EDUARDO GARCIA, PETITIONER,
v.
CHRISTIANA TRUST, ETC., ET AL., RESPONDENTS

Fla. 3d DCA | 2016-10-19
No. 3D16-735
Before SUAREZ, C.J., and FERNANDEZ and SCALES, JJ.
208 So. 3d 176 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (2016) Positive Treatment
Cited by 6 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

The court granted a writ of certiorari and quashed an order allowing Christiana Trust to amend its foreclosure complaint against Eduardo Garcia. The court held that a prior appellate decision purporting to reverse Garcia's foreclosure judgment lacked legal effect because Garcia was not a party to that appeal and the judgment had become final.


Holding

The court held that the Rocketrider opinion's language purporting to reverse the Final Judgment of Foreclosure was without legal effect because: (1) the Final Judgment was final and not appealed; (2) an appellate court has no jurisdiction to act unless the application for review is brought within proper time and manner; and (3) once a final judgment is entered and the time for appeal has expired, neither the trial nor appellate court has jurisdiction to modify or reopen it. Therefore, the trial court lacked jurisdiction to grant leave to amend.


Headnotes

[1] A final judgment, once rendered and the time for appeal has expired, is a final adjudication of the merits of an action and cannot be reopened or modified by the trial co…

[2] An appellate court's jurisdiction is limited to the issues and parties properly before it on appeal; language in an appellate opinion purporting to reverse a judgment to…

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Key Quotes

“The jurisdiction of appellate courts to correct error in an order is likewise limited by statute and rule in that such a court has no power whatsoever to act in a cause unless the application for review be brought within the time and in the manner provided.”

Establishes that appellate courts lack jurisdiction to modify orders unless the review is properly brought; foundational to the holding that Rocketrider could not reverse a judgment in which Garcia was not a party.

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Facts & Procedural History

Eduardo Garcia and his wife Bertha held property as tenants by the entireties. BankUnited sought to foreclose on a mortgage; the trial court found Gar…

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Opinion of the Court
SUAREZ, C.J.

SUAREZ, C.J.

Eduardo Garcia petitions this court to enforce a mandate issued on June 5, 2014, *177or alternatively, for a writ of certiorari or prohibition. We treat this appeal as a proceeding for a writ of certiorari and for the reasons stated below, grant the writ and quash the order under review.

This ongoing and factually tortured litigation began when BankUnited sought to foreclose on a mortgage purportedly signed by Eduardo Gareiá and Bertha Garcia, who were husband and wife at the time. Eduardo Garcia and Bertha Garcia held title to the property as tenants by the entireties. A bench trial on the foreclosure action was held and the trial court determined that Eduardo Garcia’s signature on the mortgage documents had been forged by Bertha, his wife. As such, in the final judgment of foreclosure, the trial court determined that BankUnited held a hen for the total sum owed, but not as to defendant Eduardo Garcia as his signature had been forged. The Final Judgment of Foreclosure rendered February 28, 2013, ordered the sale of the property but specifically provided that “[t]he sale shall not include the interest of the Defendant, Eduardo Garcia, who prevailed in this action.” Only the interest of Bertha Garcia was to be sold. Published notice of the sale did not indicate that only one of the two parties’ interests was salable but indicated the sale was for the entire fee. The Garcias filed an emergency motion in the trial court to cancel the sale, citing their ownership by the entirety, and arguing that Eduardo Garcia’s interest could not be separated out for purposes of foreclosure and sale. The trial court denied the emergency motion and the online sale went forward with no changes being made to the publication.

Rocketrider Pictures, LLC, was the purchaser. When Rocketrider, after the sale, discovered that the property had been held as tenants by the entireties, it filed an Objection to Sale in the trial court stating that its bid was based on the assumption it was bidding on the entire fee and because the property had been held by the entire-ties and could not be severed, Rocketrider actually received nothing in the purchase. The trial court denied the motion and Rocketrider appealed. On that appeal, this Court reversed the order denying Rocketrider’s objections to the judicial sale and ordered the trial court to cancel the certificate of title issued to Rocketrider as the buyer, and to return Rocketrider’s bid money. Rocketrider Pictures, LLC v. BankUnited, et al., 138 So.3d 1223 (Fla. 3d DCA 2014). Although the propriety of the foreclosure itself was not an issue in or subject of that appeal, this Court also, however, in its opinion reversed the Final Judgment of Foreclosure to which Rocket-rider was not a party. A mandate on that opinion then issued.

Subsequent to the mandate, Eduardo Garcia sought entry in the trial court of a judgment finding that he is not liable on the note and mortgage, and to quiet title. On October 20, 2015, Christiana Trust, the successor in interest to BankUnited, filed a motion for leave to file an Amended Complaint in foreclosure and to add new counts for breach of promissory note and equitable lien. Relying on the 2014 Rocketrider opinion from this Court that purportedly reversed the Final Judgment below, the trial court denied Eduardo Garcia’s motion for judgment on the pleadings and final judgment. The trial court, relying on this Court’s opinion in Rocketrider that in part ordered reversal of the final judgment in foreclosure, granted the Trust’s leave to amend the Complaint in Foreclosure. Eduardo Garcia appealed bringing us to this point in this tangled litigation.

First, it is important to note that the Final Judgment in Foreclosure entered February 28, 2013, was not appealed and is now, therefore, final. See Makar v. Inv’rs Real Estate Mgmt., 553 So.2d 298, *178299 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989) (holding a judgment is a final adjudication of the merits of an action). Indeed, the 2013 Rocketrider appeal was not from the Final Judgment of Foreclosure but was strictly limited to vacating the post-foreclosure judicial sale and returning Rocketrider’s bid money. The only parties to that appeal were the parties to the foreclosure sale, Rocketrider and the Bank; Eduardo Garcia was not a party to that appeal. The Final Judgment of Foreclosure was not at issue in that appeal and the language in Rocketrider purporting to reverse that final judgment is without legal effect. See, e.g., Kippy Corp. v. Colburn, 177 So.2d 193, 197 (Fla. 1965) (“The jurisdiction of appellate courts to correct error in an order is likewise limited by statute and rule in that such a court has no power whatsoever to act in a cause unless the application for review be brought within the time and in the manner provided.”); Denny v. Denny, 334 So.2d 300, 302 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976) (holding that as the final judgment became a final decision, appealable as such, and where no appeal was taken within the time prescribed by the Florida Appellate Rules, neither the trial court nor appellate court has jurisdiction to review it).

As the foreclosure (between Eduardo Garcia and the Bank) was already final at the time Rocketrider filed its June 6, 2013 appeal from the post-judgment sale, the Final Judgment of Foreclosure cannot be reversed nor, for that matter, can it be re-opened.1 See Liberty Ins. Corp. v. Milne, 98 So.3d 613, 615 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012) (finding a trial court loses jurisdiction of a cause after a judgment or final decree has been entered and the time for filing petition for rehearing or motion for new trial has expired or same has been denied); Harbor Bay Condominiums, Inc. v. Basabe, 856 So.2d 1067, 1070 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003).

In this matter, notwithstanding the language contained in the 2014 Rocketrider opinion, neither this Court nor the trial court had jurisdiction to modify or reopen the Final Judgment of Foreclosure because that judgment was final as to Eduardo Garcia and the Bank, and Eduardo Garcia was not a party to the Rocketrider appeal. We therefore treat Eduardo Garcia’s present petition as a request for writ of certiorari, grant the writ and quash the order below granting Christiana Trust’s motion for leave to amend its complaint in foreclosure, and remand with directions to reinstate the February 28, 2013 Final Judgment of Foreclosure.

Petition granted, remanded with directions.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Garcia v. Christiana Tr., 230 So. 3d 66 (Fla. 3d DCA 2017)
    …SUAREZ, J. Christiana Trust seeks an order enforcing this Court’s mandate in Garcia v. Christiana Trust, 208 So. 3d 176 (Fla. 3d DCA 2016). We grant the motion and order the trial court to vacate its April 5, 2017 order. This is the fourth time this case comes before us. Title to the property was held by the entireties by Petitioner Eduardo Garcia (“Garcia”) and his…
    1 / 2
  • Ofer Zosman v. Bank OF Am., N.A., 207 So. 3d 363 (Fla. 3d DCA 2016)
    …PER CURIAM. Affirmed. See Garcia v. Christiana Trust, 3D16-735, 208 So. 3d 176, 2016 WL 6092064 (Fla. 3d DCA Oct. 19, 2016).…
  • …ifferent issues of fact or law unless the appellate court in its opinion has authorized such amendments."). Consequently, the trial court lacked case jurisdiction to proceed with JJJTB's amended foreclosure complaint. See Garcia v. Christiana Tr., 208 So. 3d 176, 178 (Fla. 3d DCA 2016) ("As the foreclosure (between Eduardo Garcia and the Bank) was already final at the time Rocketrider filed its June 6, 2013 appeal from the post-judgment sale, the Final Judgment of Foreclosure cannot be reversed nor, for tha…

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