Civil Litigation
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Total Contracts Cases: 14
A purchase contract included an exculpatory clause purporting to release the builder from any liability for personal injury caused by its construction practices. The court held that the clause was void as against public policy. Not only was the clause unenforceable to the extent that it attempted to release the builder of liability for an intentional tort, but also because a party can not contract away its responsibility to comply with a building code when the person with whom the contract was made was one of those whom the code was designed to protect. Regardless of whether the homeowners ultimately were able to establish a code violation, the exculpatory clause was unenforceable to the extent it purported to absolve the builder of liability for personal injuries that were caused by its alleged negligence. Florida's comprehensive regulation of the licensing of building contractors and building construction standards, as shown in § 489.101, Fla. Stat. and § 553.781(1), Fla. Stat. (2003), reflected a clear public policy to protect purchasers of residential homes from personal injuries caused by improper construction practices.
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A business that engages in
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The Fourth District Court of Appeal found that the trial court had no discretion to deny a request for additional time to serve process where the request was based on good cause. The idea of Rule 1.070(j) is not to throw up arbitrary temporal barriers for serving process on a defendant who is avoiding service. The rule is to be used as an administrative tool for efficiently moving cases through the courts.
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A trial court's authority to modify, amend, or vacate an order or final judgment after rendition of the final judgment is limited by Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.530 and 1.540. Under Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.530(g), parties may move for a motion to alter or amend a judgment within ten days of the filing of the
judgment. Once that time expires, the trial court loses jurisdiction except to enforce the judgment. Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.540 provides that a trial court may relieve a party from a final judgment for reasons stated in the rule. However, the trial court's time for granting relief expires after one year.
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In order to prove a strict liability claim, a plaintiff must show that there was a product produced by a manufacturer that was defective in that it created an unreasonably dangerous condition that proximately caused the injury in question. Thus, the presumption is that the product was defective at the time of the injury as well as at the time the product was sold when that product "malfunctions during normal operation." Furthermore, the subsequent destruction or disposal of the product, although important, does not bar a claim. Rather, a party can establish entitlement by negating other potential causes of the accident
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Furman
27 Fla. L. Weekly D1333 (Fla. 2nd DCA June 14, 2002)
2002-06-14
CONTRACTS
Requests for the substance of statements taken or given by a party
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Failing to state a cause of action is not, in and of itself, a sufficient basis to support a finding that a claim was so lacking in merit as to justify an award of fees pursuant to section 57.105, Florida Statutes (2000). A finding that a party is entitled to recover attorney
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The First District Court of Appeals of Florida found that it did not have jurisdiction to determine if a trial court
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Nine hourly employees at the Quaker Oats
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Florida Farm Bureau petitioned for certiorari seeking to quash a circuit court order requiring it to produce two memoranda prepared by its employees during litigation over insurance coverage for claims arising from an automobile accident. Florida Farm Bureau argued that the memos were protected work product. The trial court ordered their production based upon Allstate Indemnity Company v. Ruiz.
The appellate court concluded that the facts in the instant case differed from Ruiz in that the documents were prepared during litigation where the issue of bad faith was raised. This was not a case where bad faith litigation was simply foreseeable-it was actually being litigated at the time the memoranda were made. Thus, the court granted the petition.
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As a general rule, inadmissible hearsay cannot be considered on a motion for summary judgment. To defeat summary judgment by the use of hearsay evidence, the nonmoving party must also show that the contents of the statements
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Plaintiff failed to establish that an admission contract entered into with nursing home was procedurally unconscionable. Thus, the court deemed the arbitration clause in the contract was enforceable.
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A non-competition agreement which was initially part of the sale of a business for which appellant was paid a substantial sum of money and was then incorporated into an agreed final judgment by which the opposing party gave up valuable monetary claims in return for appellant
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A non-compete agreement with a former member of an accounting firm was not an illegal agreement to pay commissions in violation of
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