BRIAN P. KEANE, APPELLANT,
v.
THE PRESIDENT CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, INC., ET AL., APPELLEES

Fla. 3d DCA | 2014-02-19
No. 3D13-746
Before WELLS, SUAREZ, and SCALES, JJ.
133 So. 3d 1154 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (2014) Positive Treatment
Cited by 5 cases

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Synopsis

Brian Keane appeals the trial court's summary judgment upholding the President Condominium Association's revocation of his parking space license. The court affirmed, holding that a parking space license is revocable at the will of the licensor under established Florida law, as licenses do not constitute interests in real property.


Holding

The court held that a parking space license is revocable at the pleasure of the licensor under Florida law. The Association properly revoked Keane's license because licenses are not interests in real property and carry no protections afforded to leases or easements. The court affirmed summary judgment for the Association on all counts.


Headnotes

[1] A license, as opposed to a lease or easement, is generally revocable at the pleasure of the licensor.

[2] A license is not an interest in real property but merely grants authority to perform a specific act on another's land.

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Key Quotes

“a license is generally revocable at the pleasure of the licensor/grantor”

Establishes the fundamental legal principle that licenses lack the permanence of leases or easements and can be revoked by the grantor.

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Facts & Procedural History

In 1998, Keane purchased a Miami Beach condominium unit and paid the Association $5,000 for an exclusive parking space. The parties executed a written…

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Opinion of the Court
SCALES, J.

SCALES, J.

Appellant, plaintiff below, Brian Keane (“Keane”), appeals from the trial court’s summary final judgment in favor of appel-lee, defendant below, The President Condominium Association (“the Association”). We affirm the trial court’s final judgment as to Count II (removal of board members), Count III (intentional interference with a contract), and Count IV (civil conspiracy) without further discussion. Additionally, for the reasons stated below, we affirm the trial court’s summary final judgment as to Count I (seeking a declaratory judgment).

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In 1998, Keane purchased a Miami Beach condominium unit for $50,000.00. Shortly after purchasing the unit, Keane paid the Association an additional $5,000.00 for an extra parking space. To memorialize Keane’s parking space arrangement, Keane and the Association entered into a license agreement, which reads, in its entirety, as follows:

PARKING SPACE LICENSE
KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, that the undersigned, as agent for AMERICAN AMBASSADOR CORP., a Florida Corporation, for $10.00 and other goods and valuable consideration, the sufficiency and receipt of which are hereby acknowledged by each of the parties, does hreby [sic] grant a License unto BRIAN KEANE, for the use and all rights benefit of the parking space specifically delineated and described in the attached Exhibit “A,” which License shall run with the ownership of Unit 4A of the President Condominium and is specifically for the use of the Owner, subject to all of the rules and regulations of the President Condominium Association as may from time to time exist.

The parking space license was signed by the property manager on behalf of the Association. Nearly ten years later, in 2009, the Association, through its attorney, *1156sent written notice to Keane purporting to revoke the license.

Keane filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court seeking, inter alia, a declaratory judgment against the Association, essentially alleging that the Association had wrongfully revoked Keane’s parking space license. The trial court entered a summary final judgment for the Association, holding that no genuine issue of material fact existed. The trial court determined that “[t]he parking license was properly revoked by the Association. Said revocation was proper as any rights [Keane] had pursuant to the parking license were personal to him and revocable by the Association.” Keane timely appealed.

ANALYSIS

Our review of the trial court’s summary final judgment is de novo. Casino Invs., Inc. v. Palm Springs Mile Assocs., Ltd., 128 So.3d 98 (Fla. 3d DCA 2013).

At oral argument and in their briefs, the parties stipulated that the “Parking Space License” is a license as opposed to an easement or a lease. The law is well established in Florida that a license is generally revocable at the pleasure of the licensor/grantor. See Dance v. Tatum, 629 So.2d 127, 128 (Fla.1993); Seaboard Air line Ry. Co. v. Dorsey, 111 Fla. 22, 149 So. 759, 761 (1932); Homestead-Miami Speedway, LLC v. City of Miami, 828 So.2d 411, 413 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002). Unlike a lease or an easement, a license is not an interest in real property; it merely gives one the authority to do a particular act on another’s land.1 See Seaboard Air Line Ry., 149 So. at 761; Dupont v. Whiteside, 721 So.2d 1259, 1263 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998). Therefore, the parking space license was revocable at the will of the Association, and the Association properly revoked it.

The trial court correctly found that the Association met its burden of establishing the absence of any genuine issue of material fact regarding the revocability of the license.

Affirm.


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Cited By

  • Nazia, Inc. v. Amscot Corp., 275 So. 3d 702 (Fla. 5th DCA 2019)
  • Keane v. The President Condo. Ass'n, Inc., 181 So. 3d 1247 (Fla. 3d DCA 2015)
    …improperly awarded (1) fees directly related to a prior appeal before the circuit court in its appellate capacity for which fees had been expressly denied, (2) fees attributable to the appeal in Keane v. The President Condominium Association, Inc., 133 So. 3d 1154 (Fla. 3d DCA 2014), where again, fees were denied, and (3) costs in the amount of $667.40, related to computerized legal research which were not billed to the Association. These fees and costs were improperly awarded and should be reduced from the j…

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