ARLINGTON PEBBLE CREEK, LLC, APPELLANT,
v.
CAMPUS EDGE CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, INC., A FLORIDA NON-PROFIT CORPORATION, APPELLEE; ARLINGTON PROPERTIES, INC., APPELLANT, V. CAMPUS EDGE CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, INC., APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 2017-11-06
Nos. CASE NO. 1D16-1347, CASE NO. 1D16-1423
LEWIS and ROBERTS, JJ., CONCUR.
232 So. 3d 502 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (2017) Positive Treatment
Cited by 10 cases

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Synopsis

Arlington Properties and Arlington Pebble Creek appealed a jury verdict awarding damages to Campus Edge Condominium Association for fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation regarding water intrusion problems in a converted condominium. The First District Court of Appeal reversed, holding that while evidence supported the falsity of defendant's representations, the Association failed to prove the essential elements of intent to induce reliance and actual reliance.


Holding

The court held that while the Association established the first and second elements of both misrepresentation claims (false statements of material fact and defendant's knowledge or should-have-known of falsity), it failed to prove the third and fourth elements: defendants' intent to induce reliance by the Association and the Association's actual reliance resulting in injury. Therefore, judgment is reversed in favor of the appellants.


Headnotes

[1] A directed verdict is proper when the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, supports the movant's case as a matter of law and there is no…

[2] Appellate courts review orders on motions for directed verdict de novo.

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Key Quotes

“A directed verdict is proper when the evidence and all inferences from the evidence, considered in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, support the movant's case as a matter of law and there is no evidence to rebut it.”

Establishes the legal standard for when directed verdict is appropriate, reviewed de novo on appeal.

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Facts & Procedural History

Arlington Properties purchased an apartment complex in January 2006 and created Arlington Pebble Creek, LLC to convert it to condominium ownership. A …

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Opinion of the Court
BILBREY, J.

BILBREY, J.

Appellants, Arlington Properties, Inc., and Arlington Pebble Creek, LLC, appeal the final judgment in favor of Campus Edge Condominium Association, entered after denial of Appellants’ motions for directed verdict and based upon the jury’s verdict and award of damages. “A directed verdict is proper when the evidence and all inferences from the evidence, considered in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, support the mov-ant’s case as a matter of law and there is-no evidence to rebut it.” Wald v. Grainger, 64 So.3d 1201, 1205 (Fla. 2011). An appellate court reviews an order on a motion for directed verdict de novo. Kopel v. Kopel, 229 So.3d 812, 42 Fla. L. Weekly S26, 2017 WL 372074 (Fla. Jan. 26, 2017); Christensen v. Bowen, 140 So.3d 498 (Fla. 2014); Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. v. Mason, 27 So.3d 75 (Fla. 1st DCA 2009). Here, the evidence and inferences from the evidence do not establish proof of all the elements of fraudulent misrepresentation or negli*505gent misrepresentation, even when viewed in a light most favorable to the Association. Therefore, the final judgment is reversed and the trial court is directed to enter judgment in favor of the Appellants.

-Arlington Properties, Inc., purchased an existing apartment complex in January 2006, for the purpose of converting the facilities to condominium ownership under chapter 718, Florida Statutes. Upon this purchase, Arlington Pebble Creek, LLC, was created to conduct the conversion, including creation and initial management of the Association. See § 718.111, Fla. Stat. In December 2008, Arlington Pebble Creek relinquished management and control of the Association to the unit owners. See § 718.301, Fla. Stat.

The original complaint was filed by the Association on January 6, 2012, after extensive water intrusion damage to common areas of the condominium property was discovered. Necessary repairs to the common areas required the Association to increase, and for some years double or more, the assessments upon its members in order to preserve the utility and.value of both the common areas and the individual condominium units. The Association sought damages from both Arlington Properties and Arlington Pebble Creek, asserting that the developer and the managing company knew of the water intrusion problems but neglected to fully cure the situation, turned over to the Association responsibility for upkeep and repairs knowing that damage to the buildings was ongoing, and knew the Association would incur substantial expense to preserve the integrity and safety of the common areas. Based on the factual allegations in its Fourth Amended Complaint, and after clarification by. counsel and the trial court as the litigation progressed, the Association proceeded on causes of action for fraudulent misrepresentation and negligent misrepresentar tion.1

As the Florida Supreme Court has stated, a party seeking to establish fraudulent misrepresentation is required to prove the following elements:

(1) a false statement concerning a material fact; (2) the representor’s knowledge that the representation is false; (3) an intention that the representation induce another to act on it; and (4) consequent injury by the party acting in reliance on the representation.

Butler v. Yusem, 44 So.3d 102, 105 (Fla. 2010)(quoting Johnson v. Davis, 480 So.2d 625, 627 (Fla. 1985)). To establish negligent misrepresentation, a party is required to prove: (1) a misrepresentation of material fact that the defendant believed to be true but which was in fact false; (2) that defendant should have known the representation was false; (3) the defendant intended to induce the plaintiff to rely on the misrepresentation; and (4) the plaintiff acted in justifiable reliance upon the misrepresentation, resulting in injury. See *506Specialty Marine & Industrial Supplies, Inc. v. Venus, 66 So.3d 306, 309 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011).

The first elements of both causes of action require false statements of material fact. The Association admitted into evidence Arlington Properties’ Facility Evaluation Report from December 2005. This report was prepared as required by section 718.616, Florida Statutes, when converting an apartment complex to a residential condominium. The report stated an estimated remaining useful life of the structures of 35 to 45 years and described the functional soundness of the structures as “Good (localized deterioration).” In addition, the Association presented Arlington Pebble Creek’s budget for Association maintenance for 2008 (the year immediately prior to turnover of Association management), showing less than $10,000 expended for building repairs.

To prove the falsity of the Facility Evaluation Report and the maintenance budget, and to prove the defendants’ knowledge of such falsity (for the fraudulent misrepresentation count) or that they should have known of the falsity (for the negligent misrepresentation count), the Association admitted into evidence a second engineering report, the Property Condition Assessment. Arlington Properties had obtained the Property Condition Assessment around the time of the Facility Evaluation Report in December 2005 as it prepared to purchase the then apartment complex. The Property Condition Assessment was not filed with the State of Florida or otherwise published to third parties. It described moisture intrusion affecting the exterior balconies including columns, handrails, concrete decks, and balcony ceilings. The Property Condition Assessment included the engineers’ estimate that at the time of that report water damage to the buildings required repairs to the “Structure/Building envelope” costing approximately $290,200.00. According to the Association, the falsity of the 2008 budget was that it gave no hint that costly repairs were needed immediately and that extraordinary Association assessments were required in order to preserve the common areas.

The jury therefore had evidence to support the first and second elements of the fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation causes of action. However, the Association failed to present any evidence to prove the third and fourth elements for both fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation.2 No evidence of any intent of Arlington Properties or Arlington Pebble Creek to induce reliance by the Association was presented. In addition, the Association failed to present any evidence that it actually relied on the statutory report or any pre-transfer Association budgets, and failed to present any evidence that the damages it sought resulted from its action or inaction attributed to any reliance.

The testimony of Dorothy Benson, a unit owner since 2007 and Association president at the time of trial, did not describe any action the board took at the time of transfer or thereafter in reliance on any statement by either defendant. She never testified that the transfer of Association control to the unit owners was contingent *507upon any representation by either defendant. No one representing the Association asserted that the transfer deviated from any provision of section 718.301, Florida Statutes. Likewise, upon transfer of the Association in December 2008, the first post-transfer property manager, Jeff Sau-saman, testified that he prepared the budgets for the Association for 2009 and years thereafter based on his experience and with some knowledge of the Association’s budget for 2008. But Mr. Sausaman had not seen Arlington Properties’ 2005 statutory property condition report, and thus could not have relied on it, until after the litigation was commenced in 2012.

The lack of evidence of either defendants’ intent to-induce reliance and the failure to show any actual reliance by the Association via any action or change in the Association’s position was argued extensively in the defendants’ motions for directed verdict at the conclusion of the Association’s presentation of evidence. The issue of failure of proof was thus preserved for appellate review. The trial court specifically inquired of counsel what the Association would have done differently had the Association known of the water intrusion problems earlier in time. Other than preparing post-transfer budgets with higher projections for repair expenses, charging unit owners with higher assessments earlier, and perhaps undertaking repairs sooner, there was simply no evidence that the costs of repairs eventually incurred was a consequence of any reliance by the Association upon any false statement made to the Association, either fraudulently or negligently, by either of the defendants.3

Because the record on appeal fails to contain proof of the third and fourth elements of both fraudulent misrepresentation and negligent misrepresentation, the jury’s verdict, and the final judgment based thereon, are not supported by evidence in the record. Accordingly, the final judgment is REVERSED with directions for entry of judgment in favor of Appellants.

LEWIS and ROBERTS, JJ., CONCUR.


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  • …motions. the defendant intended to induce reliance on the false representation by the plaintiff, and (4) that the plaintiff justifiably relied on the misrepresentation, resulting in damages. Arlington Pebble Creek, LLC v. Campus Edge Condo. Ass'n, 232 So. 3d 502, 505 (Fla. 1st DCA 2017). There is no dispute that the jury verdict reflected findings consistent with the elements of this claim, with the exception of the zero damages amount. 6 "The parties use the term motion for judgment notwithstanding the ve…

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