The $16 million settlement ordered late last month in the tragic Labor Day 2022 boat crash that took the lives of senior Luciana Fernandez and her classmate, soccer star Katerina Puig, a lifelong medical needed care is just one chapter in the ongoing legal battle surrounding prominent South Florida real estate broker George Pino, the man at the helm of the ship.
That verdict against Pino’s wife, Cecilia Pino, came three months after George Pino reached a confidential settlement with the Puig family for an undisclosed amount that will be used to finance a medical fund for Katerina.
But the April 25 order from Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Migna Sanchez-Llorens, which forced a settlement between Cecilia Pino and Katerina’s parents Kathya and Rodolpho Puig, raised questions about why George Pino’s settlement is confidential but which not from his wife. . And also why the couple was charged individually.
Cecilia Pino’s lawyers tried to keep her settlement sealed for a decade, but the Puigs objected. Sanchez-Llorens ruled in favor of the Puigs on April 26. Part of her argument was that the continued press coverage in the Miami Herald and other media had a negative impact on State Street Realty, the company her husband operates and where she works.
Both Andrew Mescolotto, the Pinos’ attorney, and Ivan Cabrera, the Puigs’ attorney, declined to discuss the case.
Several personal injury attorneys told the Miami Herald that the way the civil case unfolded is not unusual.
Ira Leesfield, a Miami attorney who specializes in maritime law, explained that the parties likely agreed out of court to keep the monetary value of George Pino’s settlement confidential, but did not want to do the same with Cecilia’s case.
And if there is a disagreement, the judge will likely deny that the details of the settlement have been sealed, Leesfield said.
“The judges don’t care if you want to keep it confidential,” Leesfield said. “If there is one party [wants the agreement not to be confidential]they are going to do it.”
Stuart Grossman, head of a major personal injury law firm in South Florida for decades, said the reasons for wanting to keep settlements out of the public eye vary.
“It depends on the appetite, usually the claimant. Some people are very sensitive to their friends and neighbors, and coworkers are open to the possibility that they are worth millions,” Grossman said. “It also depends on the defendant’s willingness to not want to know that he could pay millions of dollars out of his own pocket.”
“Each party can rely on this. Often it is a condition for one party,” Grossman said.
George Pino was behind the wheel of a 29-foot Robolo twin boat with 300 horsepower center console on September 4, 2022, returning from celebrating his daughter’s 18th birthday on Elliott Key. He was traveling back to the couple’s vacation home in the exclusive Ocean Reef Club community with his wife, daughter and 11 of her teenage friends – including Luciana Fernandez and Katerina Puig – when he crashed into a permanent channel marker near Cutter Bank rammed into the Intracoastal. Waterway.
He was traveling about 50 miles per hour, which is a high speed on water, when the ship struck the Biscayne Bay channel marker, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the lead investigating agency in the case. All fourteen occupants were thrown into the water. Several were injured, Katerina and Luciana seriously. Luciana died in hospital the next day. Katerina suffered blunt force trauma to her head and is permanently disabled.
Despite more than sixty empty drink containers being found on the boat when investigators pulled the boat out of the water, and George Pino telling an FWC officer he “had two beers,” police almost immediately ruled out alcohol as a factor was at the crash, a conclusion echoed. in the latest criminal complaint. Instead, based on the final FWC report, the Miami-Dade District Attorney’s Office charged Pino with three counts of careless boating last August.
George Pino has pleaded not guilty and the criminal case is pending.
Both the Puig and Fernadez families were outraged by the minor charges. The Fernandezes, in several statements to the Miami Herald since Pino’s indictment, pointed out that he told investigators that a contributing factor to the crash was the wake thrown by a larger boat entering the canal from the opposite direction just before he entered the boat hit. the highlighter.
No one else on the Robolo, nor anyone on any of the other vessels in the area that day, saw that boat, according to the FWC’s final report.
Andres and Melissa Fernandez, Luciana’s parents, have not filed any lawsuits in the wake of their daughter’s death, but remain highly critical of the FWC and the Public Prosecution Service’s handling of the investigation.
The family has since established a nonprofit organization in their daughter’s name, the Lucy Fernandez Foundation, dedicated to boat safety and providing scholarships at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy.
The Puigs filed their lawsuit against George and Cecilia Pino in March 2023. Although George Pino was piloting the boat on the day of the crash and the boat’s title is in his name alone, both Pinos are named separately in the lawsuit.
Specifically, George Pino was sued for negligence and negligent supervision, and Cecilia was sued for negligent supervision.
One of the allegations in the lawsuit is that both Pinos bought alcohol that day and allowed all the girls on the boat to drink.
The arguments in that civil case are being echoed in yet another lawsuit stemming from the crash — a lawsuit filed in February by Hudson Excess Insurance Company in state court in Dade. Hudson is the company with which George Pino had a $500,000 deductible on his boat.
The company’s lawsuit against Pino and the Puigs states that it is not obligated to pay out the $500,000 policy.
Unlike the out-of-court settlement with George Pino, his wife agreed to a consent agreement to pay the $16 million. Sanchez-Llorens then issued a judgment demanding payment.
“It’s like going to trial but skipping the trial,” said Miami attorney Judd Rosen. “If we were to go to trial, the likely outcome would be $16 million.”
Rosen said he believes the Puigs and Cecilia Pino, who share the same attorney on the case, may be working together to fight back against Hudson for refusing coverage. He suggested that the agreement and $16 million judgment allowed either party to bring a bad faith action against the insurance company.
Rosen also said it is common in personal injury lawsuits for everyone involved to be treated individually, so it is not unusual that the outcomes for George and Cecilia Pino differed.
“Technically, they are two different cases. Two different parties. Two different suspects,” he said.
