Hillard v. City of Largo, Sparrow-Halgren

DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF FLORIDA SECOND DISTRICT

BENJAMIN HILLARD,

Appellant,

v.

CITY OF LARGO,

Appellee.

No. 2D2024-2067

October 17, 2025

Appeal from the Circuit Court for Pinellas County; Thomas M. Ramsberger, Judge.

Benjamin E. Hillard and Amy Cuykendall Jones of Hillard Cuykendall, P.A., Largo, for Appellant.

Matthew D. Weidner of Weidner Law, P.A., St. Petersburg, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Benjamin Hillard appeals an order granting the City of Largo's motion for sanctions and the resulting final judgment imposing sanctions. Mr. Hillard represented Robert Halgren in a foreclosure action initiated by the City. A final judgment of foreclosure was entered against Mr. Halgren, and it was affirmed per curiam by this court. Halgren v. City of Largo, 387 So. 3d 282 (Fla. 2d DCA 2024). After the appeal, the trial court granted the City's motion for sanctions based on section

2 57.105(1), Florida Statutes (2021), and directed that the City was entitled to an award of attorney's fees and costs to be assessed equally against Mr. Hillard and Mr. Halgren.¹ In its order, the trial court found as follows: The totality of the trial court record reveals that even after that formal notice, counsel Hillard persisted with a course of dilatory and bad faith conduct completely unabated throughout the course of these proceedings. The record is replete with last minute, dilatory filings, and bad faith pleadings and assertions. Counsel has done nothing whatsoever to recede from any of these practices or to withdraw or abandon any of the bad faith claims or positions. Thereafter, the trial court entered a final judgment requiring Mr. Halgren and Mr. Hillard to pay sanctions in the total amount of $28,529.00. Based on our review of the record, we conclude that the trial court did not err in awarding sanctions against attorney Hillard. Affirmed. NORTHCUTT, SILBERMAN, and LABRIT, JJ., Concur. Opinion subject to revision prior to official publication. 1 This court dismissed the appeal as to Mr. Halgren.