Firm Achievements

Crabtree, Auslander & Tackenberg

Firm Achievements

We are proud of the results we have achieved over the years for our clients. Although we value every win, below is a list of the victories that we are especially proud of at Crabtree, Auslander, and Tackenberg.

Confidential

The firm was co-counsel with a leading Miami family law firm in the the trial court for a two-week trial and then represented the husband on appeal in the Third District Court of Appeal in a high-profile, nine-figure dissolution of marriage case that turned on the enforceability of a pre-nuptial agreement.

Confidential

Crabtree & Auslander represented a husband before the Fourth District Court of Appeal in an action involving a nine-figure marital estate. The firm successfully reversed a trial court order calling for the client to make a 7.6 million dollar interim marital asset distribution.

Gobbi v. Mamann.

The firm represented one of the world’s leading art collectors in a multimillion dollar real estate dispute as co-counsel before the trial court and, then, lead appellate counsel—representation that ultimately led to settlement with the producer of “Seinfeld” and “How I Met Your Mother.”

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Smith

The firm upheld a $30 million dollar verdict against a tobacco company’s challenge to both the compensatory damages ($10 million in noneconomic damages) and punitive damages ($20 million) awards. The firm persuaded two of the three judges on the panel to specially concur in upholding the judgment despite their stated deep concerns regarding whether there was evidence to support the large jury verdict.

Butler v. Schlicting, 95 So. 3d 222 (Fla. 2d DCA 2012)

After trial counsel obtained a $14 million verdict for the plaintiffs in a tragic auto accident case, the firm handled the post-trial briefing and the appeal—winning a per curiam affirmance (PCA) of the entire judgment in favor of the plaintiffs.

Valdes v. Valdes, 62 So. 3d 7 (Fla. 3d DCA 2011).

The firm represented the wife in protracted post-dissolution litigation occurring before the trial and appellate courts that focused upon the husband’s incomplete financial disclosure before, during, and after trial. The case culminated in a Third District Court of Appeal opinion forcing the husband to account for, and the trial court to distribute amounts to the wife based on an error of over one million dollars.

Aburos v. Aburos, 34 So. 3d 131 (Fla. 3d DCA 2010).

The firm handled the successful appellate representation of a husband that freed him, on an emergency basis, from jail for contempt pending appeal, and then successfully argued for the reversal of the contempt order on grounds that it improperly imputed to the husband his sisters’ ability to pay the contempt purge while ignoring his own ability to pay it.

Martinez v. Kurt, 9 So. 3d 54 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009)

Martinez v. Kurt, 9 So. 3d 54 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009)
The firm represented a Spanish husband in an international custody appeal concerning his U.S.-citizen children living in Turkey with his Turkish former wife. In a successful appeal to the Third District Court of Appeal, the former wife was forced the wife to abide by the parties’ marital settlement agreement provision concerning the children’s international schooling in Turkey.

Acevedo v. Florida Health Speciality Medical Center.

The firm provided successful appellant representation for an employer medical center by persuading the appellate court (in a PCA) that a general master’s report in a breach of employment contract lawsuit properly denied the appellant doctor’s claim for attorney’s fees under Florida frivolous lawsuit statute.

The “Two Forgotten Children” Case

The firm represented the State of Florida as special appellate counsel in a child welfare case of national interest in response to a “celebrated circuit court damage action”[Christina A. Zawisza, Child Welfare Managed Care in Florida: Will It Be Innovation or Abdication?, 25 Nova L. Rev. 619, 628 (2001)] that levied a $4.4 million jury award against the Department of Children and Families. The firm’s successful appellate representation resulted in the appellate court vacating the judgment and remanding the case with instructions that each child’s damages be capped at $100,000.