$81,000 in Damages, Fines Levied in Landscaping Battle

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- The Palm Beach landscaping company represented and partly owned by celebrity lawyer David Boies has racked up its fourth and fifth contempt of court citations, plus $81,000 in damages and fines, for "willfully, deliberately and repeatedly" violating court orders in an eight-year legal battle.

Nical of Palm Beach Inc. and co-owner Amy Habie -- Boies' employee, client, business partner and close friend -- also face the prospect of paying more than $1 million in legal fees, costs and compensation to the owners of a rival company, Scott Lewis Gardening & Trimming Inc.

In orders dated July 8, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge David Crow said Scott and Carol Lewis are entitled to more than $43,000 in damages because Nical wrongfully diverted one of their lucrative lawn-care accounts.

Crow also levied nearly $38,000 in fines against Nical and Habie for violating an order to stop using the Lewises' company name in signs and advertising.

"This is an ongoing, willful misconduct and contemptuous activity," the order said.

The lead attorney for Nical and Habie, Stephen Rash of Boies, Schiller & Flexner's Miami office, couldn't be reached for comment Monday.

Lewis, though not a lawyer, represents himself in the litigation. Jack Scarola, attorney for Carol Lewis and the company, said the rulings were another step toward ending the marathon "lawn mower war."

"Yet another judge has recognized a pattern of gross disregard on the part of Ms. Habie and Nical for the authority of the court and has laid the foundation to be sure that gross disregard does not go unpunished and does not continue," Scarola said.

Crow is the eighth circuit judge in the case, which has caromed through state and federal courts since the Lewises sold their business to Habie in 1996. Each accused the other of breaching the sale contract, and Habie sued when Lewis went back into business with a competing company.

They agreed to a settlement in 1998, but have been in court ever since over claims of violations. Nical has lost 11 appeals of adverse rulings but kept the litigation alive through the efforts of Boies and numerous other lawyers from his firm and firms brought in by Boies, Schiller & Flexner.

The Florida Bar filed ethics charges against Boies after Crow rebuked his firm for providing years of free legal services to Habie and paying more than $400,000 in other lawyers' fees and costs to keep the litigation going. The Bar asked for the charges to be dismissed in May after a Leon County judge hearing the ethics case said a lawyer could "advance" all the money he wanted to a client and not violate Bar rules.

Boies is known for his roles in high-profile cases such as the government's attack on Microsoft and Al Gore's unsuccessful recount try in the 2000 election. He first represented Habie in 1992, in her divorce battle with ex-husband Jose "Joey" Habie, a Guatemalan textile manufacturer who kidnapped their two children. A Boies family trust owns 20 percent of Habie's company, and he made her chief financial officer of Boies, Schiller & Flexner.

The Florida Bar filed ethics charges against Boies after Crow rebuked his firm for providing years of free legal services to Habie and paying more than $400,000 in other lawyers' fees and costs to keep the litigation going. The Bar asked for the charges to be dismissed in May after a Leon County judge hearing the ethics case said a lawyer could "advance" all the money he wanted to a client and not violate Bar rules.

Boies is known for his roles in high-profile cases such as the government's attack on Microsoft and Al Gore's unsuccessful recount try in the 2000 election. He first represented Habie in 1992, in her divorce battle with ex-husband Jose "Joey" Habie, a Guatemalan textile manufacturer who kidnapped their two children. A Boies family trust owns 20 percent of Habie's company, and he made her chief financial officer of Boies, Schiller & Flexner with a salary of $120,000 a year, according to testimony.