STEPHEN WINTER, APPELLANT,
v.
ROBERT HAGER, JON MILLER, BRUCE CARR, EMERALD SHARES, LLC, SOUTH ELMWOOD REALTY CO., INC., SAFE HARBOUR WORLD HEALTH & HEALING FOUNDATION, CHINA AMERICA GROUP, INC., AND DAVID KNOLL, APPELLEES

Fla. 2d DCA | 2008-12-03
No. 2D08-593
FULMER, CASANUEVA, and KELLY, JJ., Concur.
3 So. 3d 344 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (2008)

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

Stephen Winter appeals a summary judgment entered against him in a contract dispute. The court reversed the summary judgment, finding that material factual disputes existed regarding whether Winter signed a personal loan guaranty or an agreement for a shared lien on real estate, precluding summary judgment at that stage.


Holding

Summary judgment was improperly granted because material factual disputes existed, including Winter's testimony and corroborating witness statements regarding whether he signed a personal guaranty or an agreement for a shared lien, precluding summary judgment as a matter of law.


Headnotes

[1] Summary judgment is improper when material facts remain disputed, even if some pretrial motions are pending.

[2] A party's understanding of a document's nature, when supported by witness testimony and deposition statements, can create a disputed material fact precluding summary judg…

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

“Mr. Winter testified in deposition that he did not realize, not having the remaining pages before him when he signed this page and faxed it to the plaintiffs, that this was a personal guaranty and not the agreement for the shared lien position he had negotiated.”

Establishes Winter's claim that he did not intend to sign a personal guaranty, creating a genuine factual dispute.

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

Plaintiffs Hager, Miller, and Carr loaned one million dollars to Emerald Shares, LLC and sought to enforce alleged personal guaranties from Winter and…

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.

Appellees Robert Hager, Jon Miller, and Bruce Carr filed suit against appellant Stephen Winter and his co-defendants, appel-lees Emerald Shares, LLC, South Elm-wood Realty Co., Inc., Safe Harbour World Health & Healing Foundation, China America Group, Inc., and David Knoll, claiming breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and account stated. The suit was based on a loan to Emerald Shares, LLC that was allegedly guaranteed by Mr. Winter and his co-defendants. Attached to the complaint was the primary evidence: the promissory note of Emerald Shares for one million dollars and the guaranties of the defendants. Mr. Winter’s alleged personal payment guaranty consisted of ten *345pages of which only the last, the signature page, contained a fax notation showing that it was sent from Mr. Winter’s home telephone number. After several pretrial motions and discovery, the plaintiffs moved for summary judgment, despite the fact that some motions had not yet been ruled upon. Mr. Winter opposed the motion for summary judgment, claiming, among other things, that what he signed was not a personal guaranty but an agreement to grant the plaintiffs a shared lien on a parcel of real estate. The trial court granted the summary judgment and entered judgment in favor of the plaintiffs. We reverse.

We are cognizant of the fact that immediately above Mr. Winter’s signature on the last page of the alleged guaranty appears the following: “IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the undersigned has duly executed this Guaranty as a sealed instrument the day and year first above set forth[.]” Mr. Winter testified in deposition that he did not realize, not having the remaining pages before him when he signed this page and faxed it to the plaintiffs, that this was a personal guaranty and not the agreement for the shared lien position he had negotiated. Several other witnesses, whose sworn statements were presented to the trial court, corroborated Mr. Winter’s understanding. This evidence shows that a disputed, material fact existed, including receipt of an email containing the entire ten-page guaranty. It was, thus, error for the trial court to grant summary judgment at this stage. See Brakefield v. CIT Group/Consumer Fin., Inc., 787 So.2d 115, 116 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001) (reversing summary judgment because movant had not “demonstrated conclusively and with certainty that [the non-movant] could not raise any genuine issues of material fact”).

Summary judgment reversed and cause remanded for further proceedings.

FULMER, CASANUEVA, and KELLY, JJ., Concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw