DORIS ROTHMAN-BROWNING, INDIVIDUALLY, AND AS CO-TRUSTEE OF THE PHYLLIS ROTHMAN IRREVOCABLE TRUST U/A/D 9/12/2000, AND AS CO-TRUSTEE OF THE QUALIFIED TERMINABLE INTEREST PROPERTY (QTIP) TRUST UNDER ARTICLE VIII OF THE GEORGE ROTHMAN AMENDED AND RESTATED REVOCABLE TRUST AGREEMENT U/A/D 9/12/2000, APPELLANT,
v.
MARCIA MARSHALL, AS GUARDIAN OF THE PERSON OF PHYLLIS ROTHMAN AND BARBARA THOMAS, AS CO-TRUSTEE OF THE PHYLLIS ROTHMAN IRREVOCABLE TRUST U/A/D 9/12/2000, AND AS CO-TRUSTEE OF THE QUALIFIED TERMINABLE INTEREST PROPERTY (QTIP) TRUST UNDER ARTICLE VIII OF THE GEORGE ROTHMAN AMENDED AND RESTATED REVOCABLE TRUST AGREEMENT U/A/D 9/12/2000; AND CITICORP TRUST, N.A., AS CO-TRUSTEE OF THE PHYLLIS ROTHMAN IRREVOCABLE TRUST U/A/D 9/12/2000, AND AS CO-TRUSTEE OF THE QUALIFIED TERMINABLE INTEREST PROPERTY (QTIP) TRUST UNDER ARTICLE VIII OF THE GEORGE ROTHMAN AMENDED AND RESTATED REVOCABLE TRUST AGREEMENT U/A/D 9/12/2000; AND AS GUARDIAN OF THE PROPERTY OF PHYLLIS ROTHMAN, APPELLEES

Fla. 4th DCA | 2011-12-21
No. 4D11-2079
WARNER and GROSS, JJ., concur.
83 So. 3d 859 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (2011) 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

Doris Rothman-Browning, a co-trustee, appealed the trial court's approval of a guardianship plan, arguing the court prematurely approved it without considering her timely objection filed within thirty days. The appellate court reversed, holding that when an objection is filed within thirty days, the court must conduct a hearing and consider the objection before approving the plan.


Holding

The trial court erred in prematurely approving the guardianship plan without considering the co-trustee's timely objection. When an objection is filed within thirty days as permitted by section 744.367(4), the court must set the matter for hearing and conduct the hearing within thirty days per section 744.369(7), before entering a final order.


Headnotes

[1] An objection filed within thirty days of an annual guardianship plan entitles the objector to a hearing on the merits.

[2] A trial court errs by prematurely approving a guardianship plan without considering a timely filed objection.

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

“when the words of a statute are plain and unambiguous and convey a definite meaning, courts have no occasion to resort to rules of construction — they must read the statute as written”

Establishes the interpretive principle that plain statutory language must be followed without construction

Previewing 1 of 2 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

The guardian filed a guardianship plan on April 4, 2011. The Clerk of Court approved it on April 26, 2011. Co-trustee Rothman-Browning filed a timely …

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
MAY, C.J.

MAY, C.J.

This is an appeal from an order approving a guardianship plan. Two of the three appellees concede error.1 The third appel-lee (“guardian”) has not. We reverse.

The guardian filed the guardianship plan with the trial court on April 4, 2011. The Clerk of Court completed its review of the Guardianship Plan and filed its approval on April 26, 2011. The co-trustee, both individually and in her fiduciary capacity, filed an “Objection to Annual Guardianship Plan of Guardian of Person” within thirty days on May 4, 2011. The trial court entered its Final Order approving the guardianship plan on April 29, 2011; it was rendered on May 5, 2011. At a subsequent hearing, the trial court denied the objection as untimely, never addressing its merits. From this order, the co-trustee now appeals.

The co-trustee argues that because she submitted a timely objection to the guardianship plan in accordance with section 744.367, Florida Statutes, the trial court erred in prematurely approving the plan without considering the objection. The co-trustee also argues the premature approval of the plan denied her due process. The guardian responds that section 744.369(1), Florida Statutes, only requires the trial court to review the guardianship plan within 30 days and because the trial court approved the guardianship plan within that time, it did not err.

This Court reviews questions of law de novo. Major League Baseball v. Morsani, 790 So.2d 1071, 1074 (Fla.2001).

Section 744.367(4), Florida Statutes, provides that, “[wjithin 30 days after the annual report has been filed, any interested person, including the ward, may file written objections to any element of the report, specifying the nature of the objection.” § 744.367(4), Fla. Stat. (2010). Section 744.369(7) provides that, “[i]f an objection has been filed to a report, the court shall set the matter for hearing and shall conduct the hearing within 30 days after the filing of the objection.” § 744.369(7), Fla. Stat. (2010). Section 744.369(1) provides that, “[t]he court shall review the annual guardianship report within 30 days after the filing of the clerk’s report of findings to the court.” § 744.369(1), Fla. Stat. (2010).

Our supreme court has explained that, “[wjhen the words of a statute are plain and unambiguous and convey a definite meaning, courts have no occasion to resort to rules of construction — they must read the statute as written” and the court’s inquiry should end. Nicoll v. Baker, 668 So.2d 989, 990-91 (Fla.1996). When “part of a statute appears to have a clear meaning if considered alone but when given that meaning is inconsistent with other parts of the same statute or others in pari mate-ria, the [cjourt will examine the entire act *861and those m pan matena in order to ascertain the overall legislative intent.” E.A.R. v. State, 4 So.3d 614, 629 (Fla.2009) (quoting Fla. Dep’t of Envtl. Prot. v. ContractPoint Fla. Parks, LLC, 986 So.2d 1260, 1265-66 (Fla.2008)).

Here, the co-trustee filed an objection to the guardianship plan precisely thirty days after it was filed. Under the plain meaning of sections 744.367(4) and 744.369(7), an objection filed within thirty days entitles the objector to a hearing. While section 744.369(1) does not expressly require the trial court to wait the full thirty days before entering a final order approving a guardianship plan, when section 744.369(1) is read in pari materia with sections 744.367(4) and 744.369(7), it is clear that an objection filed within thirty days is entitled to consideration. Otherwise, sections 744.367(4) and 744.369(7) would be rendered meaningless.

Reversed and Remanded for consideration of the Co-Trustee’s objection.

WARNER and GROSS, JJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • The Cool Guys, LLC v. Jomar Props., LLC, 84 So. 3d 1076 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012)
    …en the words of a statute are plain and unambiguous and convey a definite meaning, courts have no occasion to resort to rules of construction — they must read the statute as written’ and the court’s inquiry should end.” Rothman-Browning v. Marshall, 83 So. 3d 859 (Fla. 4th DCA 2011) (quoting Nicoll v. Baker, 668 So. 2d 989, 990-91 (Fla.1996)). There is no ambiguity in the statute. It is clear from the language that if a lien foreclosure suit is pending and the lien is transferred to security during the pende…
  • …hen the words of a statute are plain and unambiguous and convey a definite meaning, courts have no occasion to resort to rules of construction— they must read the statute as written’ and the court's inquiry should end.” Rothman–Browning v. Marshall, 83 So. 3d 859 (Fla. 4th DCA 2011) (quoting Nicoll v. Baker, 668 So. 2d 989, 990–91 (Fla.1996)). Here, the statute states, in pertinent part, that any party with an interest in the security may “at any time” file a motion “in a pending action to enforce a lien,…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw