GEORGE JACKMORE, APPELLANT,
v.
IN RE ESTATE OF WILLIAM JACKMORE, DECEASED, AND SCOTT BRIAN JACKMORE, APPELLEES

Fla. 1st DCA | 2014-07-14
No. 1D11-6680
PADOVANO and ROBERTS, JJ., concur;, BENTON, J., concurs in part and dissents in part with opinion.
145 So. 3d 170 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (2014) Positive Treatment
Cited by 5 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.


Holding

The court should reverse half the fee award against appellant because the trial court did not find the losing party's attorney acted in bad faith.


Facts & Procedural History

Appellant argued that the probate court erred in awarding the entire attorney's fee against him alone, without apportioning liability to his counsel.…

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
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

The appellant challenges the trial court’s order imposing sanctions against him pursuant to section 57.105, Florida Statutes (2011). We affirm the trial court’s award of attorney’s fees without discussion. We, however, reverse the trial court’s award of costs. An award of costs is not authorized under section 57.105. See Ferdie v. Isaacson, 8 So.3d 1246, 1251 (Fla. 4th DCA 2009) (explaining that section 57.105 allows for an award of reasonable attorney’s fees to the prevailing party, but makes no mention of costs).

Our colleague concludes that we should remand to the trial court to have the attorney’s fees split between the appellant and his counsel. However, the appellant’s entire argument in his brief is that the fees should be borne by his counsel and none by the appellant. The only portion of the appellant’s brief that can be interpreted as raising the issue that the attorney’s fees *171should be split is in the “Summary of the Argument” section of the initial brief on the bottom of page 13, to wit:

Second, the probate court erred in awarding sanctions against Appellant alone, without apportioning any liability to appellant’s counsel, where Appellee failed to establish that Appellant misrepresented material facts to the probate court.

There are no cases or statutes cited in support of this, and the appellant in the “Argument” section of the brief solely pursued the theory that the appellant was not responsible for any of the attorney’s fees. This is exactly the type of single-sentence, non-supported, and non-elaborated “argument” that this Court refused to consider in Henderson v. State, 569 So.2d 925, 927 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990), and we shall not consider it here.

AFFIRMED IN PART and REVERSED IN PART.

PADOVANO and ROBERTS, JJ., concur;

BENTON, J., concurs in part and dissents in part with opinion.

BENTON, J.,

concurring in part and dissenting in part.

I concur in the judgment except that I would reverse half the fee award entered against appellant. In the order under review, the trial court determined: “Petitioner pursued no novel legal argument that was not foreclosed by existing case law or statutory authority.” But the trial court did not find that the losing party’s attorney acted in good faith.

Although appellant might have argued more forcefully and with greater clarity that he should not have been held responsible for the entire attorney’s fee awarded, he did argue in the initial brief that “the probate court erred in awarding sanctions against Appellant alone, without apportioning any liability to Appellant’s counsel.” See § 57.105(1), Fla. Stat. (2011) (providing “the court shall award a reasonable attorney’s fee ... to be paid to the prevailing party in equal amounts by the losing party and the losing party’s attorney....”).

It may also be worth noting that, while an award of costs is not authorized under section 57.105, Florida Statutes (2011), such awards are authorized under section 57.041(1), Florida Statutes (2011), if timely requested. See Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.525; Fla. Prob. R. 5.025(d)(2).

Other
BENTON, J.,

BENTON, J.,

concurring in part and dissenting in part.

I concur in the judgment except that I would reverse half the fee award entered against appellant. In the order under review, the trial court determined: “Petitioner pursued no novel legal argument that was not foreclosed by existing case law or statutory authority.” But the trial court did not find that the losing party’s attorney acted in good faith.

Although appellant might have argued more forcefully and with greater clarity that he should not have been held responsible for the entire attorney’s fee awarded, he did argue in the initial brief that “the probate court erred in awarding sanctions against Appellant alone, without apportioning any liability to Appellant’s counsel.” See § 57.105(1), Fla. Stat. (2011) (providing “the court shall award a reasonable attorney’s fee ... to be paid to the prevailing party in equal amounts by the losing party and the losing party’s attorney....”).

It may also be worth noting that, while an award of costs is not authorized under section 57.105, Florida Statutes (2011), such awards are authorized under section 57.041(1), Florida Statutes (2011), if timely requested. See Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.525; Fla. Prob. R. 5.025(d)(2).


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

Previewing 3 of 4 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw