CORONADO CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, INC., PETITIONER,
v.
ROCQUE LA CORTE, RESPONDENT
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A claimant's failure to comply with the procedural requirements of the punitive damages statute may be redressed via certiorari, and the statute requires specific employer participation or ratification for punitive damages.
[1] A claimant's failure to comply with the procedural requirements of the punitive damages statute may be redressed via certiorari.
[2] For punitive damages to be imposed against an employer, principal, corporation, or other legal entity for the conduct of an employee or agent, the employer must have acti…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceMr. La Corte sought to amend his complaint to add a claim for punitive damages against Coronado Condominium Association, Inc. The alleged misconduct i…
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Coronado Condominium Association, Inc.,, petitions for a writ of certiorari quashing a circuit court order granting Mr. Rocque La Corte’s motion to amend to add a claim for punitive damages. Finding a failure by La Corte to comply with the procedure applicable to employers and corporate defendants under section 768.72(3), Florida Statutes (2012), we grant the petition and quash the order.
A claimant’s failure to comply with the procedural requirements of the punitive damages statute may be redressed via certiorari. Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. v. Doe, 44 So.3d 230 (Fla. 3d DCA 2010).
La Corte’s proposed third amended complaint and his'verified motion for leave to add the claim for punitive damages describe numerous alleged misrepresentations, acts, and omissions on the part of the employees serving as the property manager for the Association and others working for a contractor performing balcony work at the Coronado condominium.1 Those record materials do not, however, comply with the statutory procedure to impute the alleged misconduct to the Association as employer of the alleged tortfea-sors (or as a corporate defendant) for purposes of punitive damages:
(3) In the case of an employer, principal, corporation, or other legal entity, punitive damages may be imposed for the conduct of an employee or agent only if the conduct of the employee or agent meets the criteria specified in subsection (2) [defining the requirements for “intentional misconduct” and “gross negligence”] and:
(a) The employer, principal, corporation, or other legal entity actively and knowingly participated in such conduct;
(b) The officers, directors, or managers of the employer, principal, corporation, or other legal entity knowingly condoned, ratified, or consented to such conduct; or
(c) The employer, principal, corporation, or other legal entity engaged in conduct that constituted gross negligence and that contributed to the loss, damages, or injury suffered by the claimant.
§ 768.72(3), Fla. Stat. (2012).
La Corte’s third amended complaint and verified motion assume that the *241alleged misconduct of the individual property managers and construction workers— who were not, on the record before us, officers or members of the board of directors of the Association — is, without more, misconduct of the Association for purposes of section 768.72. That is contrary to the plain language of the statute. There are references in the third amended complaint to a single, unnamed “Association board member,” but those references do not allege the Association’s active, knowing participation in, or consent to, misconduct by the property management or contractor’s employees.
During the hearing on the motion to add a claim for punitive damages, La Corte’s counsel referred repeatedly to alleged misconduct by “Veronica, the defendant’s manager.” The record, however, establishes that the individual employee by that name was a licensed property (community association) manager, not a controlling officer, director, or “manager” of the Association as a corporate entity.2 Similarly, La Corte’s allegations regarding the balcony repair contractor’s employees’ trespass and use of La Corte’s bathroom, damage to the walls of his unit, and removal of carpeting and plumbing parts, do not involve active, knowing participation by, or the consent or gross negligence of, the Association as an entity. La Corte’s pleadings and arguments apply the common law rules of agency and vicarious liability rather than the specific and heightened rules of imposition established by the Legislature in section 768.72(3). Those rules were described and applied in Wayne Frier Home Center of Pensacola, Inc. v. Cadlerock Joint Venture, L.P., 16 So.3d 1006 (Fla. 1st DCA 2009) (movant showed not only misconduct by an employee, but also as a matter of company practice). The record in the case at hand includes no such evidence or proffered evidence.
For these reasons, we grant the Association’s petition and quash the order of August 22, 2012,3 granting La Corte’s verified motion for leave to amend to plead punitive damages.
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TRG Desert INN Venture, Ltd. v. Berezovsky, 194 So. 3d 516 (Fla. 3d DCA 2016)…ial court’s order allowing a punitive damages claim to proceed when the essential requirements of law, as embodied in' section 768.72, have not been followed. Globe Newspaper Co. v. King, 658 So. 2d 518 (Fla.1995); Coronado Condo. Ass’n v. La Corte, 103 So. 3d 239 (Fla. 3d DCA 2012). Certiorari relief is appropriate, however, only when the record establishes that a trial court applied the incorrect law; certiorari relief is not available to remedy an incorrect application of the correct law. See Haines City…
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Fetlar, LLC v. Suarez, 230 So. 3d 97 (Fla. 3d DCA 2017)…at his conduct should .be imputed to Stellar Homes, much less the.other corporate defendants, Based on such shortcomings in the.record. before us, the claim for punitive damages should not have been allowed. Coronado Condo. Ass’n. Inc. v. La Corte, 103 So. 3d 239 (Fla. 3d DCA 2012). For these reasons, and in accordance with Globe Newspaper Co. v. King, 658 So. 2d 518 (Fla. 1995), we grant the four corporate defendants’ petition and quash the order granting the plaintiffs leave to amend to plead punitive dama…
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Napleton's N. Palm Auto Park, Inc. v. Agosto, 364 So. 3d 1103 (Fla. 4th DCA 2023)…(Fla. 3d DCA 2017) (neither the construction superintendent, construction manager, nor project manager “played any role in corporate management” for purposes of any of the three subparagraphs of section 768.72(3)); Coronado Condo. Ass’n v. La Corte, 103 So. 3d 239, 241 n.2 (Fla. 3d DCA 2012) (section 768.72(3)(b) applies to “those in control of the entity” and not a property manager). Thus, Agosto’s alternative argument fails. See Robertson v. State, 829 So. 2d 901, 907 (Fla. 2002) (the tipsy coachman rule…
Previewing 3 of 9 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Wayne Frier Home Ctr. OF Pensacola, Inc. v. Cadlerock Joint Venture, L.P., 16 So. 3d 1006 (Fla. 1st DCA 2009)
- Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. v. Jane DOE & Jane Doe, 44 So. 3d 230 (Fla. 3d DCA 2010)