STEPHANIE J. CROWN AND JOHN J. CROWN, APPELLANTS,
v.
CHASE HOME FINANCE, APPELLEE
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Stephanie and John Crown appealed a summary judgment against them in a mortgage foreclosure dispute. The Florida appellate court reversed, finding that the trial court abused its discretion by denying the Crowns' motion to amend their answer to include affirmative defenses, particularly where allowing amendment would permit resolution on the merits.
The trial court abused its discretion in denying the motion to amend. Under Florida law, all doubts regarding amendments should be resolved in favor of allowing them, and denial constitutes an abuse of discretion unless the amendment would prejudice the opposing party, the privilege to amend has been abused, or amendment would be futile.
[1] A trial court abuses its discretion by denying a motion to amend a pleading unless it is clear that the amendment would prejudice the opposing party, the privilege to ame…
[2] Public policy favors the liberal amendment of pleadings so that cases may be decided on their merits, and all doubts must be resolved in favor of allowing the amendment o…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“all doubts should be resolved in favor of allowing the amendment and refusal to do so generally constitutes an abuse of discretion unless it clearly appears that allowing the amendment would prejudice the opposing party, the privilege to amend has been abused, or amendment would be futile”
Establishes the legal standard for reviewing motions to amend pleadings in Florida, favoring liberal allowance of amendments.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe Crowns filed a pro se answer to Chase Home Finance's initial complaint. Approximately seven months later, Chase served a motion for summary judgme…
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Stephanie and John Crown appeal from an adverse final summary judgment entered after the denial of their motion to amend their answer. We reverse, concluding that the denial of the Crowns’ motion constituted an abuse of discretion.
Immediately after being served with the initial complaint, the Crowns filed a pro se, bare-bones answer. The next record activity occurred approximately seven months later when Chase Home Finance, LLC, served its motion for summary judgment. One week later, the Crowns’ newly retained counsel served a motion to amend .on the Crowns’ behalf. A proposed answer with affirmative defenses was attached to the motion. Chase’s previously filed motion for summary judgment did not address several of the affirmative defenses raised in the Crowns’ proposed answer. On the twenty-first day after service of the motion for summary judgment, the trial court held a hearing, denied the Crowns’ motion to amend, and granted Chase’s motion for summary final judgment.
An order on a motion to amend is reviewed under the abuse of discretion standard. See Yun Enters., Ltd. v. Graziani, 840 So.2d 420, 422-23 (Fla. 5th DCA 2003); Gate Lands Co. v. Old Ponte Vedra Beach Condo., 715 So.2d 1132, 1135 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998). However, all doubts should be resolved in favor of allowing the *980amendment and refusal to do so generally constitutes an abuse of discretion unless it clearly appears that allowing the amendment would prejudice the opposing party, the privilege to amend has been abused, or amendment would be futile. See Yun Enters., 840 So.2d 420; Gate Lands Co., 715 So.2d 1132. Public policy further favors the liberal granting of leave to amend where the failure to do so will likely prevent the cause from being resolved on its merits. Gate Lands Co., 715 So.2d at 1135 (public policy of this state is to freely allow amendments to pleadings so that cases may be resolved on their merits).
In the instant case, Crowns had not abused the privilege to amend and there was no showing that amendment would be futile or that Chase would suffer prejudice. Furthermore, denial of the motion to amend would preclude the case from being resolved on its merits.
REVERSED and REMANDED.
GRIFFIN and SAWAYA, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
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Cited By (13 total)
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Green v. Jpmorgan Chase Bank, N.A., 109 So. 3d 1285 (Fla. 5th DCA 2013)…All doubts must be resolved in favor of allowing amendment, and “[p]ublic policy ... favors the liberal granting of leave to amend where the failure to do so will likely prevent the cause from being resolved on its merits.” Crown v. Chase Home Fin., 41 So. 3d 978, 980 (Fla. 5th DCA 2010). Consequently, “[refusal to allow amendment of a pleading constitutes an abuse of discretion unless it clearly appears that allowing the amendment would prejudice the opposing party; the privilege to amend has been abused; o…
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Eneida Reyes v. BAG Home Loans Servicing L.P., 226 So. 3d 354 (Fla. 2d DCA 2017)…ly,” which the courts of appeal have rejected as sufficient basis for denying leave to amend. See, e.g., RV-7 Prop., 187 So. 3d at 917 (no prejudice where motion to amend was filed two days before summary judgment hearing); Crown v. Chase Home Fin., 41 So. 3d 978, 980 (Fla. 5th DCA 2010) (no prejudice where proposed amended answer was filed after filing of motion for summary judgment even though it raised several affirmative defenses not addressed in motion for summary judgment); Carib Ocean Shipping, Inc. v…
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GEICO Cas. Co. v. Barber, 147 So. 3d 109 (Fla. 5th DCA 2014)…ly allow amendments to pleadings. See Fla. R. Civ. P. 1. 190; see also Spectrum Interiors, Inc. v. Exterior Walls, Inc., 65 So. 3d 543, 546 (Fla. 5th DCA 2011) (observing the general rule is to freely grant leave to amend); Crown v. Chase Home Fin., 41 So. 3d 978, 979 (Fla. 5th DCA 2010) (same). Thus, pursuant to Rader, the trial court should have granted Barber’s motion to amend to include a count for bad faith. Instead, the trial court denied that motion and granted the motion to amend to include a count…
Previewing 3 of 13 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- YUN Enters., Ltd. v. Graziani, 840 So. 2d 420 (Fla. 5th DCA 2003)
- Gate Lands Co. v. OLD Ponte Vedra Beach Condo., 715 So. 2d 1132 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998)