SHIRLEE CUTLER, APPELLANT,
v.
NELSON C. ALEMAN AND MARIA M. BARRIOS, HIS WIFE; MARIA C. MENENDEZ, A SINGLE WOMAN, AND HARBOR FINANCIAL MORTGAGE CORPORATION, A TEXAS CORPORATION, APPELLEES

Fla. 3d DCA | 1997-11-05
No. 97-946
Before NESBITT, COPE and LEVY, JJ.
701 So. 2d 390 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1997) Positive Treatment
Cited by 3 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

Shirlee Cutler appealed a judgment on the pleadings dismissing her mortgage foreclosure action, arguing the trial court improperly determined that an assigned mortgage had expired. The appellate court reversed, holding that ambiguous language in the assignment created factual questions inappropriate for resolution on the pleadings.


Holding

Judgment on the pleadings should not have been entered because the ambiguous language of the assignment created factual issues that could not be resolved on the face of the pleadings. The court could not determine from the pleadings alone whether the assignment itself expired in six months or whether the six-month period referred only to the underlying loan.


Headnotes

[1] A motion for judgment on the pleadings can only be granted if, on the facts admitted for the purposes of the motion, the moving party is clearly entitled to judgment.

[2] When ruling on a motion for judgment on the pleadings, material allegations of the moving party that have been denied are taken as false, and conclusions of law are not d…

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Key Quotes

“Judgment on the pleadings can be granted only if, on the facts as admitted for the purposes of the motion, the moving party is clearly entitled to judgment.”

Establishes the standard requiring that the moving party be clearly entitled to judgment, which was not satisfied here due to ambiguity.

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Facts & Procedural History

Cutler brought a foreclosure action on a mortgage that had been partially assigned to her. The assignment was executed with language indicating the mo…

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Opinion of the Court
COPE, Judge.

COPE, Judge.

This is an appeal from a final judgment entered upon a motion for judgment on the pleadings.

The plaintiff-appellant, Shirlee Cutler, brought an action to foreclose a mortgage that had been partially assigned to her. The trial court granted the appellees’ motion for judgment on the pleadings, finding that the assignment (which was appended to the foreclosure complaint) had expired by its own terms.

The standards for ruling on a motion for judgment on the pleadings are as follows:

Material allegations of the moving party which have been denied are taken as false. Conclusions of law also are not deemed admitted for purposes of the motion. The court must accept as true all well-pleaded allegations of the non-moving party. Judgment on the pleadings can be granted only if, on the facts as admitted for the purposes of the motion, the moving party is clearly entitled to judgment.

Yunkers v. Yunkers, 515 So. 2d 419, 420 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987) (citations omitted); accord Scarborough Assocs. v. Financial Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass’n of Dade County, 647 So. 2d 1001, 1002 (Fla. 3d DCA 1994).

We conclude that the judgment on the pleadings was improvidently entered. First, the admittedly awkward language of the assignment is ambiguous. The phraseology indicates that the mortgage was assigned “as collateral security for the advancement of $30,000 for a period of six months, or such extensions as may be authorized at the sole discretion of the Assignee_” * The question is whether (a) the parties intended the assignment itself to expire in six months unless extended, or (b) the language means that the $30,000.00 loan would be due in six months unless the due date was extended. Under alternative (b), the assignment did not itself have an expiration date.

Second, even if alternative (a) is the correct reading and the assignment only had a life of six months, the assignment also states that the period could be extended by the unilateral action of the assignee. The plaintiffs complaint was silent as to whether there had been any such extensions. That being so, it was not possible to ascertain from the face of the pleadings whether the assignment had expired.

Accordingly, judgment on the pleadings should not have been entered because the question of the time period and to what it referred presented factual issues.

Reversed and remanded for proceedings consistent herewith.

*

The pertinent provision of the assignment states that the assignor,

in consideration of the sum of Thirty Thousand and no/100 — ($30,000)-DOLLARS, and other valuable considerations, received from and on behalf of Shirley Cutler, party of the second part, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, does hereby grant, bargain, sell, assign, transfer, and set over unto the said party of the second part as collateral security for the advancement of $30,000, for a period of six months, or such extensions as may be authorized at the sole discretion of Assignee, such portion of a certain mortgage bearing the date of the 12th day of February A.D.1993, made by Twin Oaks Resources, Inc., guaranteed personally by Richard S. Astrom, President, in favor of ALTERNATIVE BANCORP AND/OR ASSIGNS, as security for repayment of the total sum of $48,000.00 and interest.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Nationstar Mortg., LLC v. Zorie, 146 So. 3d 1209 (Fla. 5th DCA 2014)
    …ee also Labbee v. Harrington, 913 So. 2d 679, 683-84 (Fla. 3d DCA 2005). “Judgment on the pleadings can be granted only if, on the facts as admitted for the purposes of the motion, the moving party is clearly entitled to judgment.” Cutler v. Aleman, 701 So. 2d 390, 391 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997) (quoting Yunkers v. Yunkers, 515 So. 2d 419, 420 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987)). “[T]he party that holds the note and mortgage in question has standing to bring and maintain a foreclosure action.” Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Morcom, 125 S…
  • PWBC, LLC. v. Palm Vista Homeowners Ass'n, Inc., 417 So. 3d 4 (Fla. 4th DCA 2025)

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