MIAMI (Legal Newsline) - A Florida appeals court has reversed a lower court’s ruling to restore more than $400,000 in sanctions ordered against a former employee of Shaquille O’Neal and the man's lawyer, who pursued a racketeering and invasion of privacy lawsuit against the basketball star despite evidence it was a shakedown.
The Third District Court of Appeal ruled that a new judge who took over the long-running case exceeded his authority when he threw out a previous judge’s sanctions order and found attorney Menachem Mayberg blameless in the affair.
“The predecessor judge supported her judgment order awarding fees with a detailed list of the sanctionable conduct” committed by Mayberg and his client Shawn Dawson, the Third Circuit ruled in a May 12 decision. “The record before us on appeal lacks any demonstration that the predecessor judge abused her discretion.”
The fee fight arose after O’Neal hired Dawson to manage his personal computer system. Sometime in 2009, Dawson got his hands on about 25,000 personal emails and demanded $12 million for their return or he would release them to the public. O’Neal refused and Dawson made good on his threat, spawning a number of negative news articles accusing the towering former Magic, Lakers and Miami Heat star of being “a digital Don Juan” who allegedly sent threatening e-mails and text messages to women who accused him of sexual misconduct.
In 2010, Darling, now represented by Mayberg, sued O’Neal for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and racketeering. Darling then sent some of the pilfered materials to a reporter and sold some more to a celebrity gossip site, the appeals court said.
Shaq won an injunction blocking Darling from leaking any more documents, which the appeals court upheld. Despite the injunction, Darling included more personal documents in a public court record, generating more news articles.
In 2014, O’Neal notified Mayberg he was seeking sanctions, setting off a 21-day safe harbor period for Darling to withdraw his suit. Darling refused. At a sanctions hearing in 2015 Mayberg argued his client “was in fear of O’Neal” and the only way he could protect himself was by suing the 7-foot, 330-pound basketball Hall of Famer.
In August 2017 the court found there was no legal basis for Darling’s lawsuit, it wasn’t pursued in good faith and the evidence showed Mayberg “was fully aware of Darling’s previous attempt to extort money from O’Neal” in exchange for the emails and texts. In October 2017 the court ordered $413,000 in fees. Mayberg argued he shouldn’t pay because the judge prevented him from testifying, although the judge gave him 40 minutes to explain his version of events.
After the final judgment was entered, Judge Migna Sanchez-Llorens was transferred to another division and Judge Spencer Eig took over the case. Mayberg moved for a new hearing, which the judge granted, after which the new judge ruled Mayberg had acted in good faith and sanctions weren’t merited.
The appeals court rejected Judge Eig’s decision entirely, saying he didn’t have the authority to overturn a final judgment of another judge based on his reinterpretation of the same facts.
“Mayberg chose to appear unrepresented at the motion to determine entitlement despite clear notice that O’Neal sought fees from both Mayberg and Darling,” the appeals court ruled. “Mayberg did not alert the trial court that he needed time to testify until the hearing was almost concluded,” and the lawyer didn’t raise any new points at the rehearing.