BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2026 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — A former president of Stonebridge Golf and Country Club of Boca Raton has filed a lawsuit against the private community club, accusing it of imposing unauthorized disciplinary sanctions against him and refusing to honor its own bylaws by indemnifying him for legal costs stemming from his time as a club officer. Daniel Brumback, a dues-paying member of the club since 2006 who served as Board president after his 2024 election, just filed the complaint in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, seeking declaratory relief, court-ordered indemnification, and damages for breach of contract.
BocaNewsNow.com obtained the complaint. It is published in its entirety, below.
The lawsuit stems from a grievance filed against Brumback in May 2025 by a group of club members — many of them aligned with prior club leadership that Brumback’s board had replaced — following the termination of a club employee named Shannon Kelly Emmanuel. According to the complaint, Emmanuel was fired in April 2025 after management discovered a fraudulent workers’ compensation claim and an unauthorized fundraising page that had collected more than $8,000 from club members. Brumback says Emmanuel accused him of inappropriate behavior only after she was terminated, and that the club’s own outside employment counsel found no witnesses to corroborate her allegations and characterized her credibility as “questionable.”
Despite the original grievance being dismissed in July 2025, a new, similar complaint was filed against Brumback in August 2025. Following a September hearing, the club’s Board of Governors voted in October 2025 to suspend Brumback from all club privileges for twelve months and demanded he reimburse the club for legal costs it incurred — a figure the club has never quantified or itemized, according to the suit.
Brumback argues the demand is unlawful, noting that the club’s own bylaws require the club to indemnify officers for actions taken during their tenure — meaning the club owes him reimbursement, not the other way around. He also says the club refused to process his timely-filed appeal for more than seven months in violation of its own bylaws.
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Brumback is represented by Holland & Knight attorneys Brian H. Koch and Joseph Menniti out of Fort Lauderdale.
