St. Louis, Mo./Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (April 7, 2025) - St. Louis Partner Alejandro P. Frank and Ft. Lauderdale Partner Katina Hardee, with assistance from St. Louis Associate Aidan Hayward, recently secured summary judgment in the Circuit Court for Palm Beach County, Florida on behalf of two clients in a construction loan fraud case. The Court accurately determined that neither of the Lewis Brisbois clients owed a duty to the plaintiffs to prevent the alleged fraud from occurring.

The case arose out of a residential construction project and the loan associated with the same. The construction loan agreement required the plaintiff-borrowers and their general contractor to submit draw requests to one of the Lewis Brisbois clients, the disbursing agent, in order to facilitate the construction loan draw process. However, the plaintiffs and their general contractor permitted the construction manager to submit the draw requests without supervision by either the plaintiff-borrowers or the general contractor. The construction manager then allegedly defrauded the plaintiff-borrowers, who were not paying attention to the loan disbursement process. The other Lewis Brisbois client, a draw request inspector, and the disbursing agent were only in privity of contract with the lender, and had no interactions with the plaintiff-borrowers or the general contractor throughout the construction process.