OLDCASTLE SOUTHERN GROUP, INC., A GEORGIA CORPORATION, APPELLANT,
v.
RAILWORKS TRACK SYSTEMS, INC., A NEVADA CORPORATION AUTHORIZED TO TRANSACT BUSINESS IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 2017-12-21
No. CASE NO. 1D17-48
RAY and WINOKUR, JJ., CONCUR.
235 So. 3d 993 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (2017) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 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

Oldcastle challenges an attorney's fee award to Railworks, arguing that Railworks' settlement proposal was invalid because it was not served in compliance with Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.516. The First District Court of Appeal held that proposals for settlement are not subject to Rule 2.516's service requirements because they are not 'filed' documents under that rule, and thus Railworks was entitled to the fee award.


Holding

The court held that Rule 2.516's service requirements do not apply to proposals for settlement because such proposals are not 'documents filed in any court proceeding' as contemplated by Rule 2.516(a). Therefore, Railworks was not required to comply with Rule 2.516 when serving its settlement proposal, and the trial court properly awarded attorney's fees.


Headnotes

[1] A proposal for settlement is not required to be served in accordance with Rule 2.516, Florida Rules of Judicial Administration, because it is not a document filed in a co…

[2] Rule 2.516(a) confines its service requirements to pleadings subsequent to the initial pleading and other documents filed in a court proceeding.

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Key Quotes

“We hold that the proposal did not have to be served in accordance with rule 2.516.”

The core holding rejecting Oldcastle's service requirement argument.

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Facts & Procedural History

Railworks sent a settlement proposal to Oldcastle by email without following Rule 2.516's technical requirements (no subject line beginning with 'SERV…

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Opinion of the Court
BILBREY, J.

BILBREY, J.

Railworks Track Systems, Inc., the plaintiff at trial, sent a proposal for settlement1 by email to Oldcastle Southern *994Group, Inc., the defendant. The proposal was received by Oldcastle, not accepted, and then following trial Railworks received a judgment more than 25 percent.greater than the amount demanded in the proposal. See § 768.79(1), Fla. Stat. (2014). Old-castle contends the proposal had to be served in accordance with rule 2.516, Florida Rules of Judicial Administration, and since it was not Railworks was not entitled to an award of attorneys’ fees. We hold that the proposal did not have to be served in accordance with rule 2.516. We also reject without further comment Oldcastle’s argument that the trial court awarded an unreasonably high hourly rate to Rail-works’ attorneys and paralegal.

It is undisputed that Railworks’ proposal for settlement did not contain a subject line on the email beginning with “SERVICE OF COURT DOCUMENT”; did not include the case number in the service line; and did not include in the body of the email the case number, the court where the case was pending, the name of the party, • or the title of the document served—all of which would be required if rule 2.516(b)(1)(E) applied.2 Oldcastle contends that these omissions mean that the proposal was not served as required by rule 2.516, was therefore invalid, and the award of fees was error.

There is a split-of authority among other district courts as to whether a proposal for settlement .must be served as provided by rule 2.516. Compare Wheaton v. Wheaton, 217 So.3d 125 (Fla. 3d DCA 2017), rev. granted, 2017 WL 4785810 (Fla. October 24, 2017), with McCoy v. B.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 229 So.3d 827 (Fla. 4th DCA 2017), and Boatright v. Philip Morris USA Inc., 218 So.3d 962 (Fla. 2d DCA 2017). We adopt the view of McCoy and Boatright and hold that .compliance with rule 2.516 is not required when serving a proposal for settlement. We certify conflict with Wheaton. .

Our review of the issue of entitlement to fees is de novo. Kuhajda v. Borden Dairy Co. of Alabama, LUC, 202 So.3d 391 (Fla. 2016). We construe the rules of court in the same manner as we construe statutes. Saia Motor Freight Line, Inc. v. Reid, 930 So.2d 598 (Fla. 2006). Section 768.79(3), Florida Statutes (2014), requires service of the proposal, without specifying the manner of service, “upon the party to whom it is made, but it shall not be filed unless it is accepted or unless filing is necessary to enforce the provisions of this section,” Rule 2,516 provides, impart,

(a) Service; When Required. Unless the court otherwise orders, or a statute or supreme court administrative order specifies a different means of service, every pleading subsequent to the initial pleading and every other document filed in any court proceeding ... must be served in accordance with this rule on each party. . ■

The parties agree‘that Railworks’ proposal for settlement was not a pleading. See Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.100(a). Oldcastle contends that the proposal falls under rule 2.516(a)’s application to “every other document filed in any court proceeding” and therefore “must be served in accordance with this rule.” Although—consistent with section 768.79(3)—rule R442(d), Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, requires “[a] proposal shall be served on the party or parties to whom -it ⅛. made,” it continues by stating that a proposal “shall not be filed unless necessary to enforce the provisions of this rule.” We agree with McCoy and Boatright that since the proposal for set*995tlement is not to be filed when it is served, the proposal is not included in the clause “every other document filed in any court proceeding.” McCoy, 229 So.3d at 828, 2017 WL 4812662, at *1; Boatright, 218 So.3d at 967.3

Oldcastle also makes an; argument concerning rule 2.516(d), which was not addressed in McCoy, Boatright, or Wheaton. Rule 2.516(d), states in part, “Filing. All documents must be filed with the court either before service or immediately thereafter, unless otherwise provided for by general law or other rules.” (Emphasis added). Oldcastle argues that the emphasized language supports, its contention that the proposal falls under rule 2.516(a) in that the proposal is an “other, document” but is not “filed in any court proceeding” due to application of general law and rules, specifically section 768.79(3) and rule 1.442(d). In so arguing Oldcastle attempts to use subsection (d) to expand the definition of “other document” in subsection (a). We disagree with Oldcastle’s argument.

Oldcastle’s argument Regarding rule 2.516(d) suffers from the same problem as the appellees’ argument in Boat-right regarding subsection (b). There, Judge Badalamenti stated,

[Appellees’] expansive reading of rule 2.516(b)(1) would render subsection (a) meaningless and only prevails if we were to impermissibly read rule 2.516(b)(1) in isolation. By its title, rule 2.516(a) sets forth when the service requirements of rule 2.516 apply. Rule 2.516(a) confines the scope of rule 2.516 to “every pleading-' subsequent to - the initial pleading and every other document filed in any court proceeding.” (Emphasis added.) Rule 2.516(b)(1) then sets forth the method by which those documents- must be served, which is principally by email, albeit with some exceptions inapplicable to .ithis case. Reading rule 2.516(a) and (b)(1) together, the word “documents” in subsection (b)(1) is confined in meaning to “document[s] filed in any court proceeding,” consistent with the text of subsection (a).... It makes no sense for rule 2.516(b)(l)’s. email service requirement to apply to- a broader scope of documents, than, specified by, 2.516(a), which is the portion of rule. 2.516 defining scope. .

Boatright, 218 So.3d at 967. Subsection (a) of rule 2.516 concerns service while subsection (d) concerns filing. Subsection (d) should not be read to expand what is a document under subsection (a).

Based on the above, we find no error in the trial court’s determination that the service requirements of ruie 2.516 do not apply to proposals for settlement.

AFFIRMED; CONFLICT CERTIFIED.

RAY and WINOKUR, JJ., CONCUR.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Wheaton v. Mardella Wheaton, 261 So. 3d 1236 (Fla. 2019)
    …essly and directly conflicts with Boatright v. Phillip Morris USA, Inc., 218 So. 3d 962 (Fla. 2d DCA 2017), McCoy v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 229 So. 3d 827 (Fla. 4th DCA 2017), and Oldcastle Southern Group, Inc., v. Railworks Track Systems, Inc., 235 So. 3d 993 (Fla. 1st DCA 2017), regarding whether proposals for settlement made pursuant to section 768.79, Florida Statutes (2018), and Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.442 must comply with the email service provisions of Florida Rule of Judicial Administrat…
    1 / 2

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