JOHN ROMY AND JOSEPHINE ROMY, HIS WIFE, AND DONALD EDWARDS, PEGGIE EDWARDS, ALBERT GOINES, STYLES MCKINNEY AND J. C. SMITH, APPELLANTS,
v.
DADE COUNTY, A POLITICAL SUBDIVISION OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 1959-08-24
No. 59-105
HORTON, C. J., and PEARSON, J., concur.
114 So. 2d 8 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1959) Positive Treatment
Cited by 26 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 eminent domain appeal, the court addressed two issues: whether month-to-month tenants could recover moving costs, and whether the trial court properly directed a verdict for attorney's fees. The court affirmed the denial of moving costs to non-owner tenants but reversed and remanded the attorney's fees award because it was directed by the court rather than determined by jury after contested evidence.


Holding

The court held that moving costs are not recoverable by tenants who do not hold owner status, affirming the lower court's judgment on this issue. On attorney's fees, the court held that a trial court should not instruct a jury to award a definite amount for attorney's fees unless stipulated between the parties, and reversed this portion of the judgment.


Key Quotes

“the court should not instruct the jury as to a definite amount to be awarded for attorneys' fees unless it is stipulated between petitioner and defendants”

Establishes the controlling legal rule that trial courts cannot direct verdicts on attorney's fees without party stipulation

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Facts & Procedural History

Dade County initiated eminent domain proceedings to take property from multiple owners and tenants. Some parties were month-to-month tenants seeking c…

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Opinion of the Court
CARROLL, CHAS., Judge.

CARROLL, CHAS., Judge.

This appeal and cross-appeal, directed to a judgment in eminent domain, present two questions. The first, raised by the appellant, is whether certain parties who were month-to-month tenants on the property taken were entitled to be compensated for their moving costs. The second, raised by appellee, is whether it was error to direct a verdict for attorney’s fees.

The right of an owner, whose property is taken by eminent domain, to be compensated for his moving expenses was recognized in Jacksonville Express. Authority v. Henry G. Du Pree Co., Fla.1959, 108 So.2d 289, 292. However, in a recent case decided by the court of appeal in the first district (Orange State Oil Co. v. Jacksonville Express. Authority, Fla.App.1959, 110 So.2d 687), it was held that such moving costs were not recoverable by one who was not an owner but who held a lessee’s interest. We hold, therefore, as to that first question, that the judgment appealed from here is affirmed, under the authority of the last cited case.

On the second question, we hold it was error for the court to direct the ver-*9diet for attorney fees. The attorney whose fees were involved represented defendants interested in eleven of the twenty-eight parcels in the eminent domain proceedings. On behalf of that attorney, evidence was presented to the effect that a fee of ten per centum of the amount of the verdict or award to the owners would be a fair and reasonable fee. The County did not present other testimony as to the amount of a reasonable fee, but the County’s counsel did not agree or stipulate to a ten per centum fee. The court’s charge followed, directing the jury to include in its verdict an attorney’s fee equal to ten per centum of the amounts awarded to the owners in question, and a verdict and judgment to that effect resulted. The County’s objection to the charge was preserved, and it was duly assigned as error.

It is provided by statute that in eminent domain cases “All costs of proceedings shall be paid by the petitioner, including a reasonable attorney’s fee [for the defendant] to be assessed by the jury, * * * [Emphasis added.] §§ 73.16 and 74.10, Fla. Stat., F.S.A.

This court previously has followed and applied the rule that in the determination of the value of an attorney’s services, testimony of qualified experts, though strongly persuasive, is not binding on a court or jury but is to be weighed with other evidence and factors appearing in the case and bearing upon the value of such services. Folmar v. Davis, Fla.App.1959, 108 So.2d 772. See, also, Baruch v. Giblin, 122 Fla. 59, 164 So. 831.

The rule thus enunciated was applied by this court in the case of Dratch v. Dade County, Fla.App.19588, 105 So.2d 171, 174, and we hold here, as was held in the Dratch case, that in the trial of an eminent domain case “the court should not instruct the jury as to a definite amount to be awarded for attorneys’ fees unless it is stipulated between petitioner and defendants.”

Accordingly, the main appeal from the judgment is affirmed, but the judgment is reversed on the cross-appeal, and the cause is remanded for a new trial as to the defendants’ attorney fees with which the cross-appeal was concerned here. In remanding the cause as we must for resubmission of the matter of defendants’ attorney fees to a jury, our decision is not to be construed to be an expression of a view by this court as to whether the amount of fee included in the judgment was or was not reasonable. We are not concerned on this appeal with the amount of the fee, but with the manner in which it was awarded.

Affirmed in part and reversed in part.

HORTON, C. J., and PEARSON, J., concur.


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Citator

Cited By (14 total)

  • State Rd. Dep't of Fla. v. White, 148 So. 2d 32 (Fla. 2d DCA 1962)
    …This case, Gross v. Ruskin, Fla.App.1961, 133 So. 2d 759, was, however, an appeal from an order apportioning condemnation award, so that the precise question with which we are here concerned was not involved. Cf. Romy v. Dade County, Fla.App. 1959, 114 So. 2d 8; and Orange State Oil Co. v. Jacksonville Express. Auth., Fla.App. 1959, 110 So. 2d 687. We hold then that the trial judge in the instant case did not err in allowing the question of business damages on the part of the lessee to go to the jury. No…
  • Ronlee, Inc. v. P. M. Walker Co., Inc., 129 So. 2d 175 (Fla. 3d DCA 1961)
    …lue of an attorney’s services is strongly persuasive and may aid in the determination, but is not binding on the jury. See Baruch v. Giblin, 122 Fla. 59, 164 So. 831; Folmar v. Davis, Fla.App.1959, 108 So. 2d 772; Romy v. Dade County, Fla.App. 1959, 114 So. 2d 8. For that reason alone the judgment must be reversed, and the cause remanded for submission of the issue of the amount of such attorney’s fee to a jury for determination. The need for new trial on that issue makes it necessary that we go further int…
  • Behm v. Division OF Administration, 292 So. 2d 437 (Fla. 4th DCA 1974)

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