GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, APPELLANT,
v.
ATLANTIC SHORES, INC., ETC., ET AL., APPELLEES

Fla. 5th DCA | 1983-07-28
No. 82-1512
ORFINGER, C.J., and COBB, J., concur.
436 So. 2d 974 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (1983) Positive Treatment
Cited by 8 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

General Electric appealed a summary judgment in favor of a landowner, which dismissed GE's replevin action for appliances supplied to a contractor. The court held that filing a mechanic's lien does not constitute an election of remedies precluding replevin, and that factual disputes exist regarding whether the appliances became fixtures, requiring reversal and remand for trial.


Holding

Filing a mechanic's lien claim does not constitute an election of remedies. The remedies are only legally inconsistent based on factual circumstances. Whether the appliances became fixtures depends on whether they were actually incorporated or affixed to the realty at the time replevin was attempted, not merely on GE's intent or knowledge that they might become fixtures. The disputed factual issues regarding actual incorporation and affixation preclude summary judgment.


Headnotes

[1] Filing notices to perfect a mechanic's lien does not constitute an election of remedies that precludes a subsequent replevin action.

[2] An election of remedies is only required to be made before a judgment is entered on one or more legally inconsistent remedies.

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Key Quotes

“Election need only be made before a judgment is entered in an action on one or the other or both of legally inconsistent remedies.”

Establishes that filing a mechanic's lien does not constitute election of remedies before judgment is entered

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Facts & Procedural History

General Electric supplied appliances to a contractor for installation in homes in a subdivision owned by the landowner. GE filed a mechanic's lien cla…

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Opinion of the Court
COWART, Judge.

COWART, Judge.

This case involves the question of election of remedies between a cause of action for a mechanic’s lien and for replevin of goods which may have become fixtures and of a disputed question of fact as to when, if ever, personal property became fixtures.

Appellant (General Electric Company) supplied appliances (ranges, hoods, fans, refrigerators, etc.) to. a contractor to be installed in homes being constructed in a subdivision owned by appellee (landowner). General Electric first filed a claim of lien (§ 713.08, Fla.Stat. (1981)) and notice to owner (§ 713.06(2)(a), Fla.Stat. (1981)). Apparently perceiving a limited balance due on the contract price available for prorata payment of lienors under section 713.06(4), Florida Statutes (1981), General Electric then filed a replevin action. Actual replev-in was stopped by the posting of a forthcoming bond. Both General Electric and the landowner moved for summary judgment. General Electric argued the uncontested facts disclosed that it had a valid security interest in the goods not affixed to the real estate (§ 679.313(2)(a), Fla.Stat. (1981)). The landowner argued that by filing the claim of lien and by giving notice to the owner and giving partial waivers of lien rights and other actions taken, General Electric had made an election of remedies in favor of a mechanic’s lien and against replevin and that the uncontested facts disclosed that General Electric intended for the goods to become fixtures. The trial court entered summary judgment for the landowner and discharged the forthcoming bond. General Electric appeals. We reverse.

The filing of the notices required to perfect a mechanic’s lien under chapter 713 did not constitute an election of remedies. Election need only be made before a judgment is entered in an action on one or the other or both of legally inconsistent remedies. See Erwin v. Scholfield, 416 So. 2d 478 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982). General Electric’s remedies are legally inconsistent only because each is based on facts which are necessarily inconsistent. If at the time the writ of replevin was, or should have been, executed, the goods were not so incorporated or affixed to the realty that they had lost their legal character as personal property and had become fixtures, the remedy of replevin was available under section 78.01, Florida Statutes (1981). See also § 713.15, Fla.Stat. (1981). On the other hand, if, at that time, the goods had become fixtures, General Electric was relegated to pursuit of its mechanic’s lien remedy.

The summary judgment below was erroneously based in part on the legal conclusion that by its acts toward perfecting a mechanic’s lien, General Electric had elected its mechanic’s lien remedy. The summary judgment was also based in part on a conclusion that the goods in question had become fixtures because the facts showed that General Electric “knew and intended the appliances to be incorporated into the improvement on the real property of the defendant and that this fact of ‘incorporation’ and ‘use’ of the equipment is factually inconsistent with General Electric Company’s attempt now to replevin these appliances.” The fallacy in this finding is the leap from General Electric’s knowledge and intent as to the future possibility of the appliances becoming fixtures to the conclusion that the appliances had in fact actually become incorporated and affixed to the realty. As distinguished from the intent of one incorporating or affixing personalty to realty, the intent of the manufacturer or supplier of goods may not even be relevant to whether or not the goods ever become fixtures. In any event, such intent does not control whether the goods have or have not in fact become incorporated or affixed to the realty as is necessary for them to become fixtures. As to that question of fact, which involves disputed issues of fact and of inferences that can be drawn from the undisputed facts, the summary judgment should have been denied and that matter reserved for trial. The summary judgment is reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings including the resolution of the factual and legal issues involved in a judicial determination of the character of the goods in question as being personalty or fixtures at the time of the attempted re-plevin.

REVERSED AND REMANDED.

ORFINGER, C.J., and COBB, J., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Monco OF Orlando, Inc. v. ITT Indus. Credit Corp., 458 So. 2d 332 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984)
    …rrect in that assertion. We have held that an election between inconsistent remedies need only occur before judgment is entered. Wolfe v. Aetna Insurance Company, 436 So. 2d 997 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983); General Electric Company v. Atlantic Shores, Inc., 436 So. 2d 974 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983); Erwin v. Scholfield, 416 So. 2d 478 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982). Appellee relies on Deemer v. Hallett Pontiac, Inc., 288 So. 2d 526 (Fla. 3d DCA), cert. denied, 298 So. 2d 416 (Fla.1974), as authority for the proposition that the trial…
  • S & S Toyota, Inc. v. Kirby, 649 So. 2d 916 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995)
    …before judgment is entered. Smith v. Frank Griffin Volkswagen, Inc., 645 So. 2d 585 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994); Monco of Orlando, Inc. v. ITT Industrial Credit Corporation, 458 So. 2d 332 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984); General Electric Co. v. Atlantic Shores, Inc., 436 So. 2d 974 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983).…
  • …ner); Crane Co. v. Fine, 221 So. 2d 145 (Fla.1969) (one who has performed services or furnished materials in the improvement of real property is not limited to proceeding under the mechanic’s lien law); General Electric Co. v. Atlantic Shores, Inc., 436 So. 2d 974 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983) (a materialman does not have to make an election of remedies); Halifax Construction Co. v. Chastain Groves, Inc., 192 SO.2d 15 (Fla. 1st DCA 1966) (mechanic’s lien law does not bar a lienor from maintaining an action at law on th…

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