JOHN KULHANJIAN, INDIVIDUALLY, AND AS A STOCKHOLDER OF ARMENIAN HOTEL OWNERS, INC., SUING ON BEHALF OF SAID CORPORATION, APPELLANT,
v.
SAM MOOMJIAN, DIRAN TERZIAN, AND ARMENIAN HOTEL OWNERS, INC., A FLORIDA CORPORATION; AND DIRAN PAPAZIAN, APPELLEES
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The court held that a partial reversal of a decree requiring an accounting and entry of a new decree is not an affirmance that obligates the surety on a supersedeas bond conditioned to satisfy the original decree or its modification.
A supersedeas bond was posted to appeal a money judgment. The appellate court affirmed in part and reversed in part, remanding for an accounting and e…
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This is an interlocutory appeal from an order of the trial court cancelling a super-sedeas bond and discharging the surety from further liability thereon, the cause having been transferred to this court by the District Court of Appeal, Third District, pursuant to Florida Appellate Rule 2.1(5) (d), 31 F.S.A., and under the authority of Armenian Hotel Owners, Inc. v. Kulhanjian, Fla.1957, 96 So.2d 896.
The supersedeas bond was executed by Dirán Papazian, interlocutory appellee, with the All Florida Surety Company, as surety, at the time Papazian, as appellant, took an appeal from an adverse decree awarding “damages” of $26,000 against him and in favor of the Armenian Hotel Owners, Inc., a corporation in whose behalf the suit was filed by Kulhanjian, the appellant in the instant proceeding. Following the language of Florida Appellate Rule 5.7 providing for a supersedeas bond on appeal from a money judgment or decree, the condition of the bond was to “satisfy the judgment for Twenty-six Thousand Dollars ($26,000.00) contained in the final decree dated June 20, 1955, or any modification not increasing the amount thereof in full, including costs, interest (if chargeable) and damages for delay in the event the appeal is dismissed or the judgment, order or decree is affirmed
On the appeal prosecuted by Papazian, referred to above, the decree of the lower court awarding “damages” of $26,000 against Papazian was affirmed in part and reversed in part, and the cause remanded with directions to the trial court to require an accounting of Papazian and to enter thereafter a decree in accordance with justice and equity. See Armenian Hotel Owners, Inc. v. Kulhanjian, Fla., 96 So.2d 146; Fla., 96 So.2d 896.
The sole issue here is whether the decision of this court on the former appeal was such an affirmance of the decree as to require the trial court to hold the surety liable on the supersedeas bond for the amount of the decree to be thereafter entered in the lower court upon the accounting directed by this court to be made. We have no difficulty in holding that the trial court did not err in cancelling the bond and discharging the surety.
*785It is a clear and well settled principle that a surety is bound to the extent of the terms of his obligation and no farther. 2 Fla.Jur., Appeals, § 409, p. 661. Here, the obligation of the bond was not to satisfy any judgment that might ultimately be obtained in the trial court against Papazian; the obligation of the bond, following the language of the Rule, supra, was to “satisfy the judgment * * * contained in the final decree dated June 20, 1955, or any modification not increasing the amount thereof * * * in the event the * * * decree is affirmed * * A partial reversal of a money judgment or decree by ordering a remittitur for excessiveness of damages, or by disallowing and deducting items of non-recoverable damage therefrom, is quite clearly only a “modification” of the judgment within the terms of the bond and not such a reversal ■ as to discharge the surety from the obligation of the bond. Cf. American Surety Co. of New York v. Standard Asphalt Co., 5 Cir., 1935, 75 F.2d 1. In such case, there still remains in effect a portion of the judgment which the surety agreed to be responsible for and upon which execution can issue without further judicial labor (as distinguished from a ministerial duty to enter a remittitur ordered by the appellate court) on the part of the trial court.
Here, however, there was more than ' a mere “modification” of the decree. The effect of the reversal of the decree in the instant case was to leave nothing upon which execution could issue. Cf. Poppenhusen v. Seeley, 1866, 42 N.Y. 150, 3 Keyes 150, 3 Abb.Dec. 615. Further judicial labor was required on the part of the trial court as a pre-requisite to the entry of a decree adjudicating the amount of money, if any, owed by Papazian to the corporation. Such decree would not be the “decree dated June 20, 1955,” or a modification thereof, that the surety had obligated itself to satisfy, it" affirmed; it would be an entirely new decree, based on different principles of law than those controlling the superseded decree, and subject to appellate review of the application of such legal principles to the facts adduced. This being so, the partial affirmance of the decree was ineffective to mature the obligation of the surety on the supersedeas bond. Cf. Fitchner v. American Surety Co. of New York, D.C.Fla. 1933, 2 F.Supp. 321; Harp v. American Surety Company of New York, 1957, 50 Wash.2d 365, 311 P.2d 988.
For the reasons stated, the order here reviewed should be and it is hereby
Affirmed.
TERRELL, C. J., and DREW, THOR-NAL and O’CONNELL, JJ., concur.
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Conlee Constr. Co. v. CAY Constr. Co., 221 So. 2d 792 (Fla. 4th DCA 1969)…ty be relieved and discharged from any further liability in connection with the said bond. It is a clear and well-settled principle that a surety is bound to the extent of the terms of his obligation and no further. Kulhanjian v. Moomjian, Fla.1958, 105 So. 2d 783. The plaintiff has failed to favor this court with any copy of the super-sedeas bond which plaintiff asserts the lower court was in error in vacating and cancelling. It is the responsibility and the duty of the appellant to provide the appellate co…
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ALL Fla. Sur. Co. v. Vann, 128 So. 2d 768 (Fla. 3d DCA 1961)…e point to he the sufficiency of the evidence. The liability of a surety under a supersedeas bond is contractual and is to be determined by the provisions of the bond. The surety cannot be held beyond its term. See Kulhanjian v. Moomjian, Fla.1958, 105 So. 2d 783, and 2 Fla.Jur., Appeals, § 409. Here, the bond was not conditioned to pay the judgment since a money judgment did not exist at the time the bond was filed and the appeal was taken; it was conditioned to pay “all costs, damages and expenses occasion…
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Smith v. Goodpasture, 189 So. 2d 265 (Fla. 4th DCA 1966)…its date. Therefore, the entry of a new judgment is not required. In either event interest accrues on the amount to which the judgment was ultimately reduced as of the date of the entry of the original judgment. In Kulhanjian v. Moomjian, Fla.1958, 105 So. 2d 783, the court determined that there was no liability upon the surety in a supersedeas bond where the judgment superseded was reversed in part and affirmed in part and a subsequent judgment entered. The court there did resolve that issue by determining…
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
- Armenian Hotel Owners, Inc., 96 So. 2d 896 (Fla. 1957)
- Am. Sur. Co. of N.Y. v. Standard Asphalt Co. of Fla., Inc., 75 F.2d 1 (5th Cir. 1935)
- Armenian Hotel Owners, Inc. v. Kulhanjian, 96 So. 2d 146 (Fla. 1956)