Gary B. Crouch v. Briana Brumer

• Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida
• Decided: October 30, 2024
• Docket: 3D2024-0287
• Status: Published

Opinion

Third District Court of Appeal State of Florida

Opinion filed October 30, 2024. Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

________________

No. 3D24-0287 Lower Tribunal No. 18-26405 ________________

Gary B. Crouch, Appellant,

vs.

Briana Brumer, et al., Appellees.

An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Jose M. Rodriguez, Judge.

Michael Compagno, P.A., and Michael Compagno (West Palm Beach), for appellant.

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP, and David Gersten and John T. Mills, for appellees.

Before EMAS, SCALES, and LOBREE, JJ.

PER CURIAM. Appellant Gary B. Crouch challenges a post-judgment order denying

his two October 13, 2022 motions to impose sanctions on Appellees Briana

Brumer and JB Kelly, LLC, as well as on Appellees’ trial counsel. Appellant

argues that Appellees’ filing of certain documents in this case violated the

parties’ non-disclosure and confidentiality agreement (the “Agreement”) –

approved by the trial court on September 22, 2020 (the “Order”) – which

restricted access to those filings “for attorney’s eyes only.”

After conducting a non-evidentiary hearing on Appellant’s sanctions

motions, the trial court determined that, because Appellees had filed the

documents into a record that had been sealed by various court orders, these

filings – into a sealed record – did not violate the Order or the Agreement.

Perceiving no abuse of discretion1 in the trial court’s ruling, we affirm.

1 See Shir Law Grp., P.A. v. Carnevale, 345 So. 3d 380, 382 (Fla. 3d DCA 2022).