GRACE A. CONIDARIS AND ROBERT CONIDARIS, D/B/A LANI KAI ISLAND RESORT, APPELLANTS,
v.
CRESSWOOD SERVICES, INC., APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 2000-12-08
No. 2D99-5000
CAMPBELL, A.C.J., and CASANUEVA, J., Concur
779 So. 2d 518 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (2000) Positive Treatment
Cited by 10 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

The appellate court reversed a trial court's equitable judgment for furniture, finding it was neither pleaded nor tried by consent, but affirmed a judgment for unpaid invoices. The court emphasized that relief must be requested in pleadings or tried by consent.


Holding

1. Yes, the trial court erred in awarding equitable relief for the furniture because equitable remedies were neither pleaded nor tried by consent. 2. No, the trial court did not err in ordering payment for the unpaid invoices.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court may not grant relief that has not been requested by pleading or tried by consent of the parties.

[2] A party is not required to plead an invoice for which payment has already been received and applied.

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

“A trial court may not decree relief that has neither been requested by way of pleading nor tried by consent.”

Establishes the principle that relief must be pleaded or tried by consent.

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 Conidarises contracted with Cresswood to purchase hotel furnishings, with the condition that they comply with franchisor specifications. Despite s…

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
DAVIS, Judge.

DAVIS, Judge.

Grace and Robert Conidaris challenge the final judgment of the trial court ordering them to pay $12,256.33 to Cresswood Consolidated Services, Inc. The Conidaris-es argue that because the trial court found Cresswood breached the parties’ contract, Cresswood should not be entitled to a judgment in equity. They further maintain that the trial court erred by ordering them to pay Cresswood $4,256 for unpaid invoices. We reverse on the first issue, but affirm on the second.

This dispute arose when the Conidaris-es, owners of the Lani Kai Resort Hotel, contracted with Cresswood to act as their agent in purchasing furnishings for the hotel. The Conidarises were attempting to acquire franchise status as a Quality Inn Suites from Choice Hotels International. The contract between Cresswood and the Conidarises required that all furnishings supplied by Cresswood comply with Choice’s franchisee specifications.

Although Choice’s specifications did not allow vinyl furniture, the Conidarises and their representatives made oral statements to Cresswood that they wanted to purchase furniture that would match the ho tel’s existing pink vinyl furniture. Cress-wood submitted to Choice a color sample board that included a sample of the pink vinyl. After receiving no response regarding the furniture, Cresswood supplied the Conidarises with the pink vinyl furniture they requested.

Upon inspection by Choice, the franchisor informed the Conidarises that the vinyl furniture was not in compliance with franchisee specifications. However, Choice agreed that they could use the furniture and replace it in five years or as needed, whichever came first. Although they were in possession of the furniture and were using a portion of it in their hotel, the Conidarises refused to pay Cresswood for the vinyl furniture and refused to pay various invoices for other items supplied by Cresswood.

Cresswood sought payment for the furniture and the other items by filing suit against the Conidarises for open account, goods sold, and account stated. The Coni-darises, in turn, raised the legal affirmative defenses of breach of contract and negligence, and brought a counterclaim based on the same theories. Cresswood did not include any claim for equitable relief nor did the Conidarises raise any equitable defense. The matter proceeded to a non-jury trial. The trial court did not make any written findings of fact, nor did it specifically rule on Cresswood’s three claims or on Conidarises counter-claim. Instead, the trial judge verbally found that Cresswood had breached the contract by delivering furniture that did not meet contractual specifications. It appears from the record that the trial judge, by this finding, ruled in favor of the Conidarises on Cresswood’s complaint by finding the affirmative defense of breach of contract to be valid. However, the court then entered a judgment requiring the Conidarises to pay Cresswood $8,000 for the furniture, “to do equity.”

A trial court may not decree relief that has neither been requested by way of pleading nor tried by consent. See Koehler v. Roberts, 661 So. 2d 374, 374 (Fla. 2d DCA 1995); Miceli v. Gilmac Developers, Inc., 467 So. 2d 404, 406 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985). Although the trial court’s ruling here may be supported by an equitable argument, neither party sought an equitable remedy, nor does the record show that an equitable claim was tried by the consent of the parties. Furthermore, there is no evidence of record to support the $8,000 award. Therefore, we reverse the trial court’s final judgment as to the $8,000 payment required by the equitable ruling and remand to the trial court for a determination of the claims presented by the parties based on the evidence before the trial court.

The trial court also ordered the Conidarises to pay Cresswood $4,256 for unpaid invoices on other goods that the Conidarises had received. The Conidaris-es introduced evidence of a $4,000 payment to Cresswood, but Cresswood presented testimony that the payment was applied to an unpaid invoice due for draperies that Cresswood had supplied to the Conidaris-es. The Conidarises maintain that Cress-wood is not entitled to apply the payment to the drapery invoice because Cresswood never raised the issue of the draperies in its pleadings. This argument is without merit.

Cresswood had not sought payment for the draperies in its pleadings because it had already applied the Conidarises’ $4,000 payment to that invoice and considered that invoice as paid in full. Cresswood was not required to raise in its pleadings an invoice for which it did not seek payment.

Accordingly, we affirm the trial court’s finding regarding the unpaid invoices, reverse the trial court’s judgment regarding the furniture, and remand for further proceedings.

CAMPBELL, A.C.J., and CASANUEVA, J., Concur


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Golden v. Davey L. Woodward, Jr., 15 So. 3d 664 (Fla. 1st DCA 2009)
    …entered a judgment in favor of Mr. Woodward’s estate as to Count Two, and judgment in favor of Appellants on the other claims. This appeal ensued. Appellants assert that the trial court erred, first, pursuant to Conidaris v. Cresswood Serv., Inc., 779 So. 2d 518, 519 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000), by granting relief on a claim for a “vendor’s lien” because no such claim was either pled in the complaint or tried by the parties’ consent; second, by granting an equitable lien in the absence of a finding of Appellants’ fr…
  • …onversion. This was error. “A trial court may not decree relief that has been neither pleaded nor tried by consent.” Lodge Constr., Inc. v. Far E. GC Exponent, Inc., 800 So. 2d 325, 325 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001) (citing Conidaris v. Cresswood Servs., Inc., 779 So. 2d 518, 519 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000)). The complaint does not include a claim for conversion, it was not amended nor was a request to amend filed, and the record does not demonstrate that the issue was tried by the consent of the parties.3 Accordingly, we rever…
  • Lodge Constr., Inc. v. FAR E. GC Exponent, Inc., 800 So. 2d 325 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001)
    …total of $24,785. The trial court factored this amount, along with costs of repair and other credits, into its damage award. A trial court may not decree relief that has been neither pleaded nor tried by consent. Conidaris v. Cresswood Serv., Inc., 779 So. 2d 518, 519 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000). Here, the second amended complaint did not pray for an award of these sums nor did Lodge Construction place entitlement to these monies at issue through its affirmative defenses. Similarly, the record contains no request to…

Previewing 3 of 5 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