PALM BEACH COUNTY, FL (Boca Post) (Copyright © 2025) — A long-running dispute between neighbors in Ocean Ridge reached a decisive outcome this fall after a Palm Beach County jury found that a Facebook post accusing a condominium association president of a sexual act constituted libel per se. The six-person panel awarded $135,000 in compensatory damages to the plaintiff, Mark D. Feinstein, following a civil trial in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit.
The lawsuit — Mark D. Feinstein v. Sean Methley Currie, Case No. 502023CA009436XXXXMB — began on April 13, 2023, when Feinstein filed a complaint alleging that Currie posted defamatory statements on the Town of Ocean Ridge’s public Facebook page. Feinstein, president of the Turtle Beach of Ocean Ridge Condominium Association, claimed the comments harmed his reputation and subjected him to ridicule within the community.
According to the complaint, the two men live adjacent to one another, and tensions between Currie and the condominium association had been ongoing for years. Feinstein alleged that Currie previously removed or damaged the community’s “No Trespassing” signs and was later arrested for taking them. The complaint states that Currie harbored animosity toward the association and, by extension, its president.
The filing centers on statements posted in September 2022, which, according to Feinstein, accused him of engaging in “felching,” described in the complaint as a sexual act involving bodily fluids. Feinstein argued that the comments were presented as fact, were read by members of the small Ocean Ridge community, and directly damaged his personal and professional reputation. Before filing suit, his attorney sent a notice under Florida Statute §770.01 on March 27, 2023, demanding that Currie retract the statements. That letter, included as Exhibit A, warned that the allegations were “libelous, per se.”
The case moved toward trial in late 2025. Jury instructions filed with the court describe the central question for jurors: whether the Facebook post constituted a false statement of fact, whether Feinstein was a limited-purpose public figure due to community controversies, and whether the publication met the definition of libel per se — meaning language that tends to subject a person to hatred, distrust, ridicule or injury without needing additional context.
Jurors were instructed on concepts including rhetorical hyperbole, mere insult, defamation standards, actual malice, and the evidentiary burden for proving reputational harm — all laid out in the court’s published jury instructions. The summary of claims notes that Currie argued the term was rhetorical hyperbole within a political dispute, not an assertion of fact. Feinstein argued that the comments were presented as factual and knowingly false.
On November 20, 2025, the jury returned a verdict in Feinstein’s favor. According to the signed verdict form, jurors concluded that Currie had published false statements of fact, that Feinstein was not a limited-purpose public figure, that Currie acted with actual malice, and that the publication amounted to libel per se. They awarded $135,000 in compensatory damages. No nominal damages were added.
The original documents, as filed with the Palm Beach County Clerk of Court, can be downloaded here. (Link to be added.)
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