GUGGENHEIMER & COMPANY, A CORPORATION, APPELLANT,
v.
W. M. DAVIDSON, APPELLEE

Fla. | 1911-06-01
Shackleford and Cockrell, J. J., concur;, Taylor, Hocker and Parkhill, J. J., concur in the opinion.
62 Fla. 490 Florida Supreme Court (1911) Negative Treatment
Cited by 55 cases

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Synopsis

The Florida Supreme Court reversed an order denying a motion to strike an amended complaint in a mortgage foreclosure action, holding that the amended bill alleged facts wholly inconsistent with the original bill and failed to state a valid equitable claim against the defendant.


Holding

The amended complaint should be stricken because its allegations are wholly inconsistent with and repugnant to the original complaint, asserting an entirely different and inconsistent right, and because it fails to allege that Guggenheimer was not a bona fide purchaser without notice of the complainant's alleged rights.


Key Quotes

“Striking a pleading is a severe remedy and should be resorted to only in cases palpably requiring it for the proper administration of justice.”

Establishes the high bar for striking pleadings and that such motions should be used sparingly

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Facts & Procedural History

Davidson brought a mortgage foreclosure suit against Guggenheimer & Company and others. The original complaint alleged the mortgage secured a debt par…

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Opinion of the Court
Whitfield, C. J.

Whitfield, C. J.

— The appellee, W.

M. Davidson, brought a suit to foreclose a mortgage on real estate making the appellant and D.

M. Davidson and wife and others defendants. The original bill of complaint alleges that the mortgage had been given by D.

M. Davidson and wife to secure the payment of a debt, and that an unpaid portion of the mortgage debt had been assigned to appellee. An answer by Guggenheimer & Company sets up its right in the land to the exclusion of the complainant. The complainant then presented a petition to amend his bill of complaint “by adding thereto various and sundry statements of facts which have come to the knowledge of your petitioner and his counsel since the filing of said bill and of the filing of the said answer thereto.” This petition was granted and the complainant filed an amended bill of complaint alleging in effect that the mortgage was given for the payment of the purchase price of the land mortgaged; that although the title to the land was taken in the name of his mother, the wife of D.

M. Davidson, and the mortgage executed by his mother, the purchase was made by and for him, and that he had furnished all the money paid on the indebtedness, and that the unpaid notes had been assigned "to him. It is not alleged that the defendant Guggenheimer & Company, who had answered claiming title by purchase at a execution sale against D.

M. Davidson who was the owner of the land, took his execution deed with notice of complainant’s alleged rights. The prayer is in effect to decree an equitable title in complainant. The defendant Guggenheimer & Company moved to strike this amended bill of complaint on the grounds that it is inconsistent with the original bill, and is beyond the scope of the petition granted for filing the amended bill. The motion to strike was denied, and the defendant appealed from this interlocutory order only. Striking a pleading is a severe remedy and should be resorted to only in cases palpably requiring it for the proper administration of justice. Ray v. Williams Phosphate Co., 55 Fla. 723, 46 South. Rep. 158.

A wide discretion is allowed trial courts in permitting amendments to pleadings, and where no settled rule of law or procedure is plainly violated or a sound judicial discretion abused, the action of the court in permitting amendments will not be disturbed.

If an amended bill of complaint is in effect the institution of a new and materially different suit alleging a different cause of action, and is so palpably inconsistent with or repugnant to the original pleading that it is patent no decree can properly be entered on the amended bill, a motion to strike would not be an inappropriate remedy. See Fletcher’s Eq. Pl. & Pr. Sec. 388; Larkins v. Biddle, 21 Ala. 252; Savage v. Worsham, 194 Fed. Rep. 18; Land Company of New Mexico (Limited) v. Elkins, 20 Fed. Rep. 545; Verplank v. The Mercantile Insurance Company, of New York, and Barker, 1 Edw. Ch. (N. Y.) 46; Shields v. Barrow, 17 How. (U. S.) 130; Belton v. Apperson, 26 Gratt. (Va.) 207; Griffin v. Societe Annonyme La Floridienne, 53 Fla. 801, 44 South. Rep. 342; 16 Cyc. 338; 1 Ency. Pl. & Pr. 476, 487; Van Zile’s Eq. Pl. Sec. 257.

In this case the allegations of the amended bill of complaint are wholly inconsistent with, and repugnant to the allegations of the original bill and attempt to assert an entirely different and inconsistent right of the plaintiff. Besides this the amended bill does not state an equity in the complainant as against the appellant in that it does not aliege that Guggenheimer was not a Iona fide purchaser without notice of' complainant’s right. This being patent, the order denying the motion to strike is reversed. Shackleford and Cockrell, J. J., concur;

Taylor, Hocker and Parkhill, J. J., concur in the opinion.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By (27 total)

  • Palm Beach Ests. v. Bula E. Croker, 106 Fla. 617 (Fla. 1932)
    …from that previously asserted by Mrs. Croker. The Chancellor denied the motion to file the fifth amended bill, stating in his order, “In view of the decision o'f the Supreme Court in this case, and upon authority of Guggenheimer & Co. v. Davidson, 62 Fla. 490, 56 Sou. Rep. 801, I am of the opinion that the proposed amended bill is neither timely nor proper at this state of the ease, and that it would not be within my judicial discretion to permit it to be filed.” Our view is that no reversible error was…
    1 / 2
  • Busch v. Baker, 79 Fla. 113 (Fla. 1920)
    …[*123] of this statute it had been held in this State that if a pleading in equity was wholly irrelevant,, or otherwise improper, it was subject to a motion to strike. Ray v. Williams, 55 Fla. 723, 46 South. Rep. 158; Guggenheimer & Co. v. Davidson, 62 Fla. 490, 56 South. Rep. 801. See also Campbell v. Wilson, 74 Fla. 608, 77 South. Rep. 540. It is also well recognized that the Chancellor has inherent power of his own motion to purge pleadings of prolixity, tautology, scandal and impertinence. Ray v. Willi…
  • Carroll v. Gore, 106 Fla. 582 (Fla. 1932)
    …ter verdict, when necessary for the purpose of determining the real question in controversy in the suit between the parties. Hart v. Pierce, 98 Fla. 1087, 125 So. 243; Evans v. Kloppe, 72 Fla. 267, 73 So. [*588] 180; Gurgenheimer & Co. vs. Davidson, 62 Fla. 490, 56 So. 801; Hartford Fire Insurance Co. v. Redding, 47 Fla. 228, 37 So. 62. Section 4284 (2618) C. G. L. 1927, provides that if any plaintiff does not take issue “after notice” upon any plea, or reply, or demurrer to the same, he shall be consider…

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