Florian Homm Wins Bid to Vacate Multi-Million California Judgment

LOS ANGELES, April 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- It was announced today that the 2008 lawsuit and the resulting $3.2 million 2012 default judgment obtained against German Hedge Fund Manager Florian Homm by Pricaspian Development Corporation has been thrown out. In Grynberg, et. al. v. Ficeto, etc., et. al., Case No. BC 396756, where Homm was represented in the case by Jan Lawrence Handzlik, Esq. of Jan Lawrence Handzlik, APC, Los Angeles, California, with litigation and research assistance from Kravitz & Co. PA, of Miami Beach, Florida, the Los Angeles Superior Court dismissed Pricaspian's 18-year-old lawsuit, ruling that Homm had never been properly notified.  The dismissal is now final.

In the case, Pricaspian had served Homm by publishing a notice in a Los Angeles newspaper. However, a few months earlier, Pricaspian had filed an identical lawsuit against Homm in Colorado.  When Homm defended against that lawsuit, Pricaspian dismissed it and refiled in California. Although, Homm had filed an affidavit in the Colorado case disclosing his location, Pricaspian did not inform the California Court of this fact.

First, the California Court found that Pricaspian's lawyers failed to make a valid request to serve Homm by publication and vacated the default judgment. This first ruling meant that Pricaspian had failed to serve the lawsuit within three years of the original filing.  As a result, the California Court then dismissed Pricaspian's lawsuit against Homm in its entirety.

Since Mr. Homm was never served, he was unable to defend himself at trial. His co-defendant, Todd Ficeto, went to trial won because the Court found that Pricaspian suffered no damages as a result of Ficeto and Homm's conduct. Since Mr. Homm was unable to participate in the trial, he did not benefit from this ruling.

"This now sets the record straight. Pricaspian did not have a valid claim for damages against me, yet it pursued me to Germany with the default judgment. If I had been properly served, I would have defended against it and won", Homm said.  "I am delighted that my effort to overturn this multi-million-dollar judgement succeeded."