In January 2001, the Lawyers’ Committee filed a motion to enforce a 1995 settlement between the Wynwood Community Economic Development Corporation and the City of Miami, Florida, on behalf of Wynwood in the Circuit Court for the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida in a case styled Wynwood Community Economic Development Corporation, Inc., v. the City of Miami, 94-12875. Wynwood’s 1994 complaint alleged that the city had discriminated against it on the basis of national origin in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution by obstructing the creation of a foreign trade zone in the heavily Puerto Rican neighborhood of Wynwood in Miami, Florida. The case was settled in 1995 and the 2001 motion to enforce the 1995 settlement alleged that the city had violated the settlement in the following respects: by refusing to provide the plaintiff with a deficient or correct deed; by delaying the application for a HUD loan to assist Wynwood’s development; by failing to apply for the full $10 million in assistance specified in the settlement agreement; by refusing to reimburse the plaintiff for $17,000 in architectural expenses; by failing to treat the plaintiff as a CDBG entity and consider its grant applications in good faith; by failing to express support for the plaintiff and treat the plaintiff like other similarly situated entities, and by publicly maligning the plaintiff in the press, and refusing to consider the plaintiff for a seat on the city’s International Trade Board.
On April 5, 2005, Judge Jennifer D. Bailey of the Circuit Court for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida issued an order in favor of Wynwood, which required the city to reimburse the plaintiff for $17,000 in architectural fees, to issue a corrective deed within forty-five days; and by denying the city’s foreclosure action against the plaintiff. The order also found plaintiffs entitled to attorney’s fees. On January 7, 2006, the District Court of Appeal for the Third District of Florida affirmed Judge Bailey’s order. Plaintiffs applied for over $800,000 in attorneys’ fees in 2005. However, Wynwood declared bankruptcy in 2005, and the case has been in bankruptcy court since then.
Click here to read the 2001 motion to enforce the settlement.
Click here to read the 2005 order to enforce the settlement.
