An "Ocean Marine Yacht Club" With No Marina?

Intrepid Magic City Harvard Lawyer Jared Beck filed an interesting class action suit against the developers of Hallandale's Ocean Marine Yacht Club.

The problem? No marina:

"We saw this beautiful marina in their literature and it sounded so wonderful that we would have a place for our boat and a magnificent view of the ocean and Intracoastal," said Andrea Perez, of New Jersey.

She and her husband put down a $160,000 deposit in 2004 on an $800,000, two-bedroom, two-bath condo. "It never crossed our minds there wouldn't be a marina. That was the big selling point."

Perez is one of three buyers who sued the developer, Fifield Realty Corp., of Chicago, in Miami federal court last month, demanding their deposits be refunded.

They claim Fifield misled them by promoting the marina as a marquee feature of the 283-unit development while failing to disclose it didn't have the necessary permits or approvals. Marina space is hard to come by in Broward.

"What you have here is a consumer situation of people buying a product and not being given all of the details at the time they make their decision," said Miami attorney Jared H. Beck, who is representing the buyers. He has asked the court to certify the suit as a class action on the basis that all buyers in the building have been harmed financially by the lack of a marina.

This is an interesting case. I would want to review the contract documents and see what disclosures, if any, were made about permits and so forth before pleading this on a class-wide basis.

If he can frame it as a straight omissions case, I would say Jared has a decent shot at certification. His individual clients are in very good hands in any event.