THESE ARE NOT ALL OF THE CASES RELEASED BY THE COURTS FOR THE WEEK.
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Civil rights -- Restoration -- Full faith and credit -- Federal convictions -- Quo warranto -- No error in denying petition for quo warranto arguing that Florida must give full faith and credit to restoration of appellant's civil right to hold office under Missouri law following appellant's federal conviction -- Discussion of Full Faith and Credit Clause of U.S. Constitution -- Full Faith and Credit Clause does not require Florida to yield to another state's laws with respect to a federal conviction -- Even if Full Faith and Credit Clause required Florida to treat federal convictions as Missouri does, defendant would still be ineligible to hold office in Florida because Missouri law prohibits him from holding public office
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Contracts -- Attorney's fees -- Prevailing party -- Mutuality of obligation -- Choice of law -- Waiver -- Trial court erred by denying defendant's motion for prevailing party attorney's fees under section 57.105(7) following dismissal of plaintiff's account stated claim based on determination that, pursuant to choice-of-law provision in parties' underlying contract, Virginia law applied -- Plaintiff waived its ability to rely on choice-of-law provision by failing to raise it in its complaint or when it responded to defendant's claim for fees contained in his answer and affirmative defenses
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Contracts -- Employment -- Dispute resolution clause -- Third-party beneficiaries -- Torts -- Hospital could not enforce dispute resolution clause in employment contract between limited liability corporation that employed doctor and hospital at which doctor rendered services on behalf of employer where hospital was neither party to employment contract nor third-party intended beneficiary -- Trial court erred in dismissing defamation and tortious interference claims against hospital on ground that employment contract required dispute with doctor to be mediated and arbitrated
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Creditors' rights -- Fraudulent transfers -- Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act -- Assets -- Encumbrances -- Action alleging that loan funds transferred to owner of debtor's parent company were fraudulent distributions under UFTA made with the purpose of making debtor insolvent while debtor was facing millions of dollars in damages in pending litigation -- No error in granting summary judgment in favor of owner -- For transaction to be fraudulent under UFTA, the property being transferred must qualify as an “asset” -- An “asset” does not include property encumbered by a valid lien at the time of transfer -- While subject funds may have been unencumbered after they were distributed to owner, because it was undisputed that lender held a valid lien on the funds at the time they were transferred, the funds did not qualify as assets subject to UFTA
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Insurance -- Life insurance -- Stranger-originated policy -- Attorney's fees -- Offer of judgment -- No error in denying estate's motion seeking attorney's fees under section 768.79 based on conclusion that statute did not apply because another state's substantive law applied to the underlying claims of the case -- Section 768.79 does not apply regardless of whether the application of another state's substantive law is governed by a contractual choice-of-law provision or under lex loci contractus doctrine like the case at issue
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Criminal Law Headnotes (Jump to Civil Law Headnotes)

THESE ARE NOT ALL OF THE CASES RELEASED BY THE COURTS FOR THE WEEK.
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Criminal law -- Burglary with battery -- Jury instructions -- Self-defense -- Forcible felony exception -- Charges stemming from incident in which defendant entered into victim's apartment and engaged in a physical altercation while attempting to take items which defendant claimed victim had stolen from him -- Information charging burglary portion of crime in the alternative, alleging that defendant either intended to commit a crime at time of unlawful entry, or the intent to commit a crime took place while defendant remained in victim's apartment -- Trial court did not err in denying request to give self-defense instruction to entire burglary with battery charge instead of just the “remaining in” portion where defendant alleged that he was an invitee and only claimed self-defense regarding the battery that occurred within the victim's apartment -- Because the charge of burglary with battery contains two independent charges or criminal acts, a self-defense instruction to the entire charge should be provided only when a claim of self-defense applies to both the burglary and the battery charges -- No error in giving forcible felony exception instruction -- Because defendant did not allege he was defending himself when he entered victim's apartment, the burglary was a forcible felony independent of the battery to which defendant claimed self-defense
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Criminal law -- Probation revocation -- Jurisdiction -- Credit for time served -- Jail time -- Special condition requiring defendant to spend 120 days in jail with credit for time served -- Trial court had jurisdiction to revoke defendant's probation where affidavits of violation were filed before probationary period expired -- Time defendant spent in jail prior to sentencing could not be credited to defendant to reduce the overall length of his probationary term -- Unless trial court expressly provides otherwise, jail credit applies only to period of incarceration and does not affect the duration of probation -- Conflict certified
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Criminal law -- Search and seizure -- Hotel rooms -- Expectation of privacy -- Ejectment -- No error in denying motion to suppress evidence of contraband discovered during search of defendant's hotel room -- Defendant had no expectation of privacy in his hotel room after hotel staff ejected him from hotel -- Court rejects argument that hotel lacked lawful grounds to ask defendant to leave where evidence showed that defendant was visibly unkempt and intoxicated while standing around lobby and making other guests noticeably uncomfortable, and that defendant had trashed his room while making no effort to clean it up despite requests from hotel staff -- Competent, substantial evidence established that hotel provided required notice to leave hotel under section 509.141(2) where, although staff member who asked defendant to leave did not testify, staff member could be heard on audio recording of 911 call stating that defendant had shut the door in her face after she asked him to leave -- Even if hotel had not followed statutory procedures to legally eject defendant from his hotel room, good faith exception to exclusionary rule shields evidence from suppression because hotel staff had told officers that they had asked defendant to leave
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Criminal law -- Search and seizure -- Traffic stop -- Reasonable suspicion -- Trial court erred by granting defendant's motion to suppress evidence discovered during search of defendant's vehicle following an investigatory traffic stop based on determination that traffic stop was pretextual -- Officer had a particularized objective basis to suspect defendant was driving without a valid driver's license where officer requested verification of defendant's out-of-state tag and was told defendant did not have a valid driver's license associated with the car -- While officer initiated deeper probe into defendant's license because he found defendant's posture while driving to be “unusual” and “suspicious,” those observations were irrelevant because stop was not initiated on that basis alone -- Probable cause -- Odor of marijuana -- After conducting lawful stop, officer had probable cause to search vehicle based on the odor of marijuana where defendant openly stated that he did not have a medical marijuana card and, when asked about the odor by officer, claimed that it was burnt marijuana that defendant had smoked the previous evening
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Criminal law -- Stalking -- Pretrial intervention program -- Dismissal -- Authority -- Trial court lacked authority to grant defendant's motion to dismiss after finding that defendant had complied with all terms of pretrial diversion contract -- The decision to continue prosecution under section 948.08 lies solely with the state -- Judicial review of state's decision to continue with prosecution is unavailable
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