FLORIDA INVEST CONSULTANTS CORP., APPELLANT,
v.
CATALONIA PLAZA, LLC, CATALONIA REAL ESTATE FLORIDA CORP., MANER, LLC AND FRANCISCO JAVIER GARCIA, APPELLEES
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Florida Invest Consultants Corp. appeals the trial court's order enforcing a settlement agreement requiring it to pay $80,000 in exchange for real property, and a separate order awarding attorney's fees. The appellate court vacated the enforcement order, finding that the appellees failed to deliver a valid quitclaim deed as required, and dismissed the appeal of the attorney's fees order as not final.
The trial court erred in granting the motion to enforce the settlement agreement because Appellees failed to deliver a valid quitclaim deed as required. The order enforcing the agreement is vacated and remanded. The appeal of the attorney's fees order is dismissed because the amount of attorney's fees was not determined, making the order nonfinal and nonappealable.
[1] A settlement agreement is not enforceable if a party fails to deliver a valid quitclaim deed as required by the agreement.
[2] An order awarding attorney's fees is not appealable until the amount of the fees has been determined by the trial court.
Previewing 2 of 3 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“the settlement agreement also provided that in the event that a valid quitclaim deed was not delivered or the agreed upon payments were not made, requiring additional litigation to enforce the agreement, attorney's fees shall be awardable to the prevailing party”
Establishes the terms of the settlement agreement regarding the quitclaim deed requirement and attorney's fees provision
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe parties executed a settlement agreement in which Appellant agreed to pay Appellees $80,000 (with an initial $10,000 due at the date of sale and de…
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Florida Invest Consultants Corp. (“Appellant”) appeals the order granting Appel-lees’ motion to enforce the settlement agreement previously executed by the parties that fully resolved the underlying litigation. Appellant also appeals the separate order granting Appellees’ motion for recovery of attorney’s fees incurred in seeking to enforce the agreement.
Reduced to its basic terms, the parties’ settlement agreement provided that Appellant would pay the sum of $80,000 to Ap-pellees and that Appellees would convey certain real property to Appellant by quitclaim deed. The agreement required Appellant to pay Appellees an initial $10,000 upon the “date of sale and delivery of the quitclaim deed,” with the remaining monies to be paid in specified lump sum installments over the ensuing twelve months. Pertinent to this appeal, the settlement agreement also provided that in the event that a valid quitclaim deed was not delivered or the agreed upon payments were not made, requiring additional litigation to enforce the agreement, attorney’s fees shall be awardable to the prevailing party.
Not long after executing the settlement agreement, each party believed that the other was not complying with the agreement, and they separately moved to enforce it. Appellant asserted that it did not receive a valid quitclaim deed from Appel-lees, while Appellees argued that they had not received all payments that had come due. Following a hearing, the trial court entered the order now under review and this appeal ensued.
Based upon our de novo review of the record containing largely undisputed material facts, we conclude that the trial court erred in granting Appellees’ motion to enforce the settlement agreement because Appellees failed to deliver to Appellant a valid quitclaim deed. Accordingly, we vacate the order on appeal and remand this case to the trial court for further proceedings.1
As to the separate issue of attorney’s fees, although we have now vacated the order which provided the basis for the award, because the amount of attorney’s fees was not determined in the attorney’s fee order, we lack jurisdiction to review what amounts to a nonappealable, nonfinal order. See Sanders v. Palmieri, 849 So.2d 417 (Fla. 5th DCA 2003) (“[A]n award of attorneys’ fees does not become final, and, therefore, appealable until the amount is set by the trial court .... ” (citing Montanez v. Montanez, 697 So.2d 184 (Fla. 2d DCA 1997))).
ORDER GRANTING ENFORCEMENT OF SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT VACATED; CAUSE REMANDED. APPEAL OF ORDER FOR RECOVERY OF ATTORNEY’S FEES DISMISSED.
TORPY, LAMBERT and EDWARDS, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Montanez v. Montanez, 697 So. 2d 184 (Fla. 2d DCA 1997)
- Sanders v. Palmieri, 849 So. 2d 417 (Fla. 5th DCA 2003)