five days prior to said 21 deposition, and it will be business days. He 22 shall also provide Mr. Scarola with a summary 23 of his final opinions so that Mr. Scarola can 24 tie together the hundred or so pages that have been provided to him by way of the binder that PALM BEACH REPORTING SERVICE, INC. (561) 471-2995 EFTA00594718  7 has been shown to me just as a matter of cursory showing today, and I'm only estimating the number of pages. It may be more. And be prepared to be able to at least have that information and armed with that information to be able to synthesize those documents within a reasonable time. That will be at least five days prior -- business days prior to the August 26th date that the deposition will be 10 set. 11 So if you guys would kindly sit down and 12 prepare this in accordance with the court's 13 order, I would appreciate that. Thank you very 14 much. 15 (Thereupon, the above proceedings were 16 concluded at 10:05 a.m.) 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 PALM BEACH REPORTING SERVICE, INC. (561) 471-2995 EFTA00594719  8 COURT CERTIFICATE 2 3 STATE OF FLORIDA SS COUNTY OF PALM BEACH ) I, TERRI. CAMIZZI, Registered Professional Reporter, certify that I was authorized to and did stenographically report the foregoing proceedings and 1C that the transcript is a true record of my 11 stenographic notes. 12 13 14 Dated this 17th day of August, 2015. 15 16 TERRI CAMIZZI, R 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 PALM BEACH REPORTING SERVICE, INC. (561) 471-2995 EFTA00594720