IN RE THE NAME CHANGE OF JASON LANE MERCHANT, APPELLANT

Fla. 1st DCA | 2016-02-26
No. 1D15-1568
ROBERTS, CJ., THOMAS and RAY, JJ., concur.
185 So. 3d 1282 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (2016)

Topics

Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Res Judicata cases and more on FLexlaw


Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

Jason Lane Merchant appeals the denial of a verified petition for name change. The trial court determined that Merchant’s petition was procedurally barred ■ as res judicata because a name change petition involving Merchant was previously heard by a predecessor judge and denied. .“Under the doctrine of-res judicata, a subsequent action is barred if there is (1) identity of the thing sued for, (2) identity in the cause of action, (3) identity of persons and parties to the actions, and (4) identity of the quality or capacity of the person for or against whom the claim is made.” Miller v. Fla. Dep’t of Corr., 153 So.3d 392, 393 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014). Because the petition for name change in the instant case is a non-adversarial. proceeding, res judicata cannot apply as there is no identity of the parties.. See In re Doe, 973 So.2d 548, 560 (Fla. 2d DCA 2008) (Casanueva, J., concurring). Moreover; there is no statutory restriction on the number of times a person may file a name' change' petition. See § 68.07, Fla. Stat. (2014). Accordingly, we reverse and remand, for the trial court to consider the petition on its merits. .

REVERSED and REMANDED. -

ROBERTS, CJ., THOMAS and RAY, JJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw