Andreas Hase’s firm Megladon, Inc., sued the village of Pinecrest and won. A jury found that Pinecrest violated the developer’s rights by refusing to issue him a permit for a house if he didn’t cede part of the lot to the village.
Pedro Portal
pportal@miamiherald.com
The recent verdict in a lawsuit against a Miami-Dade municipality’s government could have repercussions for developers and local governments across the country.
Andreas Hase’s firm Megladon, Inc., a small developer that specializes in “tropical modern” single-family homes, was planning to build a house at 13100 SW 77th Ave. in Pinecrest, an affluent town of about 18,000 in south Miami-Dade County.
But when Hase, a Pinecrest resident, began the permitting process to build the house, the local government told him he’d need to cede a piece of the lot to the village in order to get the permit he needed.
Hase, who was born in Germany and moved to the U.S. nearly 14 years ago, took issue with the village’s request, which he didn’t think was legal. His firm sued the village in 2021.
“To me, this is blackmailing — to withhold a permit because you know that the person on the other end has a clock running and needs to build,” Hase said.
And after years of litigation, a jury agreed with him. In a verdict issued last week, the jury said the village had violated Hase’s civil rights and property rights and awarded him nearly $410,000 in damages.
This is the first time a jury anywhere in the U.S. has awarded damages in such a case, said Timothy McGinn, one of the attorneys representing Megladon. McGinn, an attorney specializing in business litigation at the law firm Gunster, said he hopes this case will set a national precedent.
“Hopefully this will send a message,” McGinn said, “to not just the village of Pinecrest, but other municipalities, that you can’t do this.”
The village wanted to use the strip of land from Hase’s lot to widen a road. A municipality could do that through eminent domain, a process that allows a government to take land from its owner if it provides fair compensation. But in this case, and in other similar instances in Pinecrest that Hase’s legal team identified, the village would not provide compensation.
In motions filed in federal court by both the village and Miami-Dade County, attorneys argued that the suit should be dismissed because the village had not taken a final position on the issue before Megladon filed suit.
Hase and McGinn said the practice had been widespread and well-known in Pinecrest. But McGinn said it’s not just something that happens in Pinecrest. Local governments pressuring developers or people building homes to give up land in exchange for permits happens throughout the state and across the U.S., he said.
“This is the sort of thing that happens all the time,” said McGinn. For most developers or people building homes, it’s usually easier to “just give up the land and move on with your project,” he added.
But for Hase, it was a matter of principle, even as the litigation dragged on.
“I was standing up for ourselves, for our project, and I was standing up for other people who are exposed to this,” Hase said.
When he heard the verdict, Hase said he was “very happy” and “extremely proud.” Now, Hase said he plans to go ahead with the house he planned to build before the lawsuit.
Miami Herald
Catherine Odom covers real estate for the Miami Herald. She previously interned on the Herald’s government team and has worked as a journalist in Germany and Armenia. She is a graduate of Northwestern University.