LANDMARK AT HILLSBORO CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, INC., APPELLANT,
v.
SALVATORE CANDELORA AND CATHERINE CANDELORA, PHILIP CUSHMAN AND COLLEEN CUSHMANALAN BREWARD AND JOAN BREWARD, AND BARBARA SULLIVAN, APPELLEES

Fla. 4th DCA | 2005-10-05
No. 4D04-3878
STEVENSON, C.J., and CROW, DAVID F., Associate Judge, concur.
911 So. 2d 1272 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (2005) Caution
Cited by 1 case

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Synopsis

Landmark at Hillsboro Condominium Association appealed a trial court order denying its motion for attorneys' fees and costs as the prevailing party in a condominium dispute. The appellate court affirmed, holding that Landmark's fee motion was untimely under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.525 because it was filed 43-46 days after dismissal of claims, exceeding the required 30-day window.


Holding

The court affirmed the denial of the fee motion. Landmark's fee motion was untimely as a matter of law because it was filed 43-46 days after dismissal. While Landmark had technically mentioned fees in prior motions to dismiss, those earlier assertions relied on a different statutory provision (shareholder derivative fee-shifting) and did not satisfy the rule's timeliness requirement for the fees actually claimed.


Headnotes

[1] A motion for attorney's fees and costs must be served within 30 days after the filing of the judgment, including a judgment of dismissal, or the service of a notice of vo…

[2] The purpose of Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.525 is to establish a specific time requirement for serving motions for costs and attorney's fees, eliminating the prior…

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Key Quotes

“any party seeking a judgment taxing costs, attorneys' fees, or both shall serve a motion within 30 days after filing of the judgment, including a judgment of dismissal, or the service of a notice of voluntary dismissal”

Establishes the mandatory 30-day deadline under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.525 for filing motions for fees and costs

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Facts & Procedural History

Landmark filed a complaint against several condominium owners. After Candelora filed an amended complaint that dropped four counts, Landmark sought to…

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Opinion of the Court
POLEN, J.

On Motion for Rehearing

POLEN, J.

This cause is before us on appellant’s motion for rehearing. We deny the motion for rehearing for the reasons stated at the end of this opinion. The content of our August 10, 2005 opinion is reproduced below.

Landmark at Hillsboro Condominium Association (“Landmark”) appeals a final order denying its motion for attorneys’ fees and costs as the prevailing party under section 718.303(1), Florida Statutes. We affirm.

Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.525, addressing the timeliness of motions for costs and attorney’s fees, provides that “[a]ny party seeking a judgment taxing costs, attorneys’ fees, or both shall serve a motion within 30 days after filing of the judgment, including a judgment of dismissal, or the service of a notice of voluntary dismissal.” The purpose of rule 1.525 is to eliminate the reasonable time rule and establish a time requirement to serve motions for costs and attorney’s fees. Carter v. Lake County, 840 So. 2d 1153, 1156 (Fla. 5th DCA 2003). In this case, because Landmark filed its fee motion forty-three days after the trial court entered the order dismissing the original complaint and forty-six days after Candelora filed its amended complaint dropping four counts against Landmark, the motion was untimely under rule 1.525 as a matter of law. See Green v. Sun Harbor Homeowners’ Ass’n, 730 So. 2d 1261, 1263 (Fla.1998) (“Until a rule is approved for cases that are dismissed before the filing of an answer, we require that a defendant’s claim for attorney fees is to be made either in the defendant’s motion to dismiss or by a separate motion which must be filed within thirty days following a dismissal of the action. If the claim is not made within this time period, the claim is waived.”).

On rehearing, Landmark asserts that this court “overlooked that Landmark first made its claim for attorney fees in a motion to dismiss,” thus allegedly timely moving for fees under the rule articulated in Green. We reject this argument for the reasons below.

First, Landmark claims that it made a claim for attorney fees in its December 10, 2003 supplemental memoran dum of law in support of its motion to dismiss the original complaint. While this contention is technically correct, that supplemental memorandum asserts that Landmark is entitled to fees under section 607.07401(5), Florida Statutes. This section, regarding shareholder derivative actions, states: “On termination of the proceeding, the court may require the plaintiff to pay any defendant’s reasonable expenses, including reasonable attorney’s fees, incurred in defending the proceeding if it finds that the proceeding was commenced without reasonable cause.” Landmark’s current fee motion on appeal no longer relies on this section and it is thus inapplicable to the issue of whether Landmark timely moved for fees under section 718.303(1) and/or section 57.105.

Second, Landmark claims that it timely moved for fees in its March 8, 2004 motion to dismiss the amended complaint. While technically true, this is entirely inapposite to the fee motion at hand. The March 8, 2004 motion requested attorney’s fees incurred in securing a dismissal of the amended complaint, not in securing the dismissal of the claims dropped by Cande-lora between the original complaint and the amended complaint, which is the subject of the appealed order. While we acknowledge that rule 1.525 creates a new hoop for attorneys to jump through to be entitled to attorney’s fees, it is not such a small hoop that an attorney should endeavor to circumvent it by incorporating misleading arguments into a motion for rehearing.

Affirmed.

STEVENSON, C.J., and CROW, DAVID F., Associate Judge, concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Ward v. Rivka Lieber (Fla. 4th DCA 2023)
    …ejudice was not final and did not dispose of the entire action. Had the motion been filed after the dismissal of count three, it would have been premature. The plaintiff relies heavily on Landmark at Hillsboro Condominium Ass’n, Inc. v. Candelora, 911 So. 2d 1272 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005). While at first blush, Landmark would appear to warrant an affirmance, its facts render its holding inapplicable to this case. There, seven condominium unit owners brought a derivative claim against Landmark and others. By agr…
    1 / 2

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