LEO ALSHEIMER
v.
RUSSELL PALMER, ET AL.

Fla. | 1935-05-15
Whitfield, C. J., and Ellis, Terrell and Davis, J. J., concur.
119 Fla. 335 Florida Supreme Court (1935) Positive Treatment
Also reported at: 161 So. 559
Cited by 8 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

In this equity case, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed the dismissal of a lien foreclosure suit brought by a contractor who had fraudulently padded his accounts for labor and materials. The court held that a party seeking equitable relief must come before the court with clean hands and cannot enforce claims based on falsified charges.


Holding

The court held that the bill was properly dismissed because Alsheimer failed the clean hands doctrine by seeking to enforce a claim based on fraudulent and fictitious charges. The Chancellor was not required to transfer the case to the law side because the dismissal was based on the complainant's fraud and inequitable conduct, not on the availability of an adequate remedy at law.


Key Quotes

“the appellant, complainant in the court below, did not come into a court of equity with clean hands, that he sought to enforce a lien for an amount which was not due him and which was arrived at by padding of accounts in breach of his contract”

States the Chancellor's finding that the appellant violated the clean hands doctrine by making false charges

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Alsheimer entered into a contract with Palmer and others to furnish materials and labor for construction work on specified land, with compensation bas…

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
Buford, J.

Buford, J.

The appeal here is from an order to dismiss a bill of complaint after issues were joined and full testimony taken and submitted to the court on final hearing. The suit was instituted by bill in chancery to foreclose an alleged lien for material and labor furnished under a contract between the appellant and some of the appellees.

The record showed that appellant had entered into a contract with certain of the appellees to furnish materials and labor for certain construction on a parcel of the land described in the notice of lien and in the bill of complaint. The contract provided that appellant should be repaid the amount which he was required to expend for labor and material and in addition thereto was to be paid ten per cent. (10%) of the amount so expended for his services in performing the contract.

The record shows conclusively that appellant made false, fraudulent and fictitious charges for both labor and material, although the Chancellor found that the excess charges made for material were not of great consequence. Yet, it is shown that appellant did charge appellees a higher price than he paid for material and that he consistently padded the pay-roll and charged a greater amount for all labor than he was required to pay and did pay for labor. Because of this showing, the Chancellor held that the appellant, complainant in the court below, did not come into a court of equity with'clean hands, that he sought to enforce a lien *337for an 'amount which was not due him and which was arrived at by padding of accounts in breach of his contract.

The record also shows that the labor performed and material furnished was so furnished and performed on only a part of the lands described in the notice of lien and in the bill of complaint and that other lands described in the notice of lien and in the bill of complaint were not contiguous to, but were separated from, those lands or-that parcel of land on which the materials were furnished and labor performed.

We think that the Chancellor’s conclusion that the complainant did not come into a court of equity with clean hands, but came there attempting to enforce a false and fictitious claim based upon padded accounts which he had caused to be made up with the design, and for the purpose, of collecting from defendants more than his contract entitled him to collect, is sustained by the record and that the bill of complaint was properly dismissed. See Langford v. Reed, 69 Fla. 198, 68 Sou. 723.

Appellants contend that the Chancellor was not warranted in dismissing the bill, even if he found complainant not entitled to relief in equity, but that he should have ordered the cause transferred to the law side of the docket, as provided in Section 75 of Chapter 14658, being the 1931 Chancery Practice Act.

We do not think this is one of the cases that the Chancellor is required by that statute to order transferred to the law side of the docket. The bill was not dismissed because the complainant had a clear, adequate and complete remedy at law, but it was dismissed because the record showed that he had falsified his accounts and had come into a court of equity seeking to enforce a lien based upon fraudulent and fictitious charges and in such cases a court of equity should not lend its assistance to the wrong-doer to the end *338that his claim, whatever it may be, may be kept active, enforceable and not barred by the statute of limitations.

The decree appealed from should be affirmed.

It is so ordered.

Affirmed.

Whitfield, C. J., and Ellis, Terrell and Davis, J. J., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Skidmore v. The Volpe Constr. Co., Inc., 511 So. 2d 642 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987)
    …y. The inclusion of items not authorized by change orders or by contract renders the lien fraudulent and unenforceable. Hobbs Constr. & Dev., Inc. v. Presbyterian Homes, 440 So. 2d 673 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983); see also Alsheimer v. Palmer, 119 Fla. 335, 161 So. 559 (1935) (padded accounts make lien unenforceable under common law applicable before enactment of mechanic’s lien law). We therefore hold that the trial court erred in declaring Volpe’s lien valid when the evidence discloses that Volpe willfully exagg…
  • Sharrard v. Ligon, 892 So. 2d 1092 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004)
    …expenses on a cost-plus contract with premium charges for nonexistent workers’ compensation insurance. The use of padded accounts on a cost-plus contract to inflate the amount of a claim of lien is fraudulent. See Alsheimer v. Palmer, 119 Fla. 335, 161 So. 559 (1935) (decided under the common law applicable before the enactment of the construction lien law). A review of the undisputed evidence on the workers’ compensation premium expense issue leads to the conclusion that the Contractor either willfully…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw