THESE ARE NOT ALL OF THE CASES RELEASED BY THE COURTS FOR THE WEEK.
To see others not presented here, log in for more comprehensive weekly listings.

Attorney's fees -- Charging lien -- Discharged counsel -- Enforcement of lien -- Trial court erred in entering final judgment discharging settling defendant and defendant's counsel from liability on charging lien for attorney's fees and costs incurred by client prior to client's written termination of lienor's representation where it was undisputed that settling defendant and its counsel had actual notice of charging lien and agreed to implement safeguards to protect law firm's lien interest, but failed to draft settlement check in a manner to protect lienor -- Defendant and its counsel may be held jointly and severally liable for lienor's attorney's fees where they issued settlement check without requiring lienor's endorsement, thereby breaching affirmative duty to protect lienor's interest in settlement proceeds
VIEW OPINION (login required)

Contracts -- Arbitration -- Enforceability of arbitration agreement -- Signatures -- Authentication -- Trial court did not erred by compelling arbitration of plaintiff's claims in accordance with terms of arbitration clause contained in rental waiver agreement -- Pursuant to section 682.03(1)(b), trial court was not required to hold an evidentiary hearing in which defendant would be required to provide evidence authenticating plaintiff's signature where plaintiff never denied that she had signed agreement, and no affidavit or response made that claim -- In the absence of a factual dispute, trial court's review of document was sufficient to decide issue of contract formation and send matter to arbitration
VIEW OPINION (login required)

Contracts -- Construction -- Defective construction -- Relief from judgment -- Void judgment -- Improper party -- Trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying rule 1.540(b) motion alleging that judgment against defendant was void because it named wrong defendant -- Defendant's answer, which clearly and unequivocally admitted that defendant had entered into underlying contract and performed the work at issue, made his status as the proper defendant an uncontested fact and foreclosed any notion that another party was the proper defendant
VIEW OPINION (login required)

Contracts -- Promotional services -- Unjust enrichment -- Damages -- Remittitur -- Judgment of remittitur awarding $1 million to plaintiff who provided boxing promotional services to defendant boxer based on value of promotional services provided to boxer during a fifteen-month period when he was an emerging talent must be reversed -- There was no basis for finding that $1 million signing bonus boxer received from another promoter was a direct valuation of plaintiff's services or a proxy for benefit received from plaintiff's efforts -- Where a plaintiff proves liability but fails to quantify damages beyond conceded amounts, judgment must be limited -- Unjust enrichment award limited to amount of out-of-pocket expenses
VIEW OPINION (login required)

Mortgage foreclosure -- Standing -- Lost note -- Chain of assignment -- Trial court erred by granting summary judgment in favor of bank -- There were genuine issues of material fact regarding bank's right to enforce lost note where, although assignor's transfer of mortgages to bank listed the subject mortgage, the purchase agreement which purportedly transferred mortgage to assignor did not identify subject property in attached mortgage loan schedule -- Furthermore, while the affidavit of assignor's predecessor in interest stated that it had sold the note on the date assignor claimed to have acquired it, affidavit did not specify the entity to which the note was sold
VIEW OPINION (login required)

Real property -- Motor vehicles -- Towing -- Homeowners associations -- Attorney's fees -- Prevailing party -- Action alleging that homeowners association had illegally towed homeowner's vehicle without posting statutorily required notice -- Trial court erred by granting association's motion for attorney's fees after determining that posting of notice wasn't required because homeowner had been provided personal notice of parking restrictions when she was given community's governing documents -- Community's declaration, which authorized an award of fees to a party enforcing restrictions imposed by declaration, did not authorize award of attorney's fees in instant case because underlying litigation did not turn on parties' contractual relationship -- Association's defense was not an enforcement of its rules, but rather simply involved proving that it had given homeowner personal notice as contemplated by statute
VIEW OPINION (login required)

Torts -- Automobile accident -- Insurance -- Uninsured motorist -- Claims arising out of series of rear-end collisions purportedly triggered by third driver -- Summary judgment was properly granted in favor of third driver -- Where third driver filed supporting affidavit refuting her negligence and placing all blame for crash on a phantom driver, it was up to insurer, other codefendants, or plaintiff to raise material facts to avoid summary judgment -- Scant negative testimony of witness that “I did not see a phantom vehicle” could not overcome unequivocal positive statement of third driver that she was struck by a phantom vehicle
VIEW OPINION (login required)

Torts -- Product liability -- Discovery -- Cell phone inspection -- Appeals -- Certiorari -- Action stemming from injuries plaintiff suffered while riding on transportation device manufactured and sold by defendant -- Trial court departed from essential requirements of the law by allowing an unfettered search of plaintiff's phone and the extraction of all data where there was no evidence to suggest plaintiff destroyed evidence or thwarted discovery, and trial court did not find that relevant information was likely to be found on the phone -- Discussion of First District Court of Appeal's decision in Antico v. Sindt Trucking, Inc. -- Defendant's general assertions about people's tendency to capture and share every aspect of their lives on their phone does not justify such an intrusion into plaintiff's privacy -- While defendant's inspection protocol permitted plaintiff's counsel to view the extracted data first for redaction based on privilege, work product, and confidentiality, that safeguard alone was not sufficient to protect plaintiff's privacy rights
VIEW OPINION (login required)

Criminal Law Headnotes (Jump to Civil Law Headnotes)

THESE ARE NOT ALL OF THE CASES RELEASED BY THE COURTS FOR THE WEEK.
To see others not presented here, log in for more comprehensive weekly listings.

Criminal law -- Civil restitution lien -- Trial court erred by denying Department of Corrections' motion for imposition of civil restitution lien based on determination that DOC could only seek restitution by filing a separate civil action or having state attorney file a motion for lien on its behalf -- Discussion of section 960.292 -- Statute authorizes DOC to move for a civil restitution lien order in a criminal case because statute specifically authorizes “the state” to file a motion for a civil restitution lien in a criminal case, and any action taken by the DOC, an executive agency of the state, is necessarily taken on behalf of the state
VIEW OPINION (login required)

Criminal law -- Sentencing -- Correction -- 10-20-Life statute -- Mandatory minimum -- Sentence of additional years beyond selected mandatory minium -- No error in denying rule 3.800(a) motion asserting that defendant's sentence of thirty-five years in prison with a mandatory minimum sentence of twenty-five years was illegal under 10-20-Life statute -- No prejudice resulted from alleged sentencing error because defendant could have been sentenced to a mandatory term of imprisonment not exceeding life imprisonment -- Trial court's imposition of a more lenient sentence than 10-20-Life statute authorized does not make the resulting sentence “illegal” and subject to correction under rule 3.800(a), even if sentence is erroneous as a matter of law -- Conflict certified
VIEW OPINION (login required)