MIRIAM H. GLADMAN, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS TRUSTEE OF THE ESTATE OF MARY V. HALLAM, DECEASED, AND AS SOLE SURVIVING TRUSTEE OF W. F. HALLAM & COMPANY, A DISSOLVED FLORIDA CORPORATION, APPELLANT,
v.
WILLARD V. HALLAM, APPELLEE
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Miriam Gladman appealed an interlocutory order requiring her to respond to over 1,100 interrogatories in her brother's lawsuit seeking to cancel conveyances from their mother's estate and establish a constructive trust. The appellate court reversed, holding that the interrogatories improperly anticipated an accounting to which the plaintiff had not yet been found entitled and that such detailed financial inquiries should proceed through equitable accounting procedures rather than premature discovery.
The court reversed the trial court's order, holding that the interrogatories improperly anticipated an accounting that has not yet been found to be required and that such inquiries cannot be answered without detailed compilation of data from books and records that should be handled through equitable accounting procedures before a master, not through premature discovery interrogatories.
“their content is such that in the state of the record here they improperly anticipate the accounting to which plaintiff has not been found entitled”
Establishes the core holding that interrogatories seeking detailed accounting information are improper when plaintiff has not yet been found entitled to an accounting
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceWillard Hallam sued his sister Miriam Gladman to cancel numerous conveyances and transfers of assets from their mother's estate made over many years b…
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The appellee, Willard Hallam, brought suit against the appellant, his sister, seeking to cancel numerous conveyance and transfers of assets to her from the estate of their mother made over a period of many years both before and after the mother’s death in 1939, to establish a constructive trust, and to obtain a full accounting in connection with the handling of such assets because of the fiduciary relationship of the parties and alleged conversion of trust properties.
The complaint, as amended, has been sustained and a number of rulings made by the court upon permissible scope of discovery procedures. The cause is now before this Court for review of an interlocutory order of the chancellor overruling defendant’s objections to interrogatories and denying her motion for protection in regard to such interrogatories.
Whether or not the interrogatories in this case, more than 1,100 in number, are on their face oppressive (see Zenith Radio Corp. v. Radio Corp. of America, D.C., 106 F.Supp. 561), a question which the trial court in its discretion determined adversely to the defendant, their content is such that in the state of the record here they improperly anticipate the accounting *48to which plaintiff has not been found entitled. Charles Sales Corp. v. Rovenger, Fla., 88 So.2d 551; Manning v. Clark, Fla., 56 So.2d 521, 523.
Many of the interrogatories in controversy are directed to a determination of actual money amounts dr precise sources of payments made over a period of many years, and are not such as can be answered by personal recollection or by admission or denial of specified facts. Cf. 4 Moore’s Federal Prac., Sec. 33.03(5), 2d Ed. There can be no serious contention that such inquiries can be answered without detailed compilation of data from all available sources, including books and records of the defendant and other parties, many of which are or can be made available for plaintiff’s inspection. See Vol. 2, Barron and Holtzoff, Fed.Prac. & Proc., Sec. 768. It is therefore plain that the situation is precisely that which the equitable accounting technique, in the hands of a competent master, is designed to handle. The fact that all such information might be helpful to one seeking to establish grounds for an accounting or that certain of the inquiries may be within the proper limits of discovery procedures, cannot justify the premature imposition of such a burden upon a defendant to render an accounting before an adjudication of his obligation to do so — or upon a court to undertake the framing of proper interrogatories by sifting and revising a group of inquiries obviously containing improper matter. Charles Sales Corp. v. Rovenger, supra.
The court below refers, in its order sustaining the amended complaint, to certain material charges contained therein, i. e. wrongful failure by defendant to probate her mother’s will, and acquisition of trust properties for individual benefit. Until, however, it adjudicates, upon one or more of such grounds, that defendant has in fact violated her fiduciary obligations so as to entitle plaintiff to establishment of a constructive trust, or makes an adverse finding upon defendant’s claims of gifts inter vivos, laches, or other defensive matter, the use of interrogatories of the scope here involved is clearly premature as an equitable accounting in the guise of a discovery procedure. We find no distinguishing circumstances in the record at bar to prevent the application of the rule of the above cited cases.
Reversed and remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent herewith.
KANNER, C. J., and SHANNON, J., concur.
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City OF Miami v. Oise Keton, 115 So. 2d 547 (Fla. 1959)…App.1958, 101 So. 2d 397; Holton & Co. v. Hull, 1939, 140 Fla. 687, 192 So. 229, 3 A.L.R.2d 1321 and 1377 note; Manning v. Clark, Fla.1951, 56 So. 2d 521; Charles Sales Corp. v. Rovenger, Fla.1956, 88 So. 2d 551, and Gladman v. Hallam, Fla.App.1958, 104 So. 2d 46. We think the chancellor properly disposed of this question but account of the view we take it becomes immaterial. The suit was for a declaratory decree as authorized by Chapter 87, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., the appropriate method for testing the v…
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Cooper v. Fulton, 107 So. 2d 798 (Fla. 3d DCA 1959)…ht or basis for the accounting, with the actual accounting following in accordance with that earlier determination. Manning v. Clark, Fla.1951, 56 So. 2d 521; Charles Sales Corp. v. Rovenger, Fla.1956, 88 So. 2d 551; Gladman v. Hallam, Fla.App.1958, 104 So. 2d 46. See Hollywood Beach Hotel & Golf Club v. Gilliland, 140 Fla. 24, 191 So. 30. In Charles Sales Corp. v. Rovenger, supra, the Supreme Court of Florida, speaking through Mr. Justice Hobson, held that discovery as to accounting was premature and impro…
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A-1 Truck Rentals, Inc. v. Vilberg, 222 So. 2d 442 (Fla. 3d DCA 1969)…. Fort Pierce Financing & Construction Co., 108 Fla. 492, 146 So. 567, 569 (1933). Courts of this state have accepted appeals from orders determining the right to an accounting as appeals from interlocutory orders. Gladman v. Hallam, Fla. App.1958, 104 So. 2d 46; McCann Plumbing Co. v. Plumbing Industry Program, Fla.App.1958, 105 So. 2d 26; Carberry v. Foley, Fla.App.1968, 206 So. 2d 425. This fact suggests to us that judgments determining the right to an accounting are interlocutory orders. We now hold tha…
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- Charles Sales Corp. v. Rovenger, 88 So. 2d 551 (Fla. 1956)