Motion to Vacate the Court's June 23, 2008 Protective Order

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE 11TH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT OF FLORIDA IN AND FOR MIAMI-DADE COUNTY

GENERAL JURISDICTION DIVISION

NORMAN LANSON, CASE NO.: 99-21062 CA 15
MERYL LANSON, and
BARON’S STORES, INC., a Florida
Corporation,

Plaintiffs,

vs.

RONALD C. KOPPLOW, ESQ.,
KOPPLOW & FLYNN, P.A., a Florida
Professional Association, MARC
COOPER, ESQ., COOPER & WOLFE, P.A.,
a Florida Professional Association,
SONYA L. SALKIN, ESQ., and
MALNIK & SALKIN, P.A., a Florida
Professional Association,

Defendants.
_______________________________________/

PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION TO VACATE THAT PORTION OF THE COURT’S
JUNE 23, 2008 ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT, SONYA SALKIN’S,
MOTION FOR PROTECTIVE ORDER

COMES NOW, the Plaintiffs, Baron’s Stores, Inc., Norman Lanson, by and through their undersigned counsel, and Meryl Lanson, Pro Se, files this Motion to Vacate that Portion of the Court’s June 23, 2008 Order Granting Defendant, Sonya Salkin’s, Motion for Protective Order and further states as follows:
Previously, during the May 30, 2008 status conference, the Court granted the Defendant’s, Salkin, Motion for Protective Order which prohibited Salkin’s deposition on the Plaintiffs’ Motion to Strike for Fraud on the Court. Attached to the Plaintiffs’ Motion to Strike was a Declaration from an independent forensic document expert, Michael G. Kessler. Under the penalty of perjury, Mr. Kessler made the following conclusory statement regarding the Amended Plan of Liquidation and the Amended Disclosure Statement which the Defendants have been using to support their Motion for Summary Judgment as to Baron’s claims.
“I can conclude that someone tampered with these documents, modified them
and/or altered them resulting in these documents not representing what they
are presented to be. These documents have been falsified.”

1. On September 8, 2008, the Plaintiffs filed their Verified Supplement to Plaintiffs’ Renewed Joint Motion to Strike Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment as to all Claims Brought by “Baron’s Stores, Inc.”…filed February 4, 2008, for Fraud on the Court as a Sham Pleading under Rule 1.150 of F.R.C.P.
2. Previously this Court summarily denied the Plaintiffs’ Motion to Strike for Fraud on the Court without even reading the motion and without the benefit of an evidentiary hearing. There is no plausible way to determine whether or not the Defendants’, in fact, did or did not commit fraud on the court without the benefit of an evidentiary hearing and testimony taken by the parties.
3. This court has both ethical duties as a licensed Florida Attorney and Judicial duties pursuant to Judicial Canons to explore this serious breach of ethics and possible criminal conduct of the Defendants, who are all licensed attorneys in the State of Florida, as well as their Counsels.
Canon 3.D.2)a:

A judge who receives information or has actual knowledge that substantial likelihood exists that a lawyer has committed a violation of the Rules Regulating the Florida Bar shall take appropriate action. This does not speak to the violation of criminal statutes.

Lawyer Regulation: Rules Regulating The Florida Bar – Rules of Professional Conduct
4-3.3(a)(4) :

Prohibits a lawyer from offering false evidence and requires the lawyer to take reasonable remedial measures when false evidence has been offered. This is subordinated to the criminal statute violation.

Notice is hereby given that violation of 831.04 f.s., constituting a felony of the third degree has been committed by attorneys Ronald C. Kopplow, Marc Cooper, Sonya L. Salkin, and their counsel, Charles W. Throckmorton, Lauri Waldman Ross, Robert M. Klein, Lewis N. Jack, Jr., and Reggie Sanger.

State Criminal Statute: 831.04 f.s. – Penalty for changing or forging certain instruments of writing states in part:

Any person making any erasure, alteration, interlineations or interpolation in any writing or instrument mentioned in s. 92.28, and made admissible in evidence, with the fraudulent intent to change the same in any substantial manner after the same has once been made, shall be guilty of the crime of forgery, which, for the purpose of this section, constitutes a felony of the third degree.

Furthermore, the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida, Judge Paul G. Hyman, Jr., has also been provided with a copy of Mr. Kessler’s Declaration that the documents which confirmed the bankruptcy of Baron’s were fraudulent. Judge Hyman, having knowledge that fraudulent documents were used to confirm a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and that the only parties that could be responsible for the preparation, execution, and filing of such documents were/are attorneys, have denied the Plaintiffs discovery and an evidentiary hearing. The defendants, Kopplow, Cooper and Salkin, and their counsel, Throckmorton, Waldman Ross, Klein, Jack and Sanger were also provided with Mr. Kessler’s Declaration in the context of the federal bankruptcy proceedings. The Court and its officers have refused to take remedial action.

18 U.S.C. § 4: “Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority
under the United States, is guilty of the federal crime of misprision of felony.”

“The offense of concealing a felony committed by another, but without such previous concert with or subsequent assistance to the felon as would make the party concealing an accessory before or after the fact.”

Both the State Court and the Bankruptcy Court have knowledge that fraudulent documents are being used, by the defendant attorneys and their counsel in the Baron’s/Lanson civil litigation, to gain an unfair advantage. Both Courts have condoned the use of fraudulent documents. The fact is that the Courts have denied the Plaintiffs the required evidentiary hearings thereby subverting the truth finding process that the adversary system is designed to implement. Both Courts have turned a blind eye to these fraudulent documents to protect certain connected attorneys.

4. To prohibit the Plaintiffs from discovery and an evidentiary hearing, the Court is aiding and abetting fraudulent conduct and becomes a party to the fraudulent activity. For this court to block the Plaintiffs’ right to discovery, including depositions, and an evidentiary hearing, when there is an Affidavit from an Independent Forensic Fraud Examiner, which is unrefuted in the record, equates to Obstruction of Justice, which must be explored by the State Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, especially since the Defendants’ trial notebook, at the hearing held on September 8, 2008, on the Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment, contained the fraudulent documents, and were delivered to the parties by Federal Express Mail. The Defendants and their counsel have now used the mail delivery service as a means to transport fraudulent documents.
5. The Plaintiffs will not only be extremely prejudiced but will continue to be deprived of their rights for sanctions against the Defendants for their fraudulent conduct in submitting false documents to gain an unfair advantage in this present litigation.
WHEREFORE, the Plaintiffs, Norman Lanson and Baron’s Stores, Inc., and Meryl M. Lanson, Pro Se, demands the Court to vacate its previous Order Granting Defendant Salkin’s Motion for Protective Order, and allow the Plaintiffs to pursue the deposition of Salkin, and the deposition of any other individual, including but not limited to the professionals, who may have played a part in the preparation, execution and filing of the fraudulent documents. In addition, the Plaintiffs demand discovery and an evidentiary hearing, as required under Rule 1.150 of F.R.C.P.


CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I HEREBY CERTIFY that true and exact copies of the foregoing were forwarded by electronic mail, facsimile and/or U.S. Mail on September 22, 2008, to all parties on the attached Service List.



___________________________
Mary Alice Gwynn, Esq.
Fla. Bar. No.: 879584
805 George Bush Boulevard
Delray Beach, Florida 33483
(561) 330-0633



____________________________
John B. Thompson, Esq.
Fla. Bar No.: 231665
1172 South Dixie Highway, Suite 111
Coral Gables, FL 33146
(305) 666-4366




_____________________________
Meryl M. Lanson, Pro Se




SERVICE LIST




Robert M. Klein, Esq.
Stephens Lynn Klein, et al.
9130 South Dadeland Boulevard
Penthouse II
Miami, Florida 33156

Charles W. Throckmorton, Esq.
Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton
2525 Ponce de Leon Boulevard
9th Floor
Coral Gables, Florida 33134

Lewis N. Jack, Jr., Esq.
Joseph, Jack & Miranda, P.A.
Post Office Box 330519
Miami, Florida 33233

Lauri Waldman Ross, Esq.
Ross & Girten
Two Datran Center, Suite 1612
9130 South Dadeland Boulevard
Miami, Florida 33156

Reggie Sanger, Esq.
208 S.E. 9th Street
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33316