BRENT C. MILLER, CHARLES M. RAND, AND MILLER AND RAND, P.A., APPELLANTS,
v.
JACOBS AND GOODMAN, P.A., APPELLEE

Fla. 5th DCA | 1994-07-15
No. 93-2068
HARRIS, C.J. and GOSHORN, J., concur.
639 So. 2d 1088 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (1994) Positive Treatment
Cited by 14 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

Miller and Rand appeal a trial court's denial of their third motion to dissolve a preliminary injunction governing fee allocation from clients who followed them when they left their law firm. The appellate court affirms, finding that appellants had earlier opportunities to raise their arguments and cannot relitigate matters in successive motions.


Holding

The trial court properly denied the motion because all matters raised either were previously raised or could have been raised in the initial contested hearing on the preliminary injunction, in hearings on appellants' prior modification motions, or through direct appeals from those orders.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court may deny a motion to dissolve or modify a preliminary injunction if the issues raised in the motion were previously addressed or could have been addressed i…

[2] Matters concerning immediate and irreparable injury, adequacy of legal remedies, and likelihood of success on the merits are relevant to the imposition and continued vali…

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Key Quotes

“The trial court properly denied appellants' third motion to dissolve or modify the preliminary injunction because all of the matters which appellants raise in them motion either were raised or could have been raised (1) in the contested hearing regarding the request for imposition of the initial preliminary, injunction; (2) in the hearings regarding appellants' prior motions to modify or dissolve the injunction; and (3) in a direct appeal from any of these orders.”

Establishes the core holding that successive motions raising previously available arguments are properly denied.

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Facts & Procedural History

Miller, Rand, and their law firm (appellants) were associates at Jacobs and Goodman law firm (appellee) under an employment contract allocating 75% of…

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Opinion of the Court
DIAMANTIS, Judge.

DIAMANTIS, Judge.

Brent C. Miller, Charles M. Rand, and Miller and Rand, P.A., appeal a non-final order denying their motion to dissolve a preliminary injunction.1 We affirm.

The present controversy involves the provisions of an employment contract which appellants, as associates, entered into with the appellee law firm regarding the allocation of fees generated from clients of the law firm who elected to be represented by appellants when they left the law firm. The contract allocated 75% of the fees to appellee and 25% to appellants.

Initially, the trial court, after a contested hearing, entered a preliminary injunction requiring that appellants and appellee be co-payees of all the fees and that the fees be deposited in a bank account under joint control. No appeal was taken from this order. Four months later, appellants moved to dissolve or modify the injunction, and the trial court entered an order which modified, but did not dissolve, the injunction. Appellants did not appeal this decision.

Seven months later, appellants filed a second motion to dissolve or modify the injunction, and the trial court entered an order which again modified the preliminary injunction. This order provided that 25% of the fees would remain subject to joint control and that the remaining 75% of the fees would be divided among the parties, with 18.75% to appellants and 56.25% to appellee. No appeal was taken from this modification order. Two months later, appellants filed a third motion to dissolve or modify the preliminary injunction. The trial court denied the motion, and this appeal timely followed.

The trial court properly denied appellants’ third motion to dissolve or modify the preliminary injunction because all of the matters which appellants raise in them motion either were raised or could have been raised (1) in the contested hearing regarding the request for imposition of the initial preliminary, injunction; (2) in the hearings regarding appellants’ prior motions to modify or dissolve the injunction; and (3) in a direct appeal from any of these orders. Specifically, the matters which appellants raise in their third motion involve issues of immediate and irreparable injury, adequacy of any remedy at law, and the substantial likelihood of success on the merits which, in turn, involve questions regarding the validity and enforceability of the provisions of the parties’ contract. See Darden v. Police & Fire Civil Service Board, 423 So. 2d 543 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982). See also Shadow Lakes Woods, Inc. v. Schneider, 414 So. 2d 3 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982). Compare Orlando Orange Groves Co. v. Hale, 107 Fla. 304, 144 So. 674 (1932), Employee Benefit Plans, Inc. v. Radice Corporate Center I, Inc., 593 So. 2d 1125 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992), and Pinellas County v. Seminole Lake Country Club Estates Homeowners Ass’n, 555 So. 2d 888 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989),2 each of which allowed a defendant to challenge, in a motion to dissolve a preliminary injunction and on appeal from the denial of the motion, the sufficiency of the pleadings to justify the injunction. In these cases, the preliminary injunction apparently was obtained ex parte or without notice, and the defendant’s first opportunity to raise such matters was in the motion to dissolve the injunction.

Accordingly, we affirm the trial court’s order without prejudice to .the parties to raise, at a final hearing on the merits, any appropriate matter encompassed within the pleadings.

AFFIRMED.

HARRIS, C.J. and GOSHORN, J., concur. . Appellate review of this order is authorized by rule 9.130(a)(3)(B) of the Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure.

. Appellants' reliance on Coastal Unilube, Inc. v. Smith, 598 So. 2d 200 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992), is misplaced because that case involved an appeal from an order dissolving a preliminary injunction and the appellate court, in reversing the trial court's order, considered the evidence received at the original hearing as well as the additional or new testimony presented at the dissolution hearing.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Hunter v. Dennies Contracting Co., Inc., 693 So. 2d 615 (Fla. 2d DCA 1997)
    …ould have justified the dissolution or modification of the injunction. Spaulding v. Estate of Frey, 666 So. 2d 935 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995); McCahill v. Braishfield Associates, Inc., 661 So. 2d 399 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995); Miller v. Jacobs and Goodman, P.A., 639 So. 2d 1088 (Fla. 5th DCA 1994). Because the trial judge was not presented with any such proof, we cannot say that he abused his discretion by, in effect, simply declining to revisit his initial ruling. On appeal, Hunter makes a persuasive argument that the ev…
  • Pecora v. Pecora, 697 So. 2d 1267 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997)
    …tions occurring after entry of the temporary injunction with notice. Spaulding v. Estate of Frey, 666 So. 2d 935, 936 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995), McCahill v. Braishfield Assocs., Inc., 661 So. 2d 399 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995); Miller v. Jacobs and Goodman, P.A., 639 So. 2d 1088 (Fla. 5th DCA 1994). This being the law of this district, a temporary injunction hearing after notice must be conducted with sufficient advance warning, opportunity to be heard and ability to create a record to afford the defendant the fair hearing…
  • Precision Tune Auto Care, Inc. v. Radcliff, 731 So. 2d 744 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999)
    …anting the temporary injunction and the arguments advanced in support of the motion to dissolve were arguments which could have been raised at the hearing on the motion for temporary injunction. Appellees rely on Miller v. Jacobs and Goodman, P.A., 639 So. 2d 1088 (Fla. 5th DCA 1994)(trial court properly denied motion to dissolve temporary injunction because all of the grounds of motion were either raised or could have been raised at the hearing on the injunction or in an appeal from the order granting the in…

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