3d DCA Watch -- Don't Go Suing Citizens....

Or you will get "home towned venued."

I'm feeling a little melancholic today, after reading this affirmance of a Judge Maxine Cohen Lando opinion sending a suit against Citizens to Tally on "home venue" grounds:

Based on the plain and unambiguous language of Citizens’ enabling statute, section 627.351(6)(a)1., and our review of the case law, we conclude that the Legislature intended that Citizens be protected by the home venue privilege.

Don't you think the home venue privilege is an antiquated concept?

Is there really a worry that non-good-old-boys somewhere outside of the red dirt of our State Capital will be unfair to poor little state governmental entities?  That juries in Miami might treat Rick Scott and his welfare-drug-testing minions differently?

(Ok, don't answer that.)

Anyway, it's sad to think we won't be seeing more orders from Judge Cohen Lando up on review, or just more of Judge Cohen Lando.

RIP.

In other news, the great man of letters who knew much more about everything than the rest of us, Gore Vidal, has died.

Sure he could get a little loopy and his fiction was in my opinion just average to slightly above average (though I liked his American Chronicle Series), but boy did he know how to write about books, films, culture, other writers, and America America America --check out his brilliant collection of essays, United States:  1952-1992, or its followup, or the two volumes of his autobiography -- more or less a political history of this great nation in the 20th Century.  And he gave great interview.

He too will be missed.

Please God, No.

This is so mind-numbingly stupid it pains me to excerpt it:

A measure to ban the use of foreign laws in domestic courtrooms is progressing in Florida's statehouse, one of dozens of similar efforts across the country that critics call an unwarranted campaign driven by fear of Muslims.
Forty such bills are being pursued in 24 states, according to a tally by the National Conference of State Legislatures, a movement opponents call a response to a made-up threat of Shariah law, the Islamic legal code that covers many areas of life. Backers of the bills say they fill a glaring hole in legal protections for Americans.

"There have been all sorts of wild accusations about what this bill does," said Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, who sponsored the Senate bill in Florida. "This is very clear, very simple: In American courts we need American laws and no other."

The Florida measure passed the House on Thursday 92-24. It awaits a full vote in the Senate.

If passed, Florida would join three other states — Louisiana, Arizona and Tennessee — in approving legislation curtailing the use of foreign laws.

 "American laws"?

Yeah, like the Magna Carta, or better yet -- the Bible (wasn't Charlton Heston a Real American when he brought down those ten laws?).

I think the basic problem is that the "Sharia law" controversy doesn't really exist -- I know of no trend where federal or state courts are deferring to Muslim law in derogation of operative state or federal law.

Like voter fraud and Newt Gingrich, it's basically a scare tactic:

If Sharia opponents can’t name a single instance of Islamic law being used in the state courts, what exactly is the point of banning it — beyond vague and unsubstantiated fears?
On the other hand, there isn’t exactly a compelling counter-argument in favor of Sharia law. The U.S. courts should avoid applications of religious law in general. And Sharia has a particularly horrific reputation, since it’s used to justify the state-sanctioned oppression of women, the silencing of journalists and human rights workers, religious persecution, and vicious executions across the Islamic world.

But the good news for Sharia law opponents is that these things are already illegal in the United States, and Sharia is rarely applied to anything in this country beyond executions of wills and personal financing matters. Unless that changes, attempts to “ban” it are based on little more than hysteria and conspiracy theories.

Although it's obvious the FL bill's sponsors are not targeting English common law or the French civil code, in light of this recent 10th Circuit opinion (on Oklahoma's version), up in Tally they are careful to not mention Sharia law specifically by name -- just the usual dog whistles for the well-trained base this bill is intended to satiate.

All of this is yet another compelling argument to retain Justices Pariente, Lewis, and Quince -- and I personally want to commend Raoul Cantero for putting a bipartisan face on the fundraising event Monday, which btw was well-attended with the cream of the crop in South Florida's legal community all supporting their retention.

We will need good strong judges to resist these sorts of nativist impulses.

(RIP Judge Maxine Cohen Lando.)

RIP Judge Maxine Cohen Lando

In honor of the passing of Judge Maxine Cohen Lando, we will not be doing a 3d DCA Watch today.

Judge Lando, a lifelong resident of Miami-Dade County, was a firebrand old school kind of judge who always -- and I mean always -- had her heart in the right place.

She will be sorely missed.

Please pay your respects on Friday:

Services will be held on

Friday, March 2, 2012 -- 11:00 a.m.

Temple Bet Shira

7500 S.W. 120 Street

Miami, Florida  33156

                                           (305) 238-2601

Judge Cohen Lando Lowers the Boom on Marc Ben-Ezra.

I don't get why banks think the rules of evidence don't seem to apply to them.

Their argument on missing/misfiled/wrong docs is always basically "but come on, judge."

Would this work for anyone else?

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maxine Cohen Lando expressed her displeasure Friday in a case that involved a property in Homestead with a $265,134 foreclosure judgment issued in July.

Lando said the so-called original note and original mortgage were filed months after the bank said those documents were lost.

"That in itself is a fraud upon the court," Lando wrote in an order to show cause as to why she should not hold Ben-Ezra & Katz attorneys in contempt.

But, she added, the action "pales in comparison" to the fact that the mortgage and note are to a different property in Lehigh Acres, and that the documents are improperly signed and notarized. Lando said her verbal contempt finding on Friday would be followed by a written order.

Although Marc Ben-Ezra, 44, was not the direct attorney handling the case, the homeowner's attorney Maria Mussari said the judge ordered the owner or head of the firm to appear. Ben-Ezra has no disciplinary history with the Florida Bar.

It's way past time there is some accountability not just in foreclosure work but with all sworn evidence submitted  -- if it doesn't fit, don't submit.

Marc's firm says it was trying to fix the problem:

In a statement late Thursday, the law firm acknowledged it had found "technical paperwork issues," but added that "there is no issue of whether the information in the affected files is correct. No homeowner has been hurt because of this."

The firm said it was correcting the issues. "Fannie Mae did not give us the chance to execute that plan," the statement said.

Is this blaming the client?