REAL ESTATE CORNER
REAL ESTATE CORNER
Florida Real Property and Business Litigation Report( Continued)
MANUEL FARACH
Wolland v. Wolland, Case No. 3D25-1520( Fla. 3d DCA 2026). Florida Statutes section 64.081 mandates that attorney ' s fees benefiting the partition be apportioned among all parties in proportion to their respective interests in the partitioned property, and a trial court has no discretion to impose the entire fee obligation on only one party.
Bal Harbour Shops Marketplace, LLC v. ORU Associates, Inc., Case No. 3D24-1279( Fla. 3d DCA 2026). A commercial tenant ' s obligation to pay rent does not commence before the contractually defined " Rent Commencement Date," and a trial court errs by importing pre-contract email negotiations to define contractual terms when the lease itself unambiguously defines those terms and contains an integration clause.
Ryan v. HSBC Bank USA, Case No. 4D2024- 2957( Fla. 4th DCA 2026). A plaintiff seeking to reestablish a lost promissory note under Florida Statutes section 673.3091 must prove both who held the right to enforce the note at the time it was lost and the chain by which the plaintiff acquired ownership from that party; mortgage assignments alone are insufficient to establish that the note was transferred.
Aronov v. Sound Connection Distributors,
Inc., Case No. 4D2024-2462( Fla. 4th DCA 2026). Claims based on an oral or equitable agreement to convey real property interests are barred by the statute of frauds under section 725.01, Florida Statutes, while claims arising from the same facts that do not require a conveyance of real property— including fraud-based torts, breach of oral contract as to membership interests, and unjust enrichment— survive dismissal and may be pled in the alternative at the pleading stage.
Metronet Technologies, LLC v. United Fiber Works, LLC, Case No. 5D2025-1558( Fla. 5th DCA 2026). A party waives its contractual right to arbitration when, under the totality of the circumstances, it acts inconsistently with that right by propounding meritsbased discovery directed to the central issues of the lawsuit, and the subsequent withdrawal of those discovery requests after the trial court ' s oral ruling does not undo the waiver.
Dune Allen Beach, Inc. v. Breen Realty Ltd
LP, Case No. 1D25-0984( Fla. 1st DCA 2026). Latent ambiguity in the deeds presents disputed factual issues that preclude summary judgment on quiet title and declaratory claims where the beachfront deeds fix a parcel’ s southern boundary by a fixed metes‐and‐bounds call from a highway but do not mention the Gulf of Mexico or the mean high‐water line and the parties offer conflicting extrinsic evidence on whether the original grantor intended to convey littoral rights.
Owners of Trailers at Li’ l Abner Trailer Park v. CREI Holdings, LLC, Case No. 3D25- 0762( Fla. 3d DCA 2026). Dismissal with prejudice of plaintiffs’ Mobile Home Act and injunction counts is proper where the individual mobile‐home owners lack standing to assert a statutory claim that a park owner failed to give the homeowners’ association its right‐of‐first‐refusal notice under Florida Statutes section 723.061( 1)( d) 1 and where the record shows the park’ s rent‐increase notice was sent more than ninety days before a change‐of‐use eviction notice and the complaint pleads no viable statutory or other basis for standalone injunctive relief.
Grossfeld v. CV Funding, LLC, Case No. 3D24-2235( Fla. 3d DCA 2026). A trial court may summarily enforce a settlement agreement without an evidentiary hearing when the existence and terms of a settlement agreement are undisputed and its enforcement provision unambiguously authorizes remedies“ without hearing” upon a tenant’ s breach.
Inversiones Alfa V, C. A. v. Cedros Management Investments, LLC, Case No. 3D25-0218( Fla. 3d DCA 2026). A defrauded party may elect rescission rather than damages following a jury finding of fraudulent inducement in a property exchange when full restoration of the status quo is impossible and so long as the trial court acted within its equitable discretion by rescinding the exchange and ordering return of the condominium while reasonably balancing the parties’ equities and a damages award is not complete relief.
Shopping Center Interest, LLC v. TAB 250,
Ltd., Case No. 4D2024-1066( Fla. 4th DCA 2026). A trial judge who adopts a party’ s proposed final judgment verbatim— especially one embedded with that party’ s letterhead and containing legal arguments previously rejected on the record— fails to exercise the independent judicial decision‐making required and renders the damages judgment reversible.
PBCBA BAR BULLETIN 21