Greenfield v. City First Mortg. Corp., 3D09-263.

• Decision Date: 09 December 2009
• Docket Number: No. 3D09-263.,3D09-263.
• Parties: Leo GREENFIELD, Appellant, v. CITY FIRST MORTGAGE CORPORATION, Eric P. Stein, Trustee, MSJ Investors, LLC, Eric P. Stein, and Eric P. Stein, P.A., Appellees.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

24 So.3d 644

Leo GREENFIELD, Appellant, v. CITY FIRST MORTGAGE CORPORATION, Eric P. Stein, Trustee, MSJ Investors, LLC, Eric P. Stein, and Eric P. Stein, P.A., Appellees.

No. 3D09-263.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

December 9, 2009.

Leo Greenfield, in Proper Person.

Scott Alan Orth, Miami Shores; Eric P. Stein, North Miami Beach, for appellees.

Before COPE, GERSTEN, and SALTER, JJ.

SALTER, J.

This appeal was purportedly commenced from a circuit court order in a lawsuit brought by Distribution Management Services, Inc., and Leo Greenfield. The order in question was captioned "Order Granting Motion for Reconsideration of Order Dated November 21, 2008 Granting Plaintiff's Motion to Vacate Order of June 6, 2008 Pursuant to Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.540(b) in that Court Was Without Jurisdiction to Enter the Order, Vacating Same, and Substituting the Within Order in Its Stead." The text of the Order, and prior orders in the same case, described a series of procedural maneuvers by the appellants, in three judicial circuits, obviously calculated to delay a commercial foreclosure in Polk County, Florida.

The very filing of the notice of appeal was immediately called into question by the appellees. One of the appellants, former Florida attorney Leo Greenfield,¹ signed the notice of appeal on behalf of attorney Guy Bailey, Jr., in a signature block for counsel for Distribution Management Services, Inc. In short order, for reasons having nothing to do with this case, Bailey himself was disbarred.

Bailey and his firm then withdrew as counsel for Distribution Management Services, Inc., and a motion for extension of time to file the reply brief was then filed (based on Distribution Management Services, Inc.'s successor counsel's purported need to review the file). "Purported" is once again the correct term, because it developed (in subsequent affidavits directed by this Court to be filed by the purported successor counsel and by Greenfield) that purported successor counsel for Distribution Management Services, Inc. had not authorized anyone to file a motion for extension of time on his behalf, to sign any such motion, or to enter any other form of appearance in this appeal. An inspection of the motion for extension of time revealed that only photocopied signatures were filed, and that they were strikingly similar to those filed in a circuit court pleading. In his own sworn affidavit, Greenfield denied having filed the unauthorized photocopied signature.² The purported successor counsel and yet another prospective successor attorney for Distribution Management Services, Inc. withdrew, leaving Distribution Management Services, Inc. without representation.

Following these revelations, we dismissed Distribution Management Services, Inc.'s appeal with prejudice. We now turn our attention to Greenfield, the remaining appellant.

Upon a review of the order sought to be reviewed and the prior proceeding in this Court (in which Greenfield unsuccessfully challenged an order dismissing his claims with prejudice in the underlying circuit court case),³ it is apparent...