MARTIN L. ROBBINS, M.D., P.A., ET AL., APPELLANTS,
v.
I.R.E. REAL ESTATE FUND, LTD., ET AL., APPELLEES

Fla. 3d DCA | 1992-10-06
No. 92-75
Before NESBITT, FERGUSON and GODERICH, JJ.
608 So. 2d 844 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1992) Caution
Cited by 6 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

Tenants of a commercial building complex appealed a declaratory judgment upholding their landlords' right to impose parking charges after reconfiguring the parking lot. The court reversed, holding that the lease provisions did not authorize the landlords to impose parking charges, which had been free for all tenants prior to the reconfiguration.


Holding

The court held that the leases did not authorize the landlords to impose parking charges because the leases were silent on this subject, and such silence cannot be construed as authorization to impose charges that were previously free. The court also held that parking charges are not 'operating expenses' under Section 4.2 of the leases because charges create intake of funds while expenses require outlays.


Headnotes

[1] A landlord cannot impose parking charges on tenants if the lease agreement is silent on the matter and free parking was a material inducement for the lease.

[2] A contract should not be judicially reformed to impose duties that the parties themselves omitted.

Previewing 2 of 4 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

Key Quotes

“Where a contract is silent as to a particular subject, a court should not, under the guise of construction, impose on parties contractual duties which they themselves omitted when entering into the contract.”

Establishes the fundamental contract interpretation principle that silence on a matter cannot be construed to authorize obligations not explicitly included.

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

The landlords reconfigured and restricted the parking area to require payment or display of paid decals, citing purposes of improving parking availabi…

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.


Opinion of the Court
NESBITT, Judge.

NESBITT, Judge.

Tenants of a commercial building complex appeal an adverse declaratory judgment which determined that their landlords could re-configure the complex parking lot and require the tenants to pay newly imposed parking charges. For the following reasons, the judgment of declaratory relief is reversed with directions to enter judgment favorable to the tenants.

This dispute began after the landlords restructured and re-configured the building parking area so as to prohibit ingress and egress of all users of the lot without payment of parking charges or the display of a decal showing the required monthly fees had been paid. The landlords demonstrated the purpose of the re-configuration was, at least in part, to promote greater parking availability to the tenants and to afford them greater security. It seems that due to the shortage of parking space at nearby Baptist Hospital, employees of the hospital had started using previously free parking space at the building complex. The landlords further demonstrated that the open parking area had been used by motorists to avoid a comer traffic signal and unrestrained access to the lot had permitted criminal activity. Automobile tires had been slashed; car windows had been smashed with attendant theft; and tenants and their visitors had reported vandalism to their cars while parked in the open lot.

The landlords point to the provisions in the tenant leases which “reserve the right at any time to make alterations to the building; [and] construct other buildings or improvements in the buildings or common areas....” Further, the landlords claimed authorization for the restructuring charges came from lease clauses which authorized the landlords to adopt “reasonable rules and regulations ... governing the use of the parking areas, walks and driveways. ...” Presently, tenants do not deny the landlords’ right to re-configure the parking lot. Instead, their claim is that the landlords had no authority to commence charging for parking in the newly configured lot. The landlords claim that because the leases are otherwise silent as to the authority to impose parking charges, section 4.2 of the leases authorize levy for these charges. That provision provides:

Section 4.2 Definition Of Operating Expenses

The term “Operating Expenses” shall mean (1) all costs of management, operation and maintenance of the Office Complex, including, without limitation, wages, salaries and payroll burden of employees, janitorial, maintenance, guard and other services, building management office rent or rental value, power, fuel, water, waste disposal, landscaping care, premiums for liability, fire, hazard and other property related insurance, parking area care, advertising and promotion, fees for energy saving programs, administrative costs, including management fee, and (2) the cost (amortized over such reasonable period as Landlord shall determine) of any capital improvements made to the Building by Landlord after the date of this Lease that reduce the Operating Expenses, or made to the Building by Landlord after the date of this Lease that are required under any governmental law or regulation that was not applicable to the Building at the time it was constructed; provided, however, that Operating Expenses shall not include real property taxes, depreciation on the Building, costs of tenant improvements, real estate brokers’ commissions, interest and capital items other than those referred to in clause (2) above.

It is undisputed that prior to the reconfiguration no parking charges had ever been levied against the appellant tenants, their employees, or business invitees. Moreover, appellants submitted evidence that the absence of parking charges was a material inducement in their original execution of the leases.

Where a contract is silent as to a particular subject, a court should not, under the guise of construction, impose on parties contractual duties which they themselves omitted when entering into the contract. BMW of North America, Inc. v. Kratken, 471 So. 2d 585, 587 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985), review denied, 484 So. 2d 7 (Fla. 1986). The intention of the parties, as reflected by the language used and objects to be accomplished is a polestar of contract interpretation. Acceleration Nat’l Serv. Corp. v. Brickell Finan. Servs. Motor Club, Inc., 541 So. 2d 738 (Fla. 3d DCA), review denied, 548 So. 2d 662 (Fla.1989).

In the present case, the absence of a lease provision authorizing the landlords to impose parking charges cannot be regarded as mere oversight in the leases for such a sophisticated building complex. It is unassailable that the leases simply do not authorize the landlords to impose parking charges, and in fact, no charges were made until the re-configuration. As will be observed from reading section 4.2, quoted above, the landlords’ only authority to require tenants to contribute generally to such parking is with respect to “parking area care.” Because free parking was a given and the leases were silent with respect to the authority to impose parking charges and were drafted by the landlords, to require the tenants to pay parking charges under such circumstances constitutes a judicial reformation of an unambiguous contract provision. Azalea Park Utils., Inc. v. Knox-Florida Dev. Corp., 127 So. 2d 121 (Fla. 2d DCA 1961).

Moreover, the landlords’ vigorous argument that “parking charges” only constitute one of many kinds of operating expenses under section 4.2 likewise fails. A “charge” produces an intake of funds, while an “expense” requires an outlay of funds. One creates a debit and the other a credit. To argue that parking charges are therefore expenses not only ignores the wording of the leases but also ignores basic accounting principles.

Finally, the tenants also challenge the trial court’s award of attorney’s fees to the landlords. We conclude that neither party is entitled to attorney’s fees under the instant circumstances. The cases authorizing fees to the prevailing party for litigation arising out of the enforcement of leases is not applicable here since both parties filed for declaratory relief. Florida decisions which have considered the question have concluded that such actions are not for “enforcement” so as to justify a fee award. See Dade Sav. & Loan Ass’n v. Broks Center Ltd., 529 So. 2d 775 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988); see also Holmes Regional Enters. v. Advanced Medical Diagnostics Corp., 582 So. 2d 822 (Fla. 5th DCA 1991); Ocala Warehouse Invs., Ltd. v. Bison Co., 416 So. 2d 1269 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982).

For the foregoing reasons, the judgment and the order awarding fees are reversed with directions to enter judgment declaring the landlords are not entitled to impose and collect parking fees from tenants, their employees, or visitor-business invitees. The order awarding fees is also reversed.

Reversed and remanded.

Other
NESBITT, Judge.

ON MOTIONS FOR REHEARING AND/OR CLARIFICATION

NESBITT, Judge.

On motion for rehearing and/or clarification, the landlords request that this court declare as operating expenses the costs of manning the booths and collecting the charges under dispute. Then, the landlords reason, those costs can be passed on to tenants, as per Section 4.2. Having concluded that charges for tenant, employee, and guest vehicles entering the lot were never provided for in the instant leases, we find, a fortiori, the expenses for maintaining salaried personnel to collect these unauthorized charges cannot be termed operating expenses and cannot be passed on to tenants.

The motion is denied.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Pasteur Health Plan, Inc. v. Salazar, 658 So. 2d 543 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995)
    …es every principle of contract and insurance law. When a contract is silent as to a term, as this contract is, a court should not remedy the deficiency by divining from its crystal ball the drafter’s intent. Robbins v. I.R.E. Real Estate Fund, Ltd., 608 So. 2d 844, 846 (Fla. Sd DCA 1992) (“Where a contract is silent as to a particular subject, a court should not, under the guise of construction, impose on parties contractual duties which they themselves omitted when entering into the contract.”), rev. denied,…
  • Careers USA, Inc. v. Sanctuary OF Boca, Inc., 705 So. 2d 1362 (Fla. 1998)
    …rs USA, Inc., 691 So. 2d 596 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997), which certified conflict with the decisions in Ocala Warehouse Investments, Ltd. v. Bison Co., 416 So. 2d 1269 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982), and Martin L. Robbins, M.D., P.A. v. I.R.E. Real Estate Fund, Ltd., 608 So. 2d 844 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992), rev. denied, 620 So. 2d 761 (Fla.1993). We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. Careers USA (Careers) is the tenant and Sanctuary of Boca (Sanctuary) the landlord in a commercial property lease. In April 1995, Caree…
  • Sanctuary OF Boca, Inc. v. Careers USA, Inc., 691 So. 2d 596 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997)
    …tation of a rent escalation clause since the action did not involve allegations of a present delinquency, nor was either party seeking to enforce any covenant of the lease. Likewise, in Martin L. Robbins, M.D., P.A. v. I.R.E. Real Estate Fund, Ltd., 608 So. 2d 844, 846 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992), rev. denied, 620 So. 2d 761 (Fla.1993), the Third District, citing Ocala Warehouse, reversed a landlord’s fee award, holding that “[t]he cases authorizing fees to the prevailing party for litigation arising out of the enforc…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw