Joseph A. Miles and Nicholas D. Siegfried, with Siegfried, Rivera, Hyman, Lerner, De La Torre, Mars & Sobel. Photo: J. Albert Diaz/ALM.
Coral Gables lawyers Joseph A. Miles and Nicholas D. Siegfried landed a $4.1 million verdict for Miami-based company PC Services LLC, which claimed the Cascades of Groveland Homeowners' Association Inc. in Lake County should never have terminated an agreement with the company because it wasn't responsible for a flurry of delays and problems with services.
The 2012 lawsuit arose from years of bad blood between the parties over a deal that turned sour. On July 2007, the homeowner association terminated its contract with PC Services, claiming it had failed to properly do its job. But PC Services argued it had and lost the opportunity to make a profit on its $1.6 million investment.
The defense argued it was right to terminate the agreement because it didn't get what PC Services promised.
Defense lawyers Aristides J. Diaz and Thomas R. Slaten Jr. of Larsen & Associates in Orlando did not respond to requests for comment before deadline.
Telecom fiberoptics. Photo: royalty free.
Click here to read the full complaint
Making the case was no small feat for the Siegfried, Rivera, Hyman, Lerner, De la Torre, Mars & Sobel lawyers, as it was laced with technical jargon that would likely stump the average juror.
"We just come home, grab our remote and turn on our TV, or get on the internet and it just seems to work like magic," Miles said. "But in reality there are a lot of moving parts behind the scenes that make that happen."
PC Services, originally called Groveland Services, helps community associations and developers deliver internet, TV, telephone and alarm services via fiber optic cables.
According to Miles, the new technology was popular back in 2005, when Mario Bustamante, CEO of PC Services' parent company OpticalTel, began working with it.
The homeowner association, keen on incorporating fiber optics into its new residential community, brokered a 10-year agreement with PC Services in September 2005, entrusting the service to provide content to an anticipated 999 homes. To do that, PC Services signed a $1.3 million contract with fiber optic company FPL Fibernet, which supplied the cables and buried them underground.
Blame game
Technology. Photo: ESB Professional/Shutterstock.com.
By early 2006, about 200 residents had moved in. But before long, there was a problem.
PC Services couldn't provide any content to the homes because there was no space to put headend equipment — computer systems and satellite dish antennae, which receive information for services like internet and TV. According to Miles and Siegfried, the clubhouse that was supposed to house the headend equipment didn't exist yet, so PC Services had to find somewhere else to put them.
That meant delays, which in turn caused plenty of complaints from homeowners lacking TV, internet and the rest. A blame game ensued.
"The developer at that time was effectively blaming my client for the delays in providing his services to the owners of the community," Miles said.
Miles and Siegfried told the jury that developer Levitt & Sons and its homeowner association never disclosed its headend space problem with residents, so they thought PC Services wasn't doing its job.
"Even before we started providing the content, we had homeowners up in arms contacting my client asking, 'What is wrong with you? Why are you delaying the delivery of the services?'" Miles said.
At last, the headend space appeared, the equipment was installed and the services kicked into gear. But then, another problem: There was something wrong with the wiring inside the homes.
"It was not done correctly by the contractor that was hired by the developer," Miles said. "This in-home wiring was just installed completely haphazardly and incorrectly, and that was giving rise to complaints of homeowners concerning the quality of our services."
At trial, the pair argued the defendant never hired an expert to come and inspect the wiring, despite complaints from residents.