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March 3 - March 7, 2014
Civil Law Headnotes (Jump to Criminal Law Headnotes)
THESE ARE NOT ALL OF THE CASES RELEASED BY THE COURTS FOR THE WEEK.
Attorneys -- Admission to Florida Bar -- Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for admission to The Florida Bar -- Current federal law prohibits Court from issuing a license to practice law to an unlawful or unauthorized immigrant
Attorney's fees -- Proposal for settlement -- Ambiguities -- Defendant's proposal which offers to pay plaintiff $100 to settle action “payable within ten (10) days of entry of the Order of Dismissal with Prejudice,” is not ambiguous -- If plaintiff had accepted proposal and defendant had failed to pay the $100, trial court would have had jurisdiction to enforce settlement agreement
Condominiums -- Assessment liens -- Where condominium association obtained judgment of foreclosure of lien on condominium unit and purchased unit at foreclosure sale subject to first mortgage on unit, and mortgagee subsequently obtained judgment of foreclosure of mortgage, party who purchased unit at mortgage foreclosure sale could be held liable only for the unpaid assessments dating back to time when the immediate prior owner, the condominium association, took title at lien foreclosure sale
Creditor's rights -- Proceedings supplementary -- Jurisdiction -- Foreign property -- Trial court lacked jurisdiction to compel turnover of stock certificates evincing ownership in foreign entities to satisfy judgment obtained in breach-of-contract action -- Florida courts do not have in rem or quasi in rem jurisdiction over foreign property
Guardianship -- Incapacitated person -- Attorney's fees -- Attorney who acted as co-counsel for ward in guardianship proceeding -- Trial court abused discretion in reducing amount of attorney's fees and charging attorney with costs on ground that attorney's services did not benefit ward -- Actions of attorney who contacted member of initial examining committee at ward's request to obtain a reassessment benefitted ward where reassessment brought to court's attention problems with committee's report, resulting in appointment of second examining committee -- Attorney's action of obtaining a reassessment by contacting an examining committee member was not clearly prohibited by law
Insurance -- Personal injury protection -- Exhaustion of benefits -- Where reasonableness of a medical provider's claim is still in dispute, post-suit exhaustion of benefits extinguishes provider's right to further payments, so long as exhaustion is prior to the establishment of the amount to which the medical provider is entitled under PIP -- Once PIP benefits are exhausted through payment of valid claims, insurer has no further liability on unresolved pending claims absent bad faith in the handling of the claim by the insurance company -- Appeals -- Certified questions from county court -- Court discharges jurisdiction of one of the two cases before it in which county court certified three questions, as district courts have already ruled on one issue and have answered the question uniformly, and county court expressly did not rule or make any judicial determination on issues raised in the other two certified questions -- Appeal in that case transferred to circuit court
Licensing -- Driver's license -- Suspension -- Hearings -- Failure of subpoenaed witness to appear -- Breath test operator -- Circuit court sitting in its review capacity applied wrong law in holding that the trial court's conclusion that testimony of breath test operator, who failed to appear at hearing, was irrelevant deprived licensee of due process because it precluded the licensee from obtaining a continuance so that the BTO could testify -- Licensee had statutory remedy for failure of witness to appear by pursuing enforcement of subpoena pursuant to section 322.2615(6)(c) -- Circuit court applied wrong law when it amended its final order to strike the portion of the order which had directed remand for a new hearing -- Remanding matter for new hearing was required by district court's prior caselaw
Mortgage foreclosure -- Condominiums -- Limitation of liability for past due condominium assessments of first mortgagee or its assignee who takes title to unit by foreclosure -- Trial court erred in entering summary judgment finding that bank/first mortgagee was entitled to statutory limitation of liability where mortgage had been assigned to Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation -- Bank did not present evidence to support its position that it took title to condominium unit through foreclosure as the first mortgagee because it merely assigned to Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation the right to service the mortgage
Mortgage foreclosure -- Standing -- Error to enter judgment of foreclosure where there was no admissible evidence that plaintiff held promissory note on date when lawsuit commenced -- Computer generated “Account Balance Report” and “consolidated notes log” printout were not admissible under business records exception to hearsay rule to establish that plaintiff had right to enforce note on date suit was commenced -- Witness called to lay necessary foundation for admitting records under business records exception did not testify that he knew who generated the records, and could not testify from personal knowledge that documents belonged to or were generated by initial mortgage lender -- Witness, who was neither a current nor former employee of initial lender, and otherwise lacked particular knowledge of lender's record-keeping procedures, was unable to substantiate when the records were made, whether the information they contain derived from a person with knowledge, whether initial lender regularly made such records, or whether records belonged to initial lender
Torts -- False imprisonment -- Malicious prosecution -- Slander -- Action against store and company which provided security services for store by plaintiff who was apprehended by police after security services employee alerted authorities that he suspected plaintiff of shoplifting -- Discovery -- Sanctions for noncompliance -- Trial court departed from essential requirements of law in holding defendants in contempt and sanctioning them for failure to produce incident and apprehension reports by imposing a $200 a day fine pending compliance with court's directives, striking defendants' pleadings, entering default against defendants, and allowing amendment to complaint to include claim for punitive damages -- It was improper to impose fine pending compliance with court's directives where it was not clear how defendants were to comply with directives and there was no showing that defendants had ability to comply with directives -- It was improper to allow amendment to include punitive damages claim without determination that there was reasonable evidentiary basis for recovery of punitive damages -- It was improper to strike defendants' pleadings and enter default against them where there was no showing that defendants refused to obey court's directive to produce documents
Torts -- Malicious prosecution -- Tenant's action against landlord who had brought eviction action against tenant -- Trial court erred in entering summary judgment for landlord on ground that there had been no bona fide termination of prior eviction action in tenant's favor -- Where county court determined that landlord was not entitled to evict tenant because three-day eviction notice was invalid, and circuit court affirmed county court ruling, there was a bona fide termination of eviction action in tenant's favor
Criminal Law Headnotes (Jump to Civil Law Headnotes)
THESE ARE NOT ALL OF THE CASES RELEASED BY THE COURTS FOR THE WEEK.
Criminal law -- Forfeiture -- Error to find probable cause to support state's seizure of vehicles pursuant to Florida Contraband Forfeiture Act where state failed to establish that the vehicles were either used as instrumentalities in the commission of a felony or acquired by proceeds obtained as a result of a violation of FCFA -- Even if probable cause existed to believe that the vehicles were acquired with proceeds of a violation of gambling laws, a violation of gambling laws is not per se a violation of FCFA
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