E. L. DUNN AND JOHN C. NIX, JR., APPELLANTS,
v.
J. E. STACK, JR., ET AL., APPELLEES

Fla. 1st DCA | 1981-03-05
No. EE-50
LARRY G. SMITH, J., concurs., BOOTH, J., specially concurs.
394 So. 2d 1076 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1981) Caution
Cited by 9 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

Dunn and Nix appealed dismissal of their quiet title action for lack of jurisdiction. The court held that non-parties to a prior quiet title suit are not bound by its judgment, and the lis pendens did not provide adequate notice to bind them, so the trial court had jurisdiction to hear their claim.


Holding

The trial court has jurisdiction to hear the quiet title suit brought by Dunn and Nix. Non-parties to a quiet title action are not bound by judgments rendered against their interests under Florida law. The lis pendens was ineffective to bind them because the notice of commencement failed to name them as parties and did not seek relief as to their leasehold interest.


Headnotes

[1] A person not a party to a quiet title action is not bound by a judgment rendered adverse to their interest.

[2] A notice of commencement of an action affecting real property must be recorded to operate as a lis pendens.

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Key Quotes

“In a quiet title action, a person who is not a party to the action is not bound by any judgment rendered adverse to his interest. Section 65.041, Florida Statutes (1971).”

Establishes the fundamental principle that non-parties are not bound by judgments in quiet title actions, giving the trial court jurisdiction to hear Dunn and Nix's claim.

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Facts & Procedural History

Dunn and Nix sought to quiet title to their leasehold interest in oil, gas, and minerals in Santa Rosa County. A prior quiet title suit had been filed…

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Opinion of the Court
MILLS, Chief Judge.

MILLS, Chief Judge.

Dunn and Nix appeal from an order dismissing for lack of jurisdiction their suit to quiet title of their leasehold interest in oil, gas, and minerals on and under certain property in Santa Rosa County.

There are many confusing facts and facets to the merits of the quiet title claim asserted below which need not be ruled on at this time. Suffice it to say, there was a prior quiet title suit filed by Matthew Barnes, as administrator of the estate of J. E. Barnes. By amended complaint, the heirs of J. E. Barnes and, perhaps, Thomas “Dick” Ates were joined as parties plaintiff. (The final amended complaint which was ordered by the trial court on 5 July 1972 and alleged in the brief to have been filed on 29 July 1972 is not in the record on appeal. Ates’ name is included in the caption of the final judgment. Because the document was not necessary for our determination of the issue before us, we did not order the record supplemented.)

The purpose and result of the prior quiet title action was to clear from the title all of the claims by the named defendants which had come to cloud the title over the years. J. E. Stack, Jr., et al. are alleged to be the successors in title of Ates. E. L. Dunn and John C. Nix, Jr., were not parties to the action.

In a quiet title action, a person who is not a party to the action is not bound by any judgment rendered adverse to his interest. Section 65.041, Florida Statutes (1971). Therefore, the trial court did have jurisdiction to consider the merits of the claim by Dunn and Nix and should not have ordered the dismissal.

Appellees urge that Dunn and Nix should be bound by the earlier judgment because a lis pendens had been filed. No action on real property operates as a lis pendens until a notice of commencement of the action is recorded in the office of the clerk of the circuit court containing, in addition to other requirements, the names of the parties and a statement of the relief sought as to the described property. Section 48.23(l)(a), Florida Statutes (1971). At the time the prior quiet title suit was instituted, only Matthew Barnes, as administrator, was designated as the plaintiff. Although Zeda Barnes, Dunn and Nix’s alleged predecessor in title, and, perhaps, Ates were later made parties, the notice of commencement was never amended to reflect that fact. Furthermore, the prayer for relief made no mention of quieting the title of Ates’ leasehold interest.

Notice is limited to those matters in dispute between the parties to the action. It has no application to matters not in issue, not pertinent to any issue, and which cannot be determined in the action. Its operation does not extend beyond the prayer for relief. De Pass v. Chitty, 90 Fla. 77, 105 So. 148 (1925).

Even if the proper parties plaintiff had been named in the notice of commencement, that would not have given Dunn and Nix notice that the parties plaintiff might have adverse interests as to title to the property. In addition, the relief sought in the earlier suit was only to have title quieted as between the plaintiffs and the defendants. It did not purport to litigate the possible adverse interests among the plaintiffs.

Accordingly, we conclude that the trial court does have jurisdiction to determine the issues raised by this quiet title suit. We reverse the order appealed and remand to the trial court for further action consistent with this opinion.

LARRY G. SMITH, J., concurs.

BOOTH, J., specially concurs.

Concurrence
BOOTH, Judge,

BOOTH, Judge,

specially concurring:

I agree with the majority that the trial court has jurisdiction to determine the validity of the oil, gas and mineral lease executed by Zeda Barnes Davis to E. L. Dunn, notwithstanding the previous judgment in the quiet title suit dated February 7, 1973, in Case No. 71-C-488, holding Thomas Ates was holder of valid lease to mineral rights in question.1 Plaintiff Dunn, appellant herein, was not named in that suit, and plaintiff’s lessor was not made a party until after the execution and recordation, in January of 1972, of the Dunn lease. The validity of the lease from Zeda Barnes Davis to E. L. Dunn, as against the lease to Thomas Ates, involves questions of law and of fact which remain to be determined. Facts indicating Dunn’s knowledge of the controversy concerning the oil, gas and mineral rights in the property and of the suit at the time he obtained execution of the lease of Zeda Barnes Davis’ interest have a bearing on his status as a bona fide purchaser but do not make him subject to the judgment entered in the quiet title suit to which neither he nor his lessor were party.

The doctrine of lis pendens operates to bind non-parties who acquire interest in property pending litigation. The doctrine has been stated as follows:2

ne who, with actual or constructive notice of the pending action, acquires from a party thereto an interest in the property, involved in a litigation in a court having jurisdiction of the subject matter and of the person of the one from whom the interest is acquired, takes subject to the rights of the parties to the litigation as finally determined by the judgment or decree, (e. s.)

In the instant case, the Dunn lease was executed and recorded prior to the lessor being made a party. Amendment to the complaint to add the Barnes heirs, including Zeda, as parties in July of 1972 did not relate back to the original filing of the suit in October of 1971. Bigelow v. Stringfellow, 25 Fla. 366, 5 So. 816 (Fla.1889).3 Therefore, the previous judgment is not determinative as to the claims of plaintiffs, and the trial court has jurisdiction to determine the cause.

. That judgment was affirmed without opinion in Sims v. Barnes, 290 So. 2d 595 (Fla. 1st DCA 1974).

. 54 C.J.S., Lis Pendens, at p. 570.

. Bigelow v. Stringfellow, 25 Fla. 366, 5 So. 816, 817 (Fla.1889):

The doctrine of lis pendens is regarded with no partiality by the courts, and cannot, upon the facts of this case, be assumed by us to apply to Taylor, who purchased before Bige-low became a party to the suit, and is not himself a party to it.

See Blase v. Austin, 362 Mo. 409, 242 S.W. 2d 29, 34 (Mo.1951); 54 C.J.S. Lis Pendens § 34.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Dunn v. Stack, 418 So. 2d 345 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982)
    …lease, and if it is determined that he was not, how much “other consideration” was to have been paid to Mrs. Davis for the lease of her mineral rights. REVERSED and REMANDED. SHAW, J., concurs. McCORD, J., dissents with opinion. . Dunn v. Stack, 394 So. 2d 1076 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981). . Precisely when this three-month period commenced isn’t altogether clear, assuming that Mrs. Davis was correct about the existence of the three-month period. Matthew Barnes received initial approval to attempt to lease the min…
  • Joge Invs., Inc. v. Millennium Cap., 724 So. 2d 728 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999)
    …he names of the parties, the time of institution of the action, the name of the court in which it is pending, a description of the property involved or to be affected, and a statement of the relief sought as to the property.” See also Dunn v. Stack, 394 So. 2d 1076, 1077 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981). The notice in this case does not contain the time of institution of the action and does not make a proper statement of relief sought. It refers to specific performance of a contract, attached as Exhibit A of the complaint;…
  • Sparling v. Boca Raton Land Dev., Inc., 438 So. 2d 413 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983)
    …iminated by Section 65.041, Florida Statutes. The statute removes the binding nature of an adverse quiet title judgment on a non-party. We find support for this conclusion in Markley v. Madill, 259 So. 2d 723 (Fla. 2d DCA 1972) and in Dunn v. Stack, 394 So. 2d 1076 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981). In Markley, the Second District rejected the argument that a quiet title action based on a tax deed was defective because of the failure to join various other parties who had or who might have had an interest in the land. The c…

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