FLORIDA CIRCUIT COURT SANCTIONS BORROWER FOR REDUNDANT AND FRIVOLOUS FILINGS

Judge James Sherman, a circuit court judge in West Palm Beach, entered sanctions (“Sanctions Order”) against Guilfort Dieuvil (Guilfort), a litigious defendant who had repeatedly filed the same or similar frivolous filings and may have engaged in the unlicensed practice of law by indicating Magdadene Dieuvil (Magdadene) and Frantz Duval (Frantz) were “co-filing” the frivolous documents with him. U.S. Bank National Assoc., etc. v. Dieuvil, Palm Beach County Circuit Court Case No. 2021-CA-014007.

In the Sanction Order, Judge Sherman noted this was the second of two sanctions hearings, the first of which did not result in sanctions because Magdadene and Guilfort testified that all documents had been jointly filed by the co-defendants, so it did not appear Guilfort engaged in the unlicensed practice of law. The court advised Guilfort that he could not file documents for any other defendant. Notably, Frantz, one of the co-filers, was not present for the first show cause hearing and the court found him in contempt.

Shortly after the first show cause hearing, Guilfort filed three documents “substantially identical to prior filings” indicating generally that they were filed on behalf of “Defendants” and specifically referencing Magdadene and Frantz as “co-movants.” The court set the matter for a second show cause hearing and Guilfort was invited to present “evidence and witnesses” to defend against an imposition of sanctions. At the hearing Guilfort claimed he unintentionally included the co-movants in the three filings by mistakenly filing an earlier, unrevised version of each of the three filings.

Judge Sherman did not find Guilfort’s testimony credible but did conclude that Guilfort mistakenly failed to revise the filings to remove the co-defendants. Based on this finding, Judge Sherman concluded that Guilfort did not intentionally engage in the unlicensed practice of law. However, the court still imposed sanctions on Guilfort finding “a pattern of delay and obstruction” including multiple bankruptcy filings and motions to amend filed on the eve of trial. The court noted that delaying the proceedings appeared to be the sole motivation for Guilfort’s filings.

As a sanction, the court struck Guilfort’s affirmative defenses and prohibited Guilfort from moving to amend his pleadings, and specifically prohibited him from asserting a counterclaim. The court ordered that a trial on the merits would proceed “solely on the Plaintiff’s Complaint and a simple Answer filed by [Guilfort] Dieuvil.” Additionally, Guilfort was ordered to pay Plaintiff’s and the City of Delray Beach’s attorneys’ fees for attendance at the show cause hearing.

Six days later Guilfort appealed the Sanctions Order to the Fourth DCA and that appeal remains pending under Case No. 4D2025-1666. Although the Fourth DCA acknowledged receipt of the appeal, it ordered Guilfort to explain the jurisdictional basis for appellate review since the Sanctions Order is a non-final, non-appealable order, i.e., it does not end judicial labor. For this reason, we anticipate the Fourth DCA will dismiss the appeal shortly; however, Guilfort will be able to seek review again in a plenary appeal once judgment is entered. We will keep you apprised of any unexpected developments.

1 To see the current status of the appeal go to https://acis.flcourts.gov/portal/court/ cdc2beb5-919b-4198-a731-7b253b7119cc/case/96dd1c1f-1f98-4a73-801b576563152e1d

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