ALYETTE KELDIE
v.
BRYAN DENNSTEDT

Fla. 4th DCA | 2021-12-22
No. 21-0198
330 So. 3d 61 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (2021) Positive Treatment
Cited by 3 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.


Holding

An order finding entitlement to attorney's fees without determining the amount is not ripe for appellate review and must be dismissed as premature.


Headnotes

[1] An order determining entitlement to attorney's fees without specifying the amount is a non-final, non-appealable order and must be dismissed as premature on appeal.

Previewing 1 of 1 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“An order merely finding entitlement to attorney's fees is a non-final, non-appealable order.”

Court citing Schmidt v. Schmidt to establish the rule that entitlement without amount determination is not appealable

Facts & Procedural History

Appellant Alyette Keldie appealed multiple orders from the circuit court regarding modification of a final judgment of paternity. The trial court foun…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court

PER CURIAM.

Appellant Alyette Keldie appeals multiple orders regarding the modification of a final judgment of paternity. We affirm all issues related to these orders without comment. Appellant also contests the trial court’s decision to award attorney’s fees and costs to appellee Bryan Dennstedt. We dismiss the issue regarding the attorney’s fees award as premature. See Winkelman v. Toll, 632 So. 2d 130 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994).

Although the trial court found that appellee was entitled to attorney’s fees, it has not yet determined the amount of the entitlement. Without that determination, an attorney’s fees award is not ripe for appellate review. See Schmidt v. Schmidt, 319 So. 3d 65, 65 (Fla. 4th DCA 2021) (“An order merely finding entitlement to attorney’s fees is a non-final, non-appealable order.”); Dania Beach Boat Club Condo. Ass’n, v. Forcier, 290 So. 3d 99, 102 (Fla. 4th DCA 2020) (“A finding of entitlement to attorney’s fees without a determination of the amount of fees is not appealable.”). We therefore dismiss the challenge to the attorney’s fees award without prejudice and affirm all other issues without comment.

Affirmed in part and dismissed in part. MAY, KLINGENSMITH, and ARTAU, JJ., concur. * * * Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Mark, 290 So. 3d 99 (Fla. 4th DCA 2024)
    …junction and Temporary Injunction for Protection Against Exploitation of a Vulnerable Adult without further comment. We dismiss without prejudice the portion of the order awarding attorney’s fees as a sanction as premature. See Keldie v. Dennstedt, 330 So. 3d 61, 62 (Fla. 4th DCA 2021). “Although the trial court found that appellee was entitled to attorney’s fees, it has not yet determined the amount of the entitlement. Without that determination, an attorney’s fees award is not ripe for appellate review.”…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw