REAL ESTATE CORNER
REAL ESTATE CORNER
Florida Real Property and Business Litigation Report( Continued)
MANUEL FARACH
Levine v. Levai, Case Nos. 3D24-2290, 3D25- 0049( Fla. 3d DCA 2025). A court cannot grant a motion to amend pleadings to add punitive damages claims where the motion fails to comply with Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.190( a) by attaching the proposed amended complaint at least twenty days before the hearing.
Athos Overseas Limited Corp. v. YouTube,
Inc., Case No. 23-13156( 11th Cir. 2026). YouTube qualifies for safe harbor protection under Section 512( c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act against copyright infringement claims arising from user-uploaded content.
Hill-Becton v. MIA Aesthetics Clinic, LLC, Case No. 3D25-0072( Fla. 3d DCA 2026). A party challenging arbitration provisions as being unconscionable must establish both procedural and substantive unconscionability to avoid enforcement of a valid written arbitration agreement.
Breedlove v. Gersten, Case No. 3D25-0543( Fla. 3d DCA 2026). Rental tenants are not entitled to intervene in a partition action because they possess no direct and immediate interest in a receiver ' s partition action as their claims were contingent upon obtaining a future judgment and did not constitute a claim to or lien upon the property itself.
Dean v. 1180 Bimini, LLC, Case No. 4D2024- 2963( Fla. 4th DCA 2026). An injunction in a boundary dispute fails to comply with Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.610( c) if it lacks the requisite specificity regarding the reasons for entry and the acts restrained.
NE 32nd Street, LLC v. State of Florida Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, Case No. 4D2024-1298( Fla. 4th DCA 2026). Florida Statutes section 57.041 mandates an award of costs to the prevailing party who obtains a judgment quieting title
Shriberg v. Florida Flooring, Inc., Case No. 4D2025-0162( Fla. 4th DCA 2026).
Trustees of a revocable trust possess standing to sue as real parties in interest as Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.210( a) permits trustees to sue in their own names without joining the trust as a party.
Raj v. Sutherlin, Case No. 4D2024-3333( Fla. 4th DCA 2026). The consideration supporting a right of first refusal need not be separately allocated from the underlying contract ' s purchase price when the addendum granting the right expressly incorporates the purchase agreement.
Andersen Service Corporation v. Old Republic Surety Company, Case No. 4D2025-2411,( Fla. 4th DCA 2026). No valid arbitration agreement exists between a subcontractor and a surety where the lien transfer bond neither contained arbitration language nor incorporated the subcontract ' s arbitration provision.
Roque v. Swezy, Case No. 3D25-0235( Fla. 3d DCA 2026). Florida Statutes section 768.72 permits punitive-damages claims by opposing parties when each side’ s proffer of defamatory accusations falsely portraying criminal, alcoholic, or drug addiction provide a reasonable evidentiary basis without weighing credibility and constitutes defamation per se that can support punitive damages without proof of actual damages.
Whitehall at Bal Harbour Condominium Ass’ n, Inc. v. Raviv, Case No. 3D24-2031( Fla. 3d DCA 2026). A party that fully participates without timely objection in an evidentiary hearing and stipulates to costs waives any challenge to the entry of a final attorney-fee judgment before disposition of all claims, and such a judgment is merely voidable— not void— in the absence of defects in jurisdiction or due process.
DG Auto Group Export, Inc. v. Mendez, Case No. 3D24-2060( Fla. 3d DCA 2026). Federal law governs the determination of reasonable attorney’ s fees in Fair Labor
Standards Act actions litigated in Florida state courts and allows a Perdue-type enhancement of the lodestar in the rare circumstances where defense misconduct causes exceptional delay in fee recovery.
Wepard Corp., Ltd. v. Diaz, Reus & Targ, LLP, Case No. 3D25-0252( Fla. 3d DCA 2026). Florida Statutes section 48.197( 1)( c) authorizes court-ordered email service on foreign defendants without any statutory due-diligence prerequisite so long as the method is reasonably calculated to provide actual notice and is not prohibited by international agreement, and defendants who seek affirmative relief such as sanctions and attorney’ s fees thereby waive objections to personal jurisdiction and service.’
The Firm Law Group, Inc. v. Cordero, Case No. 3D25-0292( Fla. 3d DCA 2026). An escrow agent holding a residential real estate deposit under an escrow agreement requiring a good faith belief of conflicting demands in order to be awarded attorneys’ fees lacks a contractual or evidentiary basis to charge its attorney’ s fees against the escrow in the absence of documented competing claims or a specific, well-supported good-faith doubt as to entitlement; a conclusory selfserving affidavit without corroborating communications cannot create a genuine issue of material fact.
PBCBA BAR BULLETIN 23