HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA (VINnews) – A Hollywood solo practitioner turned an $84,000 real estate commission dispute into a $47.8 million jury verdict, calling the case a matter of principle rather than money.

Hollywood, Florida, solo lawyer Josef Timlichman, who represented plaintiff Miles Goldstein Real Estate LLC, said the dispute was never simply about an unpaid commission.

“This is not a case about $84,000,” Timlichman told litigation reporter Lisa Willis.10155e

A Miami-Dade County jury returned the $47.8 million verdict on May 14 against Reuben Ezekiel and related defendants in connection with the 2020 sale of a waterfront home in the exclusive Golden Beach community. The award included approximately $19.83 million in compensatory damages and $28 million in punitive damages.

The case, Miles Goldstein Real Estate LLC v. Reuben Ezekiel et al., stemmed from allegations that Ezekiel and others engaged in fraud, tortious interference with a business relationship and civil conspiracy to cut broker Alexander Goldstein out of a buyer’s commission on the $2.8 million property sale. Goldstein had worked with the buyer for more than a year and helped negotiate the price, according to court filings and reports.

Timlichman, of Josef Timlichman Law, PLLC, described the verdict as a landmark in Florida real estate commission cases due to the significant punitive damages component. He said the outcome sends a broader message about ethical conduct in society.

Defense attorney Pete Solnick called the verdict “so excessive that it shocks the conscience of the court,” according to published reports. Post-trial proceedings are pending.

The case was filed in 2020 in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court in Miami-Dade County.