CMC Group’s Ugo Colombo and Dacra’s Craig Robins with a Bombardier Challenger jet (Ugo Colombo, Dacra, Bombardier, Getty)
A pair of notable Miami developers are duking it out yet again in Miami-Dade Circuit Court docket in what could be the closing chapter to an epic 12-yr-previous legal war over a personal plane they jointly owned in the late 2000s.
Dressed in natty satisfies, Ugo Colombo and Craig Robins attended the 1st day of the demo on Tuesday. 7 jurors will come to a decision which one is responsible for defaulting on a $18.5 million mortgage they received in 2007 to acquire a Bombardier Challenger jet. Regardless of sitting down a number of ft absent from just about every other, Colombo and Robins avoided making eye get hold of.
Colombo, founder of Brickell-dependent CMC Group, and Robins, CEO and president of Miami Layout District-based mostly Dacra, have been at every other’s throats since their joint ownership of the luxurious plane fell aside in 2010. They have submitted many lawsuits from every other for more than a decade. Colombo is currently creating Vita at Grove Isle, a 6-tale, waterfront condominium with 65 models near Coconut Grove. Robins is the mastermind driving the transformation of the Style and design District into a luxury retail, dining and arts place.
The litigious feud featured a 2014 trial reduction for Robins in which a jury awarded Colombo $2 million in damages that was minimized to $1.5 million on attraction. In 2019, Robins dropped a different demo when Miami-Dade Decide Michael Hanzman ruled his lawsuit alleging Colombo bribed a juror in the 2014 circumstance was “bereft of evidence” and “completely implausible.”
Colombo also sued Robins in 2019, accusing his rival of defaming him. Colombo voluntarily dismissed the defamation lawsuit on April 24, 2019, court docket data present.
The present-day trial consists of a 2013 lawsuit filed by the plane’s financial institution, Lender of The united states, towards Colombo and his entity that owned 50 per cent of the jet. The accommodate alleged he and his entity defaulted on the personal loan, and unsuccessful to promote the plane by Dec. 12, 2012, to fork out off the credit card debt for each the conditions of a forbearance agreement. Colombo and his entity counter-sued Robins and his entity that owned the other 50 per cent of the aircraft for allegedly failing to fork out its share of the loan and other expenditures and bills affiliated with the jet.
Immediately after filing for individual bankruptcy security, the jet’s possession entity offered the airplane for $9.5 million in 2014, according to court docket documents and witness testimony.
Financial institution of The united states removed by itself from the litigation very last 7 days, leaving only Colombo and Robins and their entities to keep on to litigate around who owes whom. Miami-Dade Circuit Courtroom Decide William Thomas, who is presiding in excess of the demo, granted a dismissal of the lender’s promises previous Thursday at the ask for of equally Lender of The united states and Colombo. Every single agreed to go over its personal courtroom fees and lawyer charges.
All through Tuesday’s opening arguments, Robins’ lawyer Peter Prieto told jurors that his lawful crew will present evidence displaying that Colombo stopped producing payments on the financial loan in about 2010, whilst Robins ongoing to do so.
Prieto also accused Colombo of trying to commandeer the plane for himself by allegedly having CMC Group CFO Arthur Murphy and an aviation profits broker surreptitiously post a lowball provide to invest in the aircraft. That allegedly transpired when the builders have been trying to offer it and repay Bank of The usa in 2012.
“Mr. Colombo wished to acquire the airplane on the cheap,” Prieto mentioned. “Mr. Murphy and Mr. Colombo set the corporation that owned the plane into individual bankruptcy.”
Murphy was the first witness to consider the stand, underneath questioning by Colombo’s attorney Gonzalo Dorta. Murphy explained that the Colombo aircraft entity received default letters from Lender of The us mainly because Robins’ entity had stopped shelling out its fifty percent of the bank loan payments on June 1, 2011, even though his boss was in very good standing with regard to the loan. Dorta also displayed copies of the default letters on a screen.
“I think [Robins] defaulted 7, eight months in a row,” Murphy stated. “Mr. Colombo was paying out his share of the mortgage and the fixed value costs that Mr. Robins experienced not compensated.”
The demo resumes on Wednesday and is anticipated to last a 7 days.
