Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani’s Miami team, led by partner Joseph Sacher and assisted by senior counsel Capri Trigo and associate Jocelyn Ramos, as well as partner Kent Carter and Senior Counsel William Dunn in the Chicago office, obtained an Order in Broward County, Florida, denying a predatory lender’s Verified Emergency Motion for Temporary Mandatory Injunction, as well as a standard injunction, against 10 national charter school operators and related entities and guarantors.
The firm’s clients are charter school operators, online educational service providers, and related “back-office” service providers located in certain states across the United States, as well as education consulting services in the UK.
The lender previously agreed to provide secured funding of up to $15 million to facilitate the corporate entities’ expansion plans in acquiring a number of contracts for charter school operations in Florida. However, the lender fraudulently induced the entities to accept a $6 million loan, then took actions that caused the defendant’s required credit line to cease, charged outrageous fees for services that were never provided, and refused to release earmarked funds in a timely manner. Shortly after closing, the lender declared default and forced the corporate entities to execute amended loan documents under extreme economic duress. The lender also repeatedly declared defaults and accused the corporate entities of breaching the original and amended lending agreements, as well as an individual guarantor.
The Emergency Motion was filed contemporaneously with a Verified Complaint for Injunctive and Equitable Relief. All of the related corporate entities are represented by Gordon & Rees, with the individual guarantor defendant represented by separate counsel, who joined in and adopted the corporate entities’ Verified Response in Opposition to Plaintiff’s “So-Called” Verified Motion for “Emergency” Motion for Temporary Mandatory Injunction.
The Miami team secured the order five weeks after the filing of the Verified Motion. At the conclusion of the evidentiary hearing, the Broward County Circuit Judge found that there was no emergency and that the lender had failed to meet its burden for the entry of any form of injunction.
Notably, since 2013 the plaintiff has filed 103 similar lawsuits in Broward County, alone, usually steamrolling its opponents and obtaining injunctive relief and complete relief. The clients were thrilled with the results, which exceeded their best expectations.