Sunday, March 16, 2014

Child custody, service of process, venue, and oak grilled salmon-radicchio-shallot melange



Attorneys -- It was an abuse of discretion to impose monetary sanctions against plaintiff's attorney for his violation of a confidentiality agreement by disclosing defendants' financial institutions without finding that the violation was intentional -- Trial court properly denied attorney's motion for relief from sanction order on basis of settlement agreement in a separate case where settlement agreement related solely to that separate case
GARY W. ROBERTS, Appellant, v. ALFRED O. BONATI, M.D.; GULF COAST ORTHOPEDIC CENTER -- ALFRED O. BONATI, M.D., P.A.; MEDICAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION OF PASCO COUNTY, d/b/a THE BONATI INSTITUTE; JAMES S. ST. LOUIS, D.O.; PATRICIA SHAW-CAILLOUET; and ALLEN CAILLOUET, Appellees. 2nd District.


Civil procedure -- Pro se filings -- Prohibition -- Appeals -- Certiorari -- Arguments in support of petitioner's claim that circuit court departed from essential requirements of law in barring petitioner from future pro se filings are without merit -- Certiorari denied
KEVIN M. OWENS, Petitioner, v. MIKE FORTE, VILLAGE INVESTMENTS, INC., and CYPRESS PARK GARDEN HOMES CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, Respondents. 2nd District.


Civil procedure -- Service of process -- No error in setting aside prior default judgment and deciding to dismiss lawsuit with respect to some defendants for failure to perfect service within time frame specified by procedural rule -- Error to find that plaintiff failed to serve five defendants during required time frame where requested proof of service was filed before court issued its final order
ANTONIO WARD, Appellant, v. MICHAEL D. CREWS, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, Appellee. 1st District.


Dissolution of marriage -- Child custody -- Attorney's fees -- Error to award wife fees incurred in litigation of child custody dispute where marital settlement agreement ratified by trial court during pendency of dispute explicitly provided that each party would be responsible for own attorney's fees
JOANNIS SAPICAS SALISELE, Appellant, v. NAMIVIA SAPICAS, Appellee. 3rd District.


Dissolution of marriage -- Child custody -- Husband waived challenge to portion of final judgment naming former wife “the Majority 100% Time-Sharing parent” by failing to raise issue in his first direct appeal of dissolution judgment -- Child support -- Arrearage -- Record does not support trial court's findings regarding amount of former husband's child support arrearages -- Remand for recalculation
MAHMOUD NASSIROU, Former Husband, Appellant, v. NELLIE BORBA NASSIROU, Former Wife, Appellee. 1st District.


Dissolution of marriage -- Child custody -- Visitation -- Jurisdiction -- Adult disabled son -- Circuit court lost subject matter jurisdiction under Chapter 61 for purposes of custody and visitation of parties' disabled son when son reached age of majority -- Accordingly, order finding that former husband could exercise visitation with adult son, with certain conditions, and directing former wife to accompany son or pay an airline representative or nurse to do so is void
SUSAN HARDMAN, FORMER WIFE, Appellant, v. HARRY KOSLOWSKI, FORMER HUSBAND, Appellee. 1st District.


Dissolution of marriage -- Modification of judgment -- Military retirement -- Where marital settlement agreement incorporated into final judgment provided that former wife was entitled to 27.5 percent of former husband's military pension which had accrued during eleven-year marriage, and judgment awarded former wife 27.5 percent of former husband's disposable retired pay upon his retirement from military service, with court retaining jurisdiction to reconsider the percentage of retired pay due to former wife should former husband retire before completing twenty years of service, court had jurisdiction to consider former husband's petition to establish that former wife was entitled only to 27.5 percent of the amount of pension available after twenty years of service, although former husband retired after thirty years of service -- Court improperly dismissed former husband's petition as an untimely motion to modify judgment -- Former husband's petition was not an attempt to modify judgment, but was, instead, an attempt to enforce terms of judgment as he understood them
JEFFREY INGRAM, Appellant, v. SHELLY INGRAM, Appellee. 2nd District.

Injunctions -- Contracts -- Employment -- Noncompetition covenants -- Trial court erred in denying former employer's request for temporary injunction to enforce restrictive covenants in employment agreements on ground that former employer's failure to pay certain bonuses due under the agreements constituted a prior breach that rendered the agreements, and thus the restrictive covenants, unenforceable -- Each agreement expressly provided that each restrictive covenant was independent of any other covenant or provision of the agreement and that the existence of any claim or cause of action by the employee against the employer would not constitute a defense to the enforcement by the employer of any other covenant -- Trial court did not err in concluding that cessation of business by original corporate employer did not render restrictive covenants unenforceable by corporation's affiliate where employment agreements expressly provided that its affiliates were deemed to be third-party beneficiaries under agreements with right to seek enforcement of the agreements
RICHLAND TOWERS, INC., a Florida corporation; and RICHLAND TOWERS, LLC, a Florida limited liability company, Appellants/Cross-Appellees, v. DAVID DENTON, individually; DALE A. WEST, individually; and TALL TOWER VENTURES, LLC, a Florida limited liability company, Appellees/Cross-Appellants. 2nd District.


Mortgage foreclosure -- Error to dismiss second amended foreclosure complaint based on plaintiff's failure to prove that its loan servicer had authority to verify the foreclosure complaint at that stage of the litigation -- Plain language of rule does not require servicer to file evidence with the foreclosure complaint proving that it had authority to verify the complaint
DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY, AS TRUSTEE FOR MORGAN STANLEY ABS CAPITAL I INC. TRUST 2006-HE8, MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2006-HE8, Appellant, v. ROBERT PLAGEMAN and MARY PLAGEMAN, Appellees. 2nd District.


Mortgage foreclosure -- Service of process -- Defect in defendant's proper legal name was not sufficient to vitiate process served where defendant admitted that personal service was made on her and that she was the mortgagor on the mortgage sought to be foreclosed -- Appeal from order granting substitution of parties, which court treats as motion to amend to correct defendant's name, is dismissed, as order is non-final, non-appealable order
SUZANA POPESCU, Appellant, v. JP MORGAN CHASE BANK, NA, Appellee. 4th District.


Public records -- Attorney's fees -- Where transit authority delayed in producing requested public records, trial court erred in denying award of attorney's fees and costs to requesting party on basis that authority's failure to furnish records before suit was filed was not willful -- Proper question before court on request for attorney's fees and costs was whether authority unlawfully refused to produce records, not whether any such refusal was willful -- Unlawful refusal includes not only affirmative refusal to produce records, but also unjustified delay in producing them -- Trial court must determine whether the delay was justified under the facts -- If the delay was not justifiable, the delay constitutes unlawful refusal
STEWART LILKER, Appellant, v. SUWANNEE VALLEY TRANSIT AUTHORITY and GWENDOLYN PRA, Administrator, in her official capacity as the Suwannee Valley Transit Authority's Custodian of Records, Appellees. 1st District.


Torts -- Civil procedure -- Summary judgment -- Discovery pending -- Entry of summary judgment in favor of defendant was premature where plaintiff's counsel was still seeking to depose witness whose identity was not revealed by defendant until defendant filed its motion for summary judgment -- Although non-moving party cannot thwart summary judgment hearing by initiating discovery after motion for summary judgment is filed and hearing scheduled, it did not appear in instant case that pending discovery was scheduled to thwart summary judgment hearing
DORA HARPER, Appellant, v. WAL-MART STORES EAST, L.P., Appellee. 5th District.


Venue -- Where settlement agreement, which had settled foreclosure action by mortgagor assigning to mortgagee 50 percent of the net proceeds awarded for damages in mortgagor's action against its insurance carrier in Miami-Dade County, contained mandatory venue selection provision requiring any litigation between mortgagor and mortgagee to be tried in Osceola County, trial court erred in denying motion to enforce the venue selection provision
EVERBANK, a Federal Savings Bank, Appellant, v. ATLANTIC HOSPITALITY OF FLORIDA, LLC, EAST COAST PUBLIC ADJUSTERS, INC., EAST COAST APPRAISERS, LLC and MINTZ TRUPPMAN, P.A., Appellees. 3rd District.


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