FORT LAUDERDALE — Suppose your neighbor has a yacht so big it dwarfs the dock behind his house. Do you call the city to complain?
Michael Meldeau did that. He was eventually sued by a man named Steven Howell, owner of the yacht.
The two men live on Delmar Place on the luxurious Las Olas Islands in Fort Lauderdale, just north of Las Olas and west of the Intracoastal.
The long-standing feud is not your everyday neighborhood conflict. The lawsuit, filed four years ago, concerned not only property rights but also, in the defendant’s case, the right to free speech.
Reed Tolber, Meldeau’s attorney, tried to get the lawsuit dismissed, accusing Howell of trying to muzzle Meldeau by filing a complaint with Fort Lauderdale code officers when he notices something is wrong on Howell’s property.
The case was scheduled to go to trial in June, but that all changed on May 16 when Broward Circuit Judge Martin Bidwell signed an order granting summary judgment in Meldeau’s favor, saying there was no need for a trial.
“The evidence firmly establishes that (Howell) knowingly and routinely moored his yachts behind his home in violation of city code,” Bidwell wrote in his order. “While it must be annoying to have (a neighbor) continually report code violations to the city, these actions by (his neighbor) cannot be considered unreasonable.”
It remains unclear whether Howell and his legal team plan to appeal.
Howell, 64, declined to comment. His attorneys, Brent Gordon and Brian Gottlieb, could not be reached for comment.
Howell’s lawsuit had accused Meldeau, 77, of starting a campaign of intimidation and urged the court to require him to retain an attorney licensed to practice law in Florida to prevent any future report code violations on Howell’s properties.
To keep the peace, Howell was forced to rent out dock space and pay dock fees, his lawsuit said. According to the lawsuit, those dock fees are special damages that Howell would not have to pay if the boat were moored behind his house.
A matter of size
Meldeau bought his three-bedroom home on Delmar Place in 2000 for $825,000, according to the Broward County Property Appraiser’s Office. Howell moved to the neighborhood a decade later, paying nearly $2.7 million for a four-bedroom house two houses away, appraisal reports show.
The problems started when Howell began mooring his yacht on the 100-foot lot behind his waterfront home in late 2018, both parties say. According to the lawsuit, the boat, named #OMG, was sometimes moored behind neighbors’ houses with their permission.
Most waterfront homes in Fort Lauderdale have a 10-foot setback on either side for boat docks. So a site that is 100 feet wide, like Howell’s, is not allowed to dock a boat larger than 80 feet long.
Meldeau and his attorney say the #OMG is only 100 feet long — 80 feet too long for Howell’s property.
A former lawyer for Howell’s told a city council meeting that the yacht is 100 feet long. And Howell testified during a deposition that he’s not entirely sure how long the boat is, records show.
Meldeau objected to the fact that the yacht extended to his property line when it was moored behind the home of another neighbor whose home is between his home and Howell’s, according to court records.
He called the city to report the yacht for a setback code violation in late 2018.
City inspectors found the yacht in violation and ordered Howell to remove it, Meldeau’s attorney wrote in his request to dismiss the case. When they returned to verify compliance, the yacht was gone and the complaint was closed.
But once the case was closed, the yacht was back at the dock, according to Meldeau’s motion to dismiss the case.
“This ‘dance’ occurred several times,” Tolber wrote.
Meldeau complained again and again. But if city inspectors showed up, the yacht would be gone, Tolber wrote.
One day, a code inspector saw the yacht docked behind the house, between Howell’s and Meldeau’s, and discovered it violated city rules.
‘It’s time to stop’
A hearing was scheduled before a magistrate, who agreed that the yacht was too big for the whole thing.
Howell took his case to the city’s Board of Adjustment in January 2020 to request a variance that would allow him to keep the yacht behind his home.
The board rejected his request because it did not meet the hardship requirement of the code.
Before the board’s vote, Meldeau spoke out against the variance. He told the board that Howell “started bragging” that it saved him $8,000 a month in dock fees to keep his yacht docked behind his house.
“So this is not a hardship,” Meldeau told the board. “This is an economic advantage. And I say we are not for sale. It’s time to stop it. If you can’t bring a non-code boat into your area, don’t bring it in.”
In February 2020, the following month, Howell filed suit against Meldeau.
During a deposition last year, Meldeau’s attorney asked Howell to explain the timing of his lawsuit.
“I don’t know exactly when this all went down,” Howell said. “But the truth was that there were all kinds of challenges at different times. While all this was going on, we had to manage different levels of risk. And that’s why I escalated this to where we are now, because I just decided that I wasn’t going to live like this anymore. We have done everything we can to mitigate this and not end up where we are now.”
In March 2020, the magistrate fined Howell $14,000.
The fine remained unpaid as of Tuesday, May 21, city officials said. During last year’s deposition, Howell said he did not pay the fine because it was “not correct” and that he did not consider the matter resolved. The yacht was moved from his home in late 2021 and was docked at the RMK Marina, Howell testified.
Howell told Meldeau’s attorney that he does not remember any details about the boat being moved after Meldeau began calling code officers.
“I can’t remember the movement of it, but boats come and go,” Howell said. “That’s what they do.”
When asked to confirm that the #OMG yacht is 100 feet long, Howell said he was under the impression the boat was 100 feet long when he bought it. But during last year’s deposition, he testified that he was no longer sure.
“When we bought the boat, we thought it was 115 feet long,” Howell said during the deposition. “We have since learned, since this all started with Mr. Meldeau, that it is a Model 105, not a 100 feet. And I have multiple documents that confused us all about the exact size, including manufacturer certifications. We never measured our boat. We’ve tried, but we can’t figure it out.”
The lawsuit, which was amended in 2022, accused Meldeau of repeatedly filing code enforcement complaints about Howell’s properties.
In 2019, Meldeau called the city twice to report that sewage from the yacht may have been dumped into the canal, according to the lawsuit. The city investigated but found no evidence to support the claim, the lawsuit said.
“It is clear that Meldeau is obsessed with Howell,” the lawsuit said, “and he shows no signs of stopping with his constant social media postings (although after this lawsuit he deleted or made such postings private), his unsupported allegations to the president of the local homeowners association, and complaints to the Marine Patrol immediately prior to the Covid-19 pandemic on or about February 9, 2020.”
‘I don’t want him to do that’
According to the lawsuit, Meldeau “spread lies” on Facebook that Howell was dumping sewage into the canal and renting dock space to other boat owners. The lawsuit points to this comment on Meldeau’s Facebook account: “Las Olas Isles will turn into a commercial marina full of super-sized yachts looking for a cheap dock. And that also applies to the Venice of America.”
In his ruling, the judge mentions a Facebook post in which a relative of Meldeau commented and jokingly suggested that he shot holes in the yacht. “I’m ready,” Meldeau replied under the comment.
“The file further shows that the suspect once posted a Facebook message in which he suggested that he would shoot holes in the OMG,” the judge wrote. “However, the record does not indicate that (Meldeau) ever pointed the gun at anyone, threatened anyone or otherwise caused (Howell) to suffer irreparable harm.
The lawsuit alleged that Meldeau placed two chairs on his dock facing east toward Howell’s property, then sat in one and leaned a rifle against the other. In a motion for summary judgment, Meldeau’s attorney says the “gun” Meldeau was holding was actually a pellet gun his client used to kill iguanas on his sea wall.
The matter was raised during Howell’s deposition last year.
“I think sitting with a gun and looking at my house, especially in today’s culture, no, I don’t think that’s acceptable and I don’t want him to do that,” Howell told Meldeau’s attorney. “I wouldn’t look at his house with chairs and a gun.”
But in his findings, the judge noted that Meldeau maintains the device was an air-powered pellet gun used to kill iguanas.
“In any event, (Howell) last witnessed (his neighbor) on his dock with the device approximately three years ago,” the judge wrote.
Near the end of last year’s statement, Tolber asked Howell if he had plans to return the yacht and dock it behind his house.
“It’s not certain at this point,” Howell said.
Tolber asked again, rephrasing the question.
“It’s not going back behind my house,” Howell replied, “but it’s possible it could come back here, to a neighbor’s house.”
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com Follow me on
