K & M ELECTRIC SUPPLY, INC., APPELLANT/CROSS-APPELLEE,
v.
MODUPLEX CORPORATION, ON ITS OWN BEHALF AND AS ASSIGNEE OF GRAYBAR ELECTRIC COMPANY, INC., AND ELECTRICAL ASSOCIATES ENTERPRISES, INC., APPELLEES/CROSS-APPELLANTS

Fla. 4th DCA | 1997-01-02
Nos. 95-3027, 95-4320
POLEN and GROSS, JJ., concur, PARIENTE, J., concurs specially with opinion.
686 So. 2d 717 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1997) Positive Treatment
Cited by 7 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

In this commercial dispute, K & M Electric Supply appealed a trial court judgment concerning materials supplied by Graybar Electric Company and quantum meruit damages owed by Moduplex Corporation. The Fourth District affirmed the trial court's finding that Graybar's monies were not part of EAE's accounts receivable, but reversed the improper award of attorney's fees and remanded for recalculation of damages to include proper offsets and prejudgment interest calculations.


Holding

The trial court correctly found that Graybar's monies were not part of EAE's accounts receivable. The court erred in offsetting certain post-December 29, 1992 expenses from the quantum meruit award and in limiting Moduplex's recovery as assignee to $260,000 rather than the full $318,173.86 owed to Graybar. The court's award of attorney's fees was improper because EAE recovered on a quantum meruit basis, not under contract or statute, providing no basis for such fees.


Headnotes

[1] A factual finding supported by substantial, competent evidence will not be disturbed on appeal.

[2] A trial court errs in offsetting from a quantum meruit award monies expended by the owner after the date subcontracts were terminated.

Previewing 2 of 6 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

“Because there is substantial, competent evidence to support this factual finding, we find no error and thus reject K & M's first point on appeal.”

Affirms the trial court's finding that Graybar's monies never became part of EAE's accounts receivable and were not subject to K & M's security interest.

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

Graybar Electric Company supplied materials to Moduplex Corporation. Electrical Associates Enterprises, Inc. (EAE) had subcontracts with Moduplex that…

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
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

We sua sponte consolidate these appeals from the main judgment and from the award of attorney’s fees.

The parties to this dispute have raised numerous issues on appeal and cross-appeal. The trial court made a factual finding that the monies owed for materials supplied by Graybar Electric Company (Graybar) never became part of the accounts receivable of Electrical Associates Enterprises, Inc. (EAE) and thus were never subject to the security interest of EAE’s creditor, K & M Electric Supply, Inc. (K & M). Because there is substantial, competent evidence to support this factual finding, we find no error and thus reject K & M’s first point on appeal. Thus, we also disagree with K & M that the trial court erred in its calculation of damages when it failed to include prejudgment interest on the amount due Graybar by Moduplex between the dates of December 29, 1992 and August 31,1994.

We agree'with K & M, however, that the trial court erroneously offset from the quantum meruit award certain monies that the owner, Moduplex Corporation, on its own behalf and as assignee of Graybar (Mo-duplex), expended after December 29, 1992, the date that the subcontracts between Mo-duplex and EAE were terminated. Also, the recalculation of damages on remand must allow for post-judgment interest on the prejudgment interest component of the final judgment. When the final judgment was entered, neither the trial court nor the parties had the benefit of Quality Engineered Installation, Inc. v. Higley South, Inc., 670 So. 2d 929 (Fla.1996).

Moduplex raises two points on cross-appeal. As to the first point, we agree with Moduplex that-when Moduplex became the assignee of Graybar’s claim, it was entitled to the full amount to which Graybar would have been entitled. It is undisputed that Graybar was owed $318,173.86 for its materials. The trial court thus erred in giving Moduplex, as Graybar’s assignee, credit for only $260,000, the amount Moduplex had paid to Graybar in exchange for the assignment of its claim. We reject Moduplex’s second point on cross-appeal that the trial court erred when it allowed EAE to recover $10,000 for trailers and tools left on the job by EAE.

Moduplex also appeals an award of attorney’s fees and costs against it and in favor of EAE. We reverse because no contractual or statutory basis existed for the award. See Florida Medical Ctr., Inc. v. McCoy, 657 So. 2d 1248, 1250 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995). EAE did not recover under its subcontracts with Moduplex. Those subcontracts were terminated as of December 29, 1992, and damages were awarded under a quantum meruit basis. See id. at 1251-52; Vining v. Carmona, 596 So. 2d 154 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992); Douglass v. Jones, 422 So. 2d 352 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982). Having found the award of attorney’s fees to be improper, the issues on cross-appeal as to the appropriate hourly rate, reduction of the lodestar fee, and entitlement to prejudgment interest are moot.

We affirm in part; reverse in part; and remand to the trial court for recalculation of the final judgment in accordance with this opinion.

POLEN and GROSS, JJ., concur

PARIENTE, J., concurs specially with opinion.

Concurrence
PARIENTE, Judge,

PARIENTE, Judge,

concurring specially.

I concur in the result reached by the majority. I write to discuss an additional basis for reversal of the trial court’s award of prevailing party attorney’s fees. Even if there were a contractual basis for recovery, EAE was not the prevailing party, based on the findings in the trial court’s order. See Prosperi v.Code, Inc., 626 So. 2d 1360, 1363 (Fla.1993); Moritz v. Hoyt Enters., 604 So. 2d 807, 810 (Fla.1992). In a detailed order, the trial court enumerated the significant issues in the underlying lawsuit and found that EAE had not prevailed on any of them. For example, the trial court stated that it had calculated the damages awarded to K & M on the basis advocated by Moduplex, not as urged by EAE.

Rather than applying Moritz and Prosperi, the trial court erroneously concluded that even though it found that Moduplex had prevailed on the significant issues, EAE had to be considered the prevailing party if “it recovered something,” citing to Malagon v. Solari, 566 So. 2d 352 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990). In Malagon, we held that “[i]t is well settled that a plaintiff is considered the prevailing party if he recovers less than he sued for, so long as he recovers something.” Id. at 352. However, Malagon has been implicitly overruled by Moritz and Prosperi.

In Moritz, our supreme court held that “the fairest test to determine who is the prevailing party is to allow the trial judge to determine from the record which party has in fact prevailed on the significant issues tried before the court.” Moritz, 604 So. 2d at 810. In Prosperi, our supreme court explained that Moritz requires a flexible appli cation of prevailing party attorney’s fees: “The fact that the claimant obtains a net judgment is a significant factor but it need not always control the determination of who should be considered the prevailing party.” Prosperi, 626 So. 2d at 1363.

I take this opportunity to correct an incomplete statement of the law governing prevailing party attorney’s fees made in Rosso v. Golden Surf Towers Condominium Association, 651 So. 2d 787 (Fla. 4th DCA), review denied, 659 So. 2d 1088 (Fla.1995), an opinion I authored. Citing to Prosperi, this court stated that the net judgment rule has been applied by the courts of this state to determine which party may be deemed the prevailing party for purposes of assessing attorney’s fees. Rosso, 651 So. 2d at 789. While this statement is historically accurate, see Prosperi, 626 So. 2d at 1362, in Prosperi, our supreme court confronted the continued viability of the net judgment rule in light of Moritz. Our supreme court held that “in considering whether to apply the net judgment rule, the trial judge must have the discretion to consider the equities and determine which party has in fact prevailed on the significant issues.” Id. Therefore, the fact that a party obtains a net judgment, while a significant factor, is not necessarily determinative of the prevailing party.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Bashar Ahmad v. Cobb Corner, Inc., 762 So. 2d 944 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000)
    …0 Fla. 1180, 131 So. 173, 177 (1930) (citation omitted). This court recently held that the assignee of an account receivable purchased at a discount was entitled to enforce the full amount of the debt. See K & M Elec. Supply, Inc, v. Moduplex Corp., 686 So. 2d 717, 718 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997). See also Lloyd v. Cannon, 399 So. 2d 1095 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981) (reversing the denial of a deficiency and rejecting the argument that the mortgagee could not receive a deficiency where she had recovered her cost basis in the…
  • THE Florida BAR v. Schramm, 668 So. 2d 585 (Fla. 1996)
    …findings of fact contained in the referee’s report. There are multiple violations not contested by Schramm and the ease law regarding the discipline imposed in analogous cases supports the referee’s recommendation. See, e.g., Florida Bar v. Merwin, 686 So. 2d 717 (Fla.1994); Florida Bar v. Colclough, 561 So. 2d 1147 (Fla.1990); Florida Bar v. Grant, 514 So. 2d 1075 (Fla.1987); Florida Bar v. Oxner, 431 So. 2d 983 (Fla.1983). Robert Schramm is hereby suspended for a period of ninety-one days and thereafter u…
  • Gale Indus., Inc. v. Trytek, 960 So. 2d 805 (Fla. 5th DCA 2007)
    …or or subcontractor who recovered a judgment pursuant to a construction lien, even if it recovered less than the amount sought, would be entitled to attorney’s fees as long as they recovered something. See K & M Elec. Supply, Inc. v. Moduplex Corp., 686 So. 2d 717, 718 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997). That is to say, if the contractor obtained any monetary judgment pursuant to a Chapter 713 action, it would ordinarily be considered the prevailing party. Fifteen years ago, however, the Florida Supreme Court determined in…

Previewing 3 of 4 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw