For a few days now, I have been receiving comments, purportedly from class members of a class action lawsuit that resulted in tenants renting slum properties from two slumlords in Minneapolis, MN who were not licensed to rent their slum properties. Steve Frenz and Spiros Zorbalas teemed up to run a scam on the City of Minneapolis, MN when the City of Minneapolis, MN ran ‘The Slumlord of Minneapolis’, Spiros Zorbalas, out of Minneapolis by stripping him of his rental licenses on ALL rental properties in Minneapolis, MN.
Then along comes Steve Frenz who told the City of Minneapolis, MN that he had purchased ALL of the properties that had been previously owned by Spiros Zorbalas. The City of Minneapolis, MN then approved rental licenses for the properties that had been owned by Spiros Zorbalas. However, the fact of the matter is that Spiros Zorbalas still owned the rental properties that Steve Frenz claimed he now owned, thus making his rental licenses, null and void. Meanwhile, thousands of mostly low income minority tenants were paying rent to live in vermin and rodent infested buildings that were substandard to say the least in that many had no heat, no hot water, crumbling stairs, unsecured mailboxes, bedbugs and the list is endless.
The City of Minneapolis, MN ‘claimed’ to have no knowledge of the fraud being perpetrated by Spiros Zorbalas and Steve Frenz. Enter Attorney Michael F. Cockson, who was initially contacted by Inquilinxs Unidos, a renters’ union out of Minneapolis, MN that helps immigrants with housing and other issues they face. Attorney Michael F. Cockson, a partner at the law firm, FAEGRE BAKER DANIELS LLP 2200 Wells Fargo Center, 90 South Seventh Street, Minneapolis, MN 55402 agreed to take the case on behalf of Inquilinxs Unidos. However, after learning of the scope of tenants who were adversely impacted by unclean and unsafe building conditions, Judge Mary Vasaly upgraded the case to class action status and said that all former and current renters were to receive ALL rent payments that they had made to Steve Frenz, The Apartment Shop LLC and various other holding companies that Frenz had started up to hide the fact that Spiros Zorbalas still owned the properties that he was acting as front man for.
The case was eventually settled for $18.5 million which was relegated to the coffers of the Settlement Administrators, BrownGreerPLC, located in Richmond, VA, which was to get in excess of $300,000 to send mailings to class members and to mail out checks to class members. Commonbond and another company was named as recipients of checks that should have been relegated to class members and only to class members. See here for details.
However, Attorney Michael F. Cockson was not happy with 25% of the settlement funds awarded to him by Judge Mary Vasaly and so sued his own clients in the Court of Appeals for 32% of the class action settlement funds. Now originally, he would have received over $6 million dollars from a case that he took because he wanted to “Give a voice to those who could not speak for themselves” and to “compensate them for their living conditions” and yet as of today, the appeal for more in Attorney’s Fees for Michael F. Cockson’s greedy ass is still in ‘briefing’ status with the Court of Appeals.
After I blogged about this on June 14, 2019, four days later, the Settlement Administrators called and told my cousin that the settlement checks had been mailed out on June 17, 2019. Below is a copy of the settlement check that my cousin received as his share of the $18.5 million dollar class action lawsuit.
So, even though my cousin paid thousands upon thousands in rent to rent an apartment that had multiple safety issues and code violations and was not even licensed to be rented, he received $724.15 while Attorney Michael F. Cockson, a partner at the law firm, FAEGRE BAKER DANIELS LLP 2200 Wells Fargo Center, 90 South Seventh Street, Minneapolis, MN 55402 is suing my cousin and all other members of this class action lawsuit that he initiated on behalf of his clients for more in Attorney’s Fees than what Judge Vasaly approved for his greedy ass. Michael F. Cockson wants more than the over $6 million that has already been taken from his poor, misused and abused clients who had been shitted on by the likes of Spiros Zorbalas and Steve Frenz. This greedy bastard, Attorney Michael F. Cockson would sue a roach if it crawled across his shoe and demand even more in Attorney’s Fees if he knew he could get away with it and since it is quite obvious that in his opinion, his clients in this case are the equivalent of roaches, that is what he is doing.
People who were already shitted on by slumlords while living in slums are now to be shitted on by the attorney who agreed to take this case in an attempt to obtain compensation for those who had been wronged and instead of attempting to right those wrongs, Attorney Michael F. Cockson has joined with Steve Frenz and Spiros Zorbalas in doing more wrong to those who are likened to roaches.
Attorney Michael F. Cockson is a PARTNER in the law firm, FAEGRE BAKER DANIELS LLP 2200 Wells Fargo Center, 90 South Seventh Street, Minneapolis, MN 55402 and so we know that he is not leaving his opulent downtown Minneapolis law office and heading to a slum. The man is extremely wealthy and yet he is committing a grave injustice against people who still have no voice since they don’t have a voice they can use to push back against what their own sheisty attorney is doing to them. How this sheisty bastard sleeps at night is a complete and utter mystery to me, but then again, he is white and so that right there explains it. They don’t give a shit for making things right. They don’t give a shit for leveling the playing field for those who are poor and whose rights are trampled on, daily. Those like Michael F. Cockson will take a case, not because they want to attempt to make people whole who have been misused and abused, they take those cases because they can attempt to make themselves look good by pretending concern for the poor and downtrodden while at the same time, leaving them peanuts while they walk away with millions and then are still dissatisfied by the millions they are initially awarded. Those greedy bastards then turn around and sue their own clients for more of their settlement monies for why else is my cousin’s settlement check a mere $724.15 and Attorney Michael F. Cockson’s initial take is over $6 million? How is that justice by ANY stretch of the imagination?
And so for those of you who had questions and concerns, I have cleared up as much of this mess as I can. For further clarity on this class action lawsuit, I suggest that you contact those who are responsible for why you have so many questions and concerns and so once again, I will post their contact information below.
mail address: Michael.Cockson@FaegreBD.com
Telephone number: 612-766-8425
Address: FAEGRE BAKER DANIELS LLP 2200 Wells Fargo Center, 90 South Seventh Street, Minneapolis, MN 55402
BrownGreer PLC – Settlement Administrators
250 Rocketts Way
Richmond, VA 23231
804.521.7200
information@browngreer.com
CommonBond Communities
shelbycourtland 