Florida Real Property and Business Litigation Report
Volume XVII, Issue 23
June 8, 2024
Manuel Farach
Connelly v. United States, Case No. 23–146 (2024).
A corporation’s contractual obligation to redeem shares, e.g., a company buying an owner’s shares through insurance upon he owner’s death, is not necessarily a liability that reduces a corporation’s value for purposes of the federal estate tax.
Truck Insurance Exchange v. Kaiser Gypsum, Case No. 22–1079 (2024).
An insurer with financial responsibility for bankruptcy claims is a “party in interest” under §1109(b) that “may raise and may appear and be heard on any issue” in a Chapter 11 case.
In Re: Amendments To The Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, Case No. SC2022-1719 (Fla. 2024).
Rule of Civil Procedure 1.110(d) is amended so that short, plain statements of facts are required for affirmative defenses, Rule 1.820(h) is retitled and amended to reflect that arbitration decisions will be deemed rejected only if a “notice of rejection of the arbitration decision and request for trial” is filed with the court within 20 days of service of the arbitrator’s written decision, and the landlord-tenant forms are revised.
O’Donnell v. Lee, Case No. 1D2022-0193 (Fla. 1st DCA 2024).
According to a party’s discovery responses, selection of an escrow agent is a material part of an as-is real estate sale contract and the failure to select same in a form contract is a material breach of the contract.
Close Construction, LLC v. City of Riviera Beach Utility District, Case No. 4D2023-0051 (Fla. 4th DCA 2024).
Florida Statute section 46.015 (Release of Parties) permits setoff of settlement damages when the settling and non-settling parties are jointly and severally liable and the settled damages are the same damages for which the setoff is sought.
Beaches MRI v. Safeco Insurance Company of Illinois, Case No. 4D2023-0800 (Fla. 4th DCA 2024).
A summary judgment granted over Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.510’s forty-day filing requirement is reversed without prejudice to refile in compliance with the Rule.
McLlenan v. Cypress Chase North Condominium No. 4 Association, Inc., Case No. 4D2023-1269 (Fla. 4th DCA 2024).
A condominium association has a duty to repair common elements that damage a unit owner’s property, including a water leak from an upstairs apartment that damages a downstairs unit.
Pecchia v. Wayside Estates Home Owners Association, Inc., Case No. 5D2023-0963 (Fla. 5th DCA 2024).
Florida Statute section 720.303 requires strict – not substantial – compliance with requests for records inspections by members.
Riti Financial, LLC v. Patel, Case No. 5D2023-1109 (Fla. 5th DCA 2024).
Summary judgment for a defendant is proper, i.e., no jury could find for Plaintiff, when the evidence demonstrated that Plaintiff’s oral loan to purchase a hotel was made to defendant’s husband (not defendant), defendant made no promise to Plaintiff to repay the loan, and the hotel passed to defendant in the husband’s probate proceedings without a claim to the loan or the hotel in the husband’s estate.