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March 20, 2026 Get Citation Alerts Download PDF Add Note

Daniel Stermer v. Federated Foundation Trust

Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

• Citations: None known
• Docket Number: 26-10443
• Precedential Status: Non-Precedential

• Nature of Suit: NEW

• Opinion

• Authorities (4)

• Cited By (0)

• Summaries (0)

• Similar Cases (13.9K)

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Combined Opinion

USCA11 Case: 26-10443 Document: 38-1 Date Filed: 03/20/2026 Page: 1 of 6

NOT FOR PUBLICATION

In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Eleventh Circuit

No. 26-10443
Non-Argument Calendar

DANIEL J. STERMER,
as Receiver for the Heron Pond
Condominium Association Inc.,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
IN RE HERON POND CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION INC.
Consol Plaintiff,
versus

HERON POND CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, INC., et al.,
Defendants,
FEDERATED FOUNDATION TRUST,
Defendant-Appellant,
FEDERAL HOME LOAN MORTGAGE CORPORATION,
Consol Defendant.
USCA11 Case: 26-10443 Document: 38-1 Date Filed: 03/20/2026 Page: 2 of 6

2 Opinion of the Court 26-10443

Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Florida
D.C. Docket No. 0:25-cv-61909-RS

Before BRANCH, GRANT, and KIDD, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
In August 2024, the City of Pembroke Pines, Florida, con-
demned and fully vacated the Heron Pond Condominiums due to
safety concerns. Daniel Stermer, who was appointed as receiver for
the Heron Pond Condominium Association, Inc., petitioned for
termination of the association, which was granted by a Florida state
court.
Through a court-approved marketing procedure, Stermer
identified Integra Real Estate, LLC (“Integra”) as a “stalking horse”
bidder to purchase the condominium property. Integra’s bid of
$20,500,000 set the minimum auction price for the property. To be
able to participate in this auction, potential bidders had to submit a
packet that satisfied several criteria, which included “provid[ing]
evidence of [their] ability to close a transaction.”
Federated Foundation Trust (“Federated”), who owned sev-
eral units in the condominium complex and wished to participate
in the auction, failed to follow these requirements, and instead sub-
mitted its package at the “last minute” without the correct docu-
mentation. Federated was ultimately “deemed not a qualified bid-
der” for the auction.
USCA11 Case: 26-10443 Document: 38-1 Date Filed: 03/20/2026 Page: 3 of 6

26-10443 Opinion of the Court 3

No other qualified bids were submitted before the deadline,
and the proceedings were removed to the United States District
Court for the Southern District of Florida. Stermer moved the dis-
trict court to approve the proposed sale of the condominium prop-
erty to Integra. Federated objected to the sale and argued, in rele-
vant part, that Stermer failed to comply with Federal Rule of Civil
Procedure 66 and breached his fiduciary duty, and that “transpar-
ency and procedural due process” were lacking in the sale proceed-
ings.
On January 7, 2026, the district court held a sale hearing. At
this hearing, Federated explained that it was “not objecting to the
sale itself,” but rather “to the process in which [it] w[as] disqualified
as [a] bidder[].” After hearing Federated’s arguments, the district
court effectively reopened the bidding and offered Federated the
opportunity to submit a nonrefundable deposit of $23,950,000 by
January 13. Federated’s counsel telephoned Federated’s principal,
Piyush Patel, who was not present at the hearing, and the district
court cautioned that Patel would be under oath and “subject to go-
ing to jail for perjury” if he lied. Patel asked the court if he could
“get until Monday to confirm,” as his funds were currently “tied up
into the stock exchange” and he was unable to reach some of his
investors. Patel explained that he only had “about 18, $19 million
already there, committed.” The court denied this request, stating
that it was “all or nothing.”
Before ending the hearing, the district court observed that
Patel was given “the opportunity” and “the numbers” but was now
USCA11 Case: 26-10443 Document: 38-1 Date Filed: 03/20/2026 Page: 4 of 6

4 Opinion of the Court 26-10443

“asking for less [than] the deposit,” which “r[an] afoul” of and was
“offensive to” the Heron Pond unit owners. “[T]o bring closure,”
the court decided to move forward with the sale to Integra. Fol-
lowing the hearing, the court issued an order approving the sale,
“overrul[ing], resolv[ing], and den[ying] any objections, and find-
ing, in relevant part, that Stermer and his advisors “provided a full,
fair, and reasonable opportunity for any potentially interested
party to make an offer to purchase the” property.
Federated now seeks to have our Court overturn this sale
order. Federated appears to argue that the district court denied it
the right to due process by approving the sale, which was based
upon its “hyper-technical” disqualification, and further abused its
discretion by using “coercive tactics” during the sale hearing, in-
cluding threatening Patel with jail time and using an “all or noth-
ing” procedure when reopening the bidding process.
But Federated failed to clearly raise these arguments below,
and we need not consider them on appeal in the first instance. See
Finnegan v. Comm’r of Internal Revenue, 926 F.3d 1261, 1271–72 (11th
Cir. 2019); Access Now, Inc. v. Sw. Airlines Co., 385 F.3d 1324, 1331
(11th Cir. 2004); see also Roy v. Ivy, 53 F.4th 1338, 1351 (11th Cir.
2022).
Although Federated’s written objection to the motion for
sale made passing reference to “procedural due process,” it never
specifically objected to the bidding process on this basis, nor did it
clearly outline a due-process challenge when presenting argument
at the sale hearing. Specifically, Federated failed to connect any due
USCA11 Case: 26-10443 Document: 38-1 Date Filed: 03/20/2026 Page: 5 of 6

26-10443 Opinion of the Court 5

process right that it purportedly possessed to its disqualification
from the sale process based upon its admitted failure to comply
with the established bidding procedure. See Gennusa v. Canova,
748 F.3d 1103, 1116 (11th Cir. 2014) (“If parties hope to preserve a
claim, argument, theory, or defense on appeal, they must first
clearly present it to the district court, that is, in such a way as to
afford the district court an opportunity to recognize it and rule on
it.” (citation modified)). Federated also did not raise any objections
at the hearing, or following the execution of the sale order, to the
method by which the district court conducted the sale hearing, dur-
ing which the court reopened the bidding process so that Federated
could have its desired opportunity to participate in the sale of the
condominium property.
Further, even if we were to assume that Federated properly
preserved these arguments, its appeal still fails. In its appellate
briefs, Federated has not fully developed any of its challenges to the
approval of the sale, nor has it pointed our Court to controlling
authority to support any contention that it was erroneously dis-
qualified as a bidder, the district court acted improperly during the
sale hearing, or it was entitled to due process during these proceed-
ings. Cf. Sapuppo v. Allstate Floridian Ins. Co., 739 F.3d 678, 681 (11th
Cir. 2014) (“We have long held that an appellant abandons a claim
when he either makes only passing references to it or raises it in a
perfunctory manner without supporting arguments and author-
ity.”).
USCA11 Case: 26-10443 Document: 38-1 Date Filed: 03/20/2026 Page: 6 of 6

6 Opinion of the Court 26-10443

Accordingly, we cannot say that the district court commit-
ted any reversible error and AFFIRM the order approving the sale
of the Heron Pond Condominium property.1

1 Stermer also requests that our Court impose sanctions because Federated

only frivolously pursued this meritless appeal to delay the sale of the Heron
Pond Condominium property. We DENY this motion.