CRAIG L. COE, APPELLANT,
v.
B & D TRANSPORTATION SERVICES, INC., A FLORIDA CORPORATION D/B/A BUDGET CAR SALES OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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.
A defendant is not entitled to attorney's fees and costs under an offer of judgment statute when no judgment is entered in favor of the plaintiff.
Plaintiff was injured in an automobile accident and sued the seller of the car. The seller served an offer of judgment, and the trial court entered su…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Equitable Title cases and more on FLexlaw
THREADGILL, Judge.
Craig L. Coe (Coe), plaintiff below, appeals from a final summary judgment and order of costs and attorney’s fees. We affirm the summary judgment which determined that the buyer of an automobile had equitable title when Coe, a passenger, was injured in an accident involving the automobile. The effect of the judgment was to dismiss the seller, B & D Transportation Services, Inc., a Florida corporation d/b/a Budget Car Sales of Southwest Florida (Budget) from the law suit. We also affirm the general award of costs to Budget as the prevailing party. § 57.041, Fla.Stat. (1987).
Before final summary judgment was entered, Budget served Coe with an offer of judgment. The final summary judgment was thereafter entered in favor of the defendant, Budget. There was no judgment entered in favor of Coe. The trial court then entered an order entitling Budget to attorney’s fees pursuant to sections 45.061 and 768.79, Florida Statutes (1987) and reserved jurisdiction to set the amount of fees.
This court recently held in Kline v. Publix Supermarkets, Inc., Nos. 89-00345 and 89-01182 (Fla. 2d DCA May 9, 1990), that before a defendant is entitled to an award of attorney’s fees and costs pursuant to an offer of judgment, there must be a judgment rendered in favor of plaintiff. Because judgment was not rendered in favor of the plaintiff below, we reverse the order finding Budget entitled to attorney’s fees.
Affirmed in part; reversed in part.
RYDER, A.C.J., and PATTERSON, J., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Timmons v. Combs, 608 So. 2d 1 (Fla. 1992)…attorney’s fees by the defendant under section 45.061 because a judgment was entered for the defendant rather than the plaintiff. Norris & Associates of Naples, Inc. v. Elkins, 570 So. 2d 1386 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990); Coe v. B & D Transp. Services, Inc., 561 So. 2d 469 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990). On the other hand, the Third District Court of Appeal in Memorial Sales, Inc., 579 So. 2d 778, and the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Gross, 591 So. 2d 311, have permitted the defendant to recover costs and attorney’s fees un…
-
Winn Dixie Stores, Inc. v. Elbert, 590 So. 2d 15 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991)…is at least 25 percent less than the offer rejected. It has been held that prior to an award of attorney’s fees in a situation such as the case here, there must be a judgment rendered in favor of the plaintiff. See Coe v. B & D Transp. Serv., Inc., 561 So. 2d 469 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990). Appellant, however, argues that a verdict awarding appellee nothing is certainly 25 percent less than the offer, thus activating the applicable portion of either statute. It would appear that appellant’s position is well founded…
-
Brodose v. The Sch. Bd. OF Pinellas Cnty., 622 So. 2d 513 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993)…an award of attorney’s fees in such circumstances and, in fact, was being interpreted by this court as a prohibition to the entry of such an award. Westover v. Allstate Ins. Co., 581 So. 2d 988 (Fla. 2d DCA 1991); Coe v. B & D Transp. Servs., Inc., 561 So. 2d 469 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990); Gunn v. DePaoli, 562 So. 2d 427 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990). Similarly, although section 45.061 has been repealed as to causes of action accruing after October 1, 1990, and the supreme court, in Timmons v. Combs, 608 So. 2d 1 (Fla.1992),…
Previewing 3 of 9 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence