Greg Stanley

USA TODAY NETWORK

Donald Trump’s lawsuits haven’t stopped during his presidential campaign, perhaps most notably in the must-win battleground of Florida.

A Miami judge recently ordered Trump to pay a small businessman almost $300,000 over an unpaid paint job at his Miami golf resort and a trial is set to begin Monday in Palm Beach County over claims that Trump owes refunds to 60-some members of his Jupiter golf club.

The cases are examples of hundreds of lawsuits involving Trump in his adopted home state of Florida. He and his companies have been aggressively suing Floridians and getting sued by them since the New York developer bought an estate here in 1985, court records show.

Trump argued that it’s unfair to use lawsuits as a measure of his standing in Florida, a tightly-contested swing state critical to his chances of beating Democrat Hillary Clinton. She leads by 2 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics.com average of recent statewide polls.

“I have a great relationship with Florida and employ tremendous numbers of people there,” Trump told the USA TODAY NETWORK in an interview. “We’ve done well there. We won the primary by 20 points. I love Florida.”

The nearly 300 courthouse fights in Florida – out of more than 4,000 USA TODAY identified nationwide – reflect Trump’s blunt, take-it or leave-it approach.

They reveal a neighbor, developer and business leader whose first response to even small disputes is often overwhelming legal force.

Exclusive: Trump's 3,500 lawsuits unprecedented for a presidential nominee

More than half of the Florida cases – 150 of them – were filed by his casino to collect unpaid gambling debts, ranging from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands of dollars. More than 20 personal injury suits were filed in Florida against his companies as well as a handful of discrimination complaints against middle managers.

What’s left includes condominium projects gone bad, battles over golf course memberships, property fights with neighbors and local governments, and claims by dozens of workers and contractors alleging he doesn’t pay even relatively small bills.

A small shop that installed chandeliers at his mansion for his third wedding ($17,000), a paint shop ($32,000) and a group of cooks and servers hired for a special event (an average of $1,754 per worker) all filed claims in Miami and Palm Beach saying they were stiffed.

Untrue, Trump said, that he’s left deserving small businesses unpaid.

“When they do their work, I pay them. And if they do outstanding work I give them a bonus,” he said. “When somebody doesn’t do their work, they’re not going to be paid. And that’s how our country should be.”

Small businesses in Florida and elsewhere have repeatedly accused Trump of stiffing them when it came time to collect the last payment on a job.

USA TODAY exclusive: Hundreds allege Donald Trump doesn’t pay his bills

Juan Carlos Enriquez, owner of the Paint Spot in South Florida, had a $200,000 painting contract as part of a dramatic $250 million renovation of Trump National Doral golf resort in Miami. But when the job was over, Trump’s company refused to pay the outstanding bill.

Enriquez sued and spent more than two years in court. Circuit Court Judge Cueto in June ordered a foreclosure sale of the entire Doral resort to satisfy the bill, but Trump’s attorneys offered to put the paint bill money in escrow to delay the sale and continue litigating the case. In late July, the judge ordered Doral to pay the paint company its money, plus attorneys’ fees and penalties totaling nearly $300,000.

Monday, a trial is scheduled in the class-action suit filed in 2013 against Trump’s golf club in Jupiter, with Trump’s videotaped deposition to be played and his son Eric on the witness list. Three Trump National Golf Club members say Trump failed to return deposits ranging from $35,000 to $210,000 after The Trump Organization bought the club from Ritz Carlton in November 2012 and changed the rules about resigning.

Before Trump took over, contracts said members wishing to resign had to wait until a new member joined before they would get a refund of their deposits. A waiting list formed, with members at the top refunded first as new members joined. While on the waiting list, they could continue using the club.

Trump changed the rules, according to the lawsuit, instituting what they say amounted to punishment for members intending to quit. Trump’s new rule: members on the waiting list could no longer use the club while awaiting refunds.

“I do not want them to utilize the club nor do I want their dues,” Trump wrote to members in a 2012 letter. “If you choose to remain on the resignation list, you’re out.”

The plaintiffs contend that amounted to cancelling their memberships and say they’re owed deposit refunds. Trump’s defense says the club didn’t cancel the memberships and argues the refund terms in their contracts were with the previous owners.

Trump and the Law

While lawsuits involving small businesses claiming they were stiffed by Trump could cause some voters pause, some of Trump's other legal battles in the state might draw support, said Terry Miller, a Republican strategist in Southwest Florida.

“As much as Hillary can use those lawsuits to level against him, if I’m on Donald Trump’s campaign team I can point to him taking on homeowners associations and city councils, to him putting a flag up and saying ‘if you don’t like it sue me,’” Miller said.

In the end, Miller said the lawsuits are mostly "hyper local" issues and the presidential choice "goes back to what people are really worried about and, for both sides, that’s immigration and national security. The small percentage of folks in the middle, I think, are looking at bigger scale issues over some of this more petty personal stuff.”

Exclusive: Trump's 3,500 lawsuits unprecedented for a presidential nominee

USA TODAY exclusive: Hundreds allege Donald Trump doesn't pay his bills

Exclusive: More than 100 lawsuits, disputes over taxes tied to Trump and his companies

Trump, companies accused of mistreating women in at least 20 lawsuits

Trump casino empire dogged by bad bets in Atlantic City

Dive into Donald Trump's thousands of lawsuits

As campaign rolls on, so do Trump's lawsuits in Florida

How USA TODAY NETWORK is tracking Trump court files

Trump and the Law