LONNIE BOYETTE, APPELLANT,
v.
BAC HOME LOANS SERVICING, LP, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 2015-03-18
No. 2D14-1870
SILBERMAN and BLACK, JJ., Concur.
164 So. 3d 9 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (2015) Positive Treatment
Cited by 12 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.

Synopsis

In this foreclosure case, the appellate court affirmed the trial court's judgment as to the principal, hazard insurance, late charges, and taxes owed, but reversed and remanded regarding interest, property inspection costs, and attorney's fees because those amounts lacked competent, substantial evidentiary support.


Holding

The court held that while the principal, hazard insurance, late charges, and taxes are supported by competent, substantial evidence, the awards for interest, property inspection costs, and attorney's fees must be reversed due to lack of evidentiary support and remanded for the trial court to properly establish these amounts.


Headnotes

[1] A foreclosure judgment must be based on competent, substantial evidence for all awarded values.

[2] A party seeking attorney's fees must provide competent, substantial evidence to support the award, such as a breakdown of hours and rates or a clear agreement for a flat…

Previewing 2 of 6 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“Values awarded in a foreclosure judgment must be based on competent, substantial evidence.”

Establishes the governing legal standard applicable to all damages in foreclosure judgments.

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

BAC Home Loans Servicing filed a foreclosure action against Lonnie Boyette in May 2010, alleging default on a loan with a principal amount of $115,697…

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
CRENSHAW, Judge.

CRENSHAW, Judge.

In this foreclosure case, Lonnie Boyette primarily challenges the final judgment of foreclosure and argues that the evidence presented at trial does not support the judgment. Because there is a lack of competent, substantial evidence as to certain of the damages that were awarded, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.

BAC Home Loans Servicing, LP (the Bank), filed this action in May 2010. The complaint alleged that Boyette was in default and owed $115,697.24 plus interest and late charges. The complaint also sought reimbursement of costs for property inspections and attorney’s fees. One item properly introduced into evidence was a payment history delineating the principal amount, $115,697.24, hazard insurance premiums, late charges, and tax payments. The final judgment also includes awards for the other items sought in the complaint.

Values awarded in a foreclosure judgment must be based on competent, substantial evidence. Wagner v. Bank of Am., N.A., 143 So.3d 447, 448 (Fla. 2d DCA 2014). Based on the testimony and the payment history in evidence, we conclude there is competent, substantial evidence supporting the principal, hazard insurance, late charges, and taxes. However, the Bank was also awarded interest, costs for property inspections, and attorney’s fees. These latter values fail for lack of competent, substantial evidence. See id. The final judgment states that interest accrued in the amount of $23,741.25. But there are no records or testimony reflecting how that amount accrued, and the only document regarding interest, the adjustable rate rider, does not provide enough information to establish the interest that accrued. Thus this portion of the judgment must be reversed. See Salauddin v. Bank of Am., N.A., 150 So.3d 1189, 1190-91 (Fla. 4th DCA 2014).1 Too, the *11$945 for property inspections is not established by testimony or other evidence in our record. See Wagner, 143 So.3d at 448. Finally, the attorney’s fees of $1200 are not substantiated. Rather, the final judgment requires that we infer a flat fee because the breakdown of the fee award states that it was for “0 hours at $0.00 per hour.” But the record does not reflect any agreement to a flat attorney fee; thus, this must be supported by other competent, substantial evidence. See id. Because the attorney’s ' fee is not so supported, we must reverse this portion of the judgment as well.

Default is established in this case,, and the amount of principal, hazard insurance premiums, late charges, and taxes are supported by competent, substantial evidence. But because the other costs, namely interest, property inspection fees, and the attorney fees, are not, we reverse and remand the judgment for further proceedings to properly establish the amounts allegedly due and owing. See Sas v. Fed. Nat’l Mortg. Ass’n, 112 So.3d 778, 779 (Fla. 2d DCA 2013).

Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

SILBERMAN and BLACK, JJ., Concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Michel v. The Bank OF NEW York Mellon, 191 So. 3d 981 (Fla. 2d DCA 2016)
    …98, 1203-04 (Fla. 4th DCA 2015). On remand, the trial court must calculate interest using the minimum rate of 3.525%. See Salauddin v. Bank of Am., N.A., 150 So. 3d 1189, 1190-91 (Fla. 4th DCA 2014); see also Boyette v. BAC Home Loans Servicing, LP, 164 So. 3d 9, 10-11, 10 n. 1 (Fla. 2d DCA 2015) (explaining that this court did not remand with directions to calculate the interest based on the minimum rate because the court was already remanding for a determination of other damages (citing Salauddin, 150 So.…
  • Harutyun Hovannesian v. Pennymac Corp. & Teni Hovannesian, 190 So. 3d 681 (Fla. 4th DCA 2016)
    …into evidence which reflected the amount of principal owed on the loan but not the amount of interest accrued, the proper remedy was to remand for further proceedings to properly establish the damages owed); Boyette v. BAC Home Loans Servicing, LP, 164 So. 3d 9, 11 (Fla. 2d DCA 2015) (“Default is established in this case, and the amount of principal, hazard ■insurance premiums, late charges, and taxes are supported by competent, substantial evidence. But because the other costs, namely interest, property i…
  • Black Point Assets, Inc. v. M C M Cap. P'rs, 236 So. 3d 1134 (Fla. 2d DCA 2018)

Previewing 3 of 7 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