SENIA RODRIGUEZ, APPELLANT,
v.
LUIS VILLAVICENCIO GUERRA, APPELLEE.

Fla. 3d DCA | 2018-04-25
No. 3D17–2776
Before EMAS, SCALES, and LINDSEY, JJ.
254 So. 3d 521 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (2018) Positive Treatment
Cited by 13 cases

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Holding

The court held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion to discharge the lis pendens or set a bond.


Headnotes

[1] A notice of lis pendens is not authorized as a matter of right when the pending pleading does not show that the action is founded on a duly recorded instrument.

[2] When an action is not based on a duly recorded instrument, a party is entitled to maintain a lis pendens by showing a fair nexus between the property and the dispute.

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Facts & Procedural History

Plaintiff recorded a notice of lis pendens seeking to rescind a quitclaim deed transferring property to the defendant. The defendant moved to discharg…

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Opinion of the Court
SCALES, J.

SCALES, J.

Appellant, defendant below, Senia Rodriguez challenges a non-final order that denied Rodriguez's Motion to Discharge Lis Pendens or in the Alternative to Set Lis Pendens Bond ("Motion"). Finding no abuse of discretion, we affirm.1

*522Appellee, plaintiff below, Luis Villavicencio Guerra, recorded a notice of lis pendens contemporaneously with Guerra's lawsuit seeking to rescind a quitclaim deed, purporting to transfer Guerra's property to Rodriguez.2 Rodriguez set her Motion as a non-evidentiary hearing on the trial court's open motion calendar. As is apparent from the transcript of the hearing, the trial court concluded that Guerra's claims3 were not "founded on a duly recorded instrument" so as to authorize Guerra to record a lis pendens as a matter of right. See § 48.23(3), Fla. Stat. (2017) ; Am. Legion Cmty. Club v. Diamond, 561 So.2d 268, 272 (Fla. 1990) (concluding that an action to set aside a conveyance of real property for fraud was not an action "founded on the terms and provisions" of the recorded instrument, "but on the circumstances surrounding the execution" of the recorded instrument; therefore, the plaintiff was not entitled to a lis pendens as a matter of right). Hence, as required by section 48.23(3), the trial court adjudicated Rodriguez's motion as if Guerra's notice of lis pendens was a temporary injunction. § 48.23(3), Fla. Stat. (2017) ("When the pending pleading does not show that the action is founded on a duly recorded instrument ... the court shall control and discharge the recorded notice of lis pendens as the court would grant and dissolve injunctions."); Med. Facilities Dev., Inc. v. Little Arch Creek Props., Inc., 675 So.2d 915, 917 (Fla. 1996) (concluding that, where an action is not based on a duly recorded instrument, the proponent is entitled to maintain a lis pendens where the proponent shows a "fair nexus between the property and the dispute").

While not entirely clear from the hearing transcript, it does appear that the trial court determined that Guerra had met his burden of establishing a fair nexus between the subject property and the underlying action. Upon finding that Rodriguez had not satisfied her burden of demonstrating irreparable harm, the trial court then exercised its discretion not to impose a requirement of a bond. Med. Facilities Dev., Inc., 675 So.2d at 917-18 ("[T]he decision of whether a lis-pendens bond should be posted rests within the discretion of the trial judge. ... Our holding today specifically rejects the interpretation that the statutory reference to injunctions requires the lis-pendens proponent to post a bond in every case."). While a better practice may have been for the trial court to schedule an evidentiary hearing on the bond issue, we can hardly conclude that the trial court abused its discretion in this regard when Rodriguez scheduled the hearing on her Motion as a non-evidentiary hearing4 on the trial court's open motion calendar.

Affirmed.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Nieto Villamizar v. Luna Cap. P'rs, 43 Fla. L. Weekly D900 (Fla. 3d DCA 2018)
  • …to the conveyance of the disputed properties, petitioners asserted ownership over areas designated by the Association as common elements of the condominium. 1 We review an order discharging a lis pendens in certiorari. See Rodriguez v. Guerra, 254 So. 3d 521, 521 n.1 (Fla. 3d DCA 2018) (citations omitted). ---PAGE 3--- The Association counterclaimed, seeking to reform the documents and quiet title. Petitioners filed a notice of lis pendens, and the parties engaged in discovery. After the facts wer…
  • LB Judgment Holdings v. Boschetti, 271 So. 3d 115 (Fla. 3d DCA 2019)

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