WALTER WALLS, LLC
v.
BRIGHT PROPERTY SOLUTIONS,
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Walter Walls, LLC appeals dismissal of its action as a sanction for failing to appear at a case management conference. The Fourth District Court of Appeal reverses, holding that the trial court erred by failing to make explicit findings that the plaintiff willfully and contumaciously failed to attend before imposing the dismissal sanction.
A trial court may not dismiss an action as a sanction for failure to attend a case management conference without making specific findings that the party willfully and contumaciously failed to attend. The absence of such findings constitutes an abuse of discretion.
[1] A trial court abuses its discretion by dismissing an action with prejudice as a sanction for failing to appear at a case management conference without making specific fin…
[2] A trial court must find that a party willfully and contumaciously failed to attend a case management conference before dismissing the action with prejudice as a sanction.
Previewing 2 of 3 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“the trial court must also find that the party willfully and contumaciously failed to attend the conference”
Establishes the mandatory requirement for a finding of willful and contumacious conduct before dismissal can be imposed as a sanction
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligencePlaintiff Walter Walls, LLC failed to appear for a noticed case management conference. The trial court dismissed the action with prejudice as a sancti…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
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Vadim Nestscheret.
DAMOORGIAN, J.
Walter Walls, LLC (“Plaintiff”) appeals the order dismissing its action with prejudice as a sanction for failing to appear for a noticed case management conference. Although the dismissal order stated Plaintiff “did not appear” for the conference and that “[t]his was not the first time” Plaintiff failed to appear for a scheduled hearing, the order did not set forth any specific findings establishing Plaintiff willfully and contumaciously failed to attend the conference. This was error. See Kaufman ex rel. Yelnick v. FS Tenant Pool III Tr., 87 So. 3d 1228, 1229 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012) (reiterating that in order to dismiss an action as a sanction for failure to attend a case management conference, “the trial court must also find that the party willfully and contumaciously failed to attend the conference” and the “[f]ailure to include a finding of such willful and contumacious behavior in its order dismissing the case with prejudice is an abuse of discretion by the trial court”); see also Petersen & Hawthorne, P.A. v. EMI Enters., Inc., 115 So. 3d 1064, 1065 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013) (“The court’s order merely stated that Appellant failed to attend the conference and did not set forth any findings establishing that Appellant engaged in ‘willful and contumacious’ behavior. This was not enough.”).
Accordingly, “we reverse and remand to give the trial court the opportunity, after reviewing the record, to make a determination on whether [Plaintiff’s] failure to appear at the court-mandated case management conference was willful, or in the alternative, to allow the matter to proceed.” Schneider v. Spaeth, 133 So. 3d 1167, 1169 (Fla. 4th DCA 2014).
Reversed and remanded.
WARNER and CONNER, JJ., concur.
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Citator
Authorities Cited
- Kaufman v. FS Tenant Pool III Tr., 87 So. 3d 1228 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012)
- Petersen & Hawthorne, P.A. v. EMI Enters., Inc., 115 So. 3d 1064 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013)
- Schneider v. Spaeth, 133 So. 3d 1167 (Fla. 4th DCA 2014)