Westship World Yachts v. Reel Deal Yachts
| Decision Date | 26 September 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. 3D05-735.,3D05-735. |
| Citation | 970 So.2d 354 |
| Parties | WESTSHIP WORLD YACHTS, LLC, Appellant, v. REEL DEAL YACHTS, INC., Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Fowler White Boggs Banker and Ceci Culpepper Berman and D. Finn Pressly, Tampa, for appellant.
Zarco Einhorn Salkowski & Brito and Robert Zarco and Michelle M. Odio, Miami, for appellee.
Before SHEPHERD, J., and SCHWARTZ and FLETCHER, Senior Judges.
The judgment entered below on a jury verdict in favor of the plaintiff-appellee-yacht broker Reel Deal Yachts, Inc., for a commission on the sale of a vessel built and owned by the defendant-appellant Westship World Yachts, LLC, is reversed with directions to enter judgment for the appellant. This holding is based on the conclusion that, viewing the record in the required light most favorable to the verdict winner,1 there is no evidence that the efforts of the appellee or anyone acting on its behalf were a procuring cause of the sale, which would clearly have taken place as a result of direct contact between the principals regardless of any of the conduct upon which Reel Deal relies. See Siegel v. Landquest, Inc., 761 So.2d 415 (Fla. 5th DCA 2000), review denied, 780 So.2d 914 (Fla.2001); Earnest & Stewart, Inc. v. Codina, 732 So.2d 364, 365-66 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999); Stadler Commercial Real Estate Servs., Inc. v. Indus. Waste Servs., Inc., 519 So.2d 739 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988); Kotler v. Morris Kroop, Inc., 354 So.2d 110 (Fla. 3d DCA 1978), cert. denied, 359 So.2d 1217 (Fla.1978); Dixson v. Kattel, 311 So.2d 827 (Fla. 3d DCA 1975).
Reversed and remanded.
The question presented to the jury was whether or not a local yacht broker, Reel Deal Yachts, Inc., was the procuring cause of the sale of a high-end luxury yacht manufactured by Westship World Yachts, LLC, to Searay Holdings, Inc. Acknowledging the high standard the appellants were required to meet, Tenny v. Allen, 858 So.2d 1192, 1195 (Fla. 5th DCA 2003) () the majority concludes there was no evidence from which the jury could have reached a verdict for Reel Deal in this case. I respectfully disagree. A brief narrative of the evidence presented at the trial is necessary to explain my conclusion.2
This case arises out of the August 2002 purchase by Ramon Baez of a 103" Westship custom yacht in the name of his company, Searay. According to the record of the trial, Reel Deal broker and owner, Marcos Morjain, conceived the idea of selling the yacht to Baez just six months earlier, in February 2002, as he was completing the sale of a sister ship to Juan Bellaparte. Bellaparte is Baez's friend.
Morjain initiated the execution of his idea by contacting longtime Baez attaché, Luis Matos. Although the relationship between Baez and Matos spans many years, their precise relationship is murky, and was a central focus of the trial. Morjain met Baez and Matos ten years earlier when the two of them walked into Reel Deal's Dinner Key yacht brokerage office. It was a profitable encounter for Morjain. Baez decided to purchase a yacht through Reel Deal. After deciding on the purchase, Baez left for his home country, the Dominican Republic, leaving Matos behind to consummate the sale and delivery of the yacht to him there. Morjain testified he understood Matos to be Baez's agent for the purchase and delivery of that yacht. From that time to this, Matos twice called Morjain to try to sell two other yachts owned by Baez. Morjain was unsuccessful in those endeavors.
In response to Morjain's inquiry, Matos told Morjain that Morjain could meet both him and Baez in Fort Lauderdale on March 28, 2002, at lunchtime, to introduce the yacht to Baez. In anticipation of that meeting, Morjain obtained an information packet on the yacht and registered himself with Westship as the broker for "Ricardo Baez."3
On March 28, Morjain showed up in Fort Lauderdale and met Baez, who was accompanied by a female friend, Matos, and Kevin McCarthy, a rival broker who worked for Allied Richard Bertram Marine Group. McCarthy had been Baez's primary — but not exclusive—broker for a number of prior yacht purchases. According to Morjain's own testimony, Morjain approached Baez and attempted to hand him the packet regarding the available yacht. Baez directed Morjain to give the packet to Matos instead. As Morjain explained:
I offered to give the package to Mr. Baez. I told him, [h]ere's the information on the boat he wanted. He told me give it to Mr. Matos, that he'll take care of it, and then we'll get back to you.
Morjain further testified that after this encounter, he made several phone calls to Matos "trying to make the sales pitch." He also sought and received permission from his former client, Bellaparte, for Baez to tour the sister ship at a May 28-29 fishing tournament in the Dominican Republic, where the Bellaparte yacht would be fishing. Morjain told Matos this news and flew to the Dominican Republic with the intent of showing the sister ship to Baez and pursuing the sale. Baez toured the ship before Morjain arrived.
Although neither Baez nor Matos testified at the trial, it was apparent from the testimony that one of Baez's chief concerns about purchasing a 103" Westship was its "ability to fish." As it turned out, Baez spent a considerable amount of time during the tournament circling the Bellaparte yacht on his own fishing yacht, observing the Bellaparte yacht fish. The Bellaparte yacht performed exceedingly well, landing five or six Marlin. According to Morjain, "it was the talk of the tournament."
At a cocktail party on one of those evenings, Morjain pursued Baez and engaged him in conversation about his interest in the vessel. Baez replied he was "very excited [by the sister ship's performance as a fishing vessel] and, you know, to get — he's going to get with Mr. Matos and get back with me." Morjain again contacted Westship and registered himself as a broker for the sale of the yacht, this time correctly representing his potential client as "Ramon Baez."
The next day, Morjain received a phone call from Matos, stating:
Mr. Baez wanted to know how he can change the engines on this boat, how much it would cost, how long it would take. And if they can take—modify the crow's nest, the part on the top of the boat, and put a tower on the boat. He wanted to know how long it would take to do that.
Morjain called Westship in an effort to make the changes.
Meanwhile, Baez contacted McCarthy — arguably for the first time — regarding the sale of the vessel and, on June 6, 2002, just days after the remarkable performance of the Bellaparte yacht at the Dominican fishing tournament, registered himself with Westship as the broker for both Baez and Searay for the proposed purchase.4 Events then moved rapidly. By June 10, 2002, McCarthy and Jorge Castro, designated by then as Baez's owner representative, examined the vessel at Westship's Tampa manufacturing yard and reported back to Baez. Within the week, Baez, in the company of McCarthy, Castro, and Baez's wife, viewed the yacht. By June 14, Baez put down $2,000,000 toward the $7,200,000 purchase price of the yacht, and executed a non-binding letter of intent to purchase the yacht in the name of Searay. In that document, Baez represented "[that] Kevin McCarthy of The Allied Marine Group [w]as his broker" and that there were "no other brokers [i]n connection with this transaction." Baez also agreed to indemnify Westship in the event of a dispute over the brokerage commission. On this basis, the deal closed, Westship paid the bulk of the commission to McCarthy, and by August 2002—sixty days after McCarthy became involved — the Bellaparte sister ship was docked in the Dominican Republic for Baez's sport.
Charged with this evidence, the jury had to decide whether Reel Deal was the "procuring cause" of the sale. The jury said, "Yes." The majority says, "No." The majority finds that "the sale [of the yacht] . . . would clearly have taken place as a result of direct contact between the principals" — presumably Baez and McCarthy — "regardless of the conduct upon which Reel Deal relies." That is a deducible view of the evidence presented. Yet, the majority decision ignores the quite deducible alternative that after the successful showing by the Bellaparte yacht...
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