GEICO GENERAL INSURANCE COMPANY
v.
BROOKE TSAO AND BENJAMINTSAO
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When an appellate court reverses a trial court's final judgment, any award of attorney's fees and costs based on that judgment must also be reversed.
[1] An award of attorney's fees and costs pursuant to section 768.79, Florida Statutes, must be reversed when the underlying final judgment upon which the award is based is r…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceGEICO General Insurance Company appealed a trial court order awarding attorney's fees and costs to Brooke Tsao pursuant to section 768.79, Florida Sta…
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FIFTH DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
STATE OF FLORIDA
_____________________________ Case No. 5D2023-3413 LT Case No. 2019-CA-8936 _____________________________
GEICO GENERAL INSURANCE
COMPANY, Appellant, v. BROOKE TSAO and BENJAMIN TSAO, Appellees. _____________________________ On appeal from the Circuit Court for Duval County. Virginia Norton, Judge. Caryn L. Bellus and Barbara E. Fox, of Kubicki Draper, Miami, for Appellant. E. Aaron Sprague, C. Rufus Pennington, III, William C. Gentry, and Chelsea R. Harris, of Coker Law, Jacksonville, for Appellee, Brooke Tsao. No Appearance for Appellee, Benjamin Tsao. March 28, 2025
MACIVER, J.
GEICO General Insurance Company appeals the trial court’s order awarding attorney’s fees and costs to Brooke Tsao, pursuant
2 to section 768.79, Florida Statutes (2023). The award of attorney’s fees and costs was based on the trial court’s entry of a final judgment in favor of Tsao. We recently reversed the final judgment in favor of Tsao and remanded for a new trial. See GEICO Gen. Ins. Co. v. Tsao, 397 So. 3d 1186, 1191 (Fla. 5th DCA 2024).
Because we reversed the final judgment, we must reverse the trial court’s order awarding attorney’s fees and costs to Tsao. See Kempton v. McComb, 266 So. 3d 272, 273 (Fla. 5th DCA 2019) (reversing order awarding attorney’s fees and costs pursuant to section 768.79 where appellate court reversed trial court’s final judgment); Hodge v. Cichon, 79 So. 3d 950 (Fla. 5th DCA 2012) (reversing order granting attorney’s fees pursuant to section 768.79 where appellate court reversed trial court’s order granting final summary judgment in favor of appellees).
REVERSED.
EDWARDS, C.J., and HARRIS, J., concur.
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- Hodge v. Cichon, 79 So. 3d 950 (Fla. 5th DCA 2012)
- Poirier v. Laurier Poirier, III, 266 So. 3d 272 (Fla. 5th DCA 2019)