H. C. HARRISON, APPELLANT,
v.
CONSUMERS MORTGAGE COMPANY, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1963-06-06
No. D-492
CARROLL, DONALD K., C. J., and RAWLS, J., concur.
154 So. 2d 194 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1963) Positive Treatment
Cited by 22 cases

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Holding

The court held that the plaintiff failed to establish a genuine issue of material fact regarding the agency relationship, and thus the defendant, as a holder in due course, was entitled to summary judgment.


Facts & Procedural History

Plaintiff sued to void a mortgage, alleging fraud and usury, and claiming the attorney involved was the defendant's agent. The plaintiff's evidence of…

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Opinion of the Court
WIGGINTON, Judge.

WIGGINTON, Judge.

Plaintiff has appealed from a summary final decree entered in favor of defendant Consumers Mortgage Company. It is contended that the pleadings, exhibits, affidavits and depositions on file in the cause create a genuine issue of a material fact on which plaintiff’s right to relief depends, and that the chancellor erred in rendering the summary final decree appealed.

By his complaint plaintiff alleges that a mortgage on his home given by him to one Gayle Weldon, and assigned to Consumers Mortgage Company, is void for the reason *195that it was procured by fraud and is infected with usury. Consumers defends the action by asserting in its answer that it is a holder in due course of the note and mortgage within the definition of the statute 1, and therefore its title to and ownership of the mortgage is not subject to attack on the grounds alleged in the complaint.

It is the theory of plaintiff’s action that the attorney who arranged for and closed the mortgage transaction actively participated in the fraud practiced upon appellant, and in doing so, he was acting as attorney and agent for Consumers. Subsequent to the institution of the suit plaintiff took the depositions of Consumers’ General Manager, of the' attorney who handled the transaction and two other individuals who allegedly induced plaintiff by fraudulent means to execute the note and mortgage which he now seeks to have declared void. Thereafter Consumers filed its motion for summary final decree. Some four weeks later plaintiff filed in the cause his affidavit in opposition to the motion for summary judgment. The facts averred in plaintiff’s affidavit which tend to establish the agency relationship between the offending attorney and Consumers are based principally upon hearsay evidence or constitute legal conclusions of the affiant. It is fundamental that supporting or opposing affidavits filed in connection with a motion for summary decree shall be made on personal knowledge, shall set forth such facts as would be admissible in evidence and shall show affirmatively that the affiant is competent to testify to the matters stated therein.2

Following the filing of plaintiff’s affidavit, his deposition was taken and filed in the cause. The testimony given by plaintiff on his deposition either contradicted in all material respects the averments of agency as contained in his affidavit, or clearly reveal that the conclusions expressed by plaintiff with respect to the question of agency were based on hearsay information.

The rule provides that summary judgment or decree shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, depositions and admissions on file, together with affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is-entitled to judgment or decree as a matter of law.3 The term “genuine issue”- as used in the rule means a real as distinguished from a false or colorable issue. An examination of plaintiff’s affidavit, when considered in the light of his and the other depositions on file in the cause, fail to demonstrate that the chancellor erred in finding there was no genuine issue as to the fact relating to the agency relationship allegedly existing between the offending attorney and Consumers-. This being so, the evidence in the record establishes without dispute that Consumers is the holder in due course of the note and mortgage sought to be invalidated. Assuming as we must that Consumers is a holder in due course of the questioned note and mortgage involved in this case, the mortgage is not susceptible to attack either on the ground *196of fraud or usury4. The final summary decree appealed herein is accordingly affirmed.

CARROLL, DONALD K., C. J., and RAWLS, J., concur.


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Citator

Cited By (11 total)

  • Danni Gail Byrd v. Leach, 226 So. 2d 866 (Fla. 4th DCA 1969)
    …Building, Inc. v. Haley, Fla.1965, 175 So. 2d 780; Producers Fertilizer Co. v. Holder, Fla.App. 1968, 208 So. 2d 492. The term “genuine issue” means a real, as opposed to a false or colorable, issue. Harrison v. Consumers Mortgage Co., Fla.App.1963, 154 So. 2d 194. This burden on the party moving for a summary judgment has been discussed as that of proving a negative so conclusively that it overcomes all reasonable inferences which may be drawn in favor of the opposing party, Holl v. Talcott, Fla.1966, 191 So…
  • …he intent of the parties is an affidavit of the appellee which is ineffective because it does not allege any fact that would be admissible in evidence and sets forth only a conclusion of law. See Harrison v. Consumers Mortgage Company, Fla.App.1963, 154 So. 2d 194. The pleadings filed in this cause demonstrate the existence of an issue as to the purpose of the “termination agreement”. This issue is one of fact because it is apparent from the pleadings that both the plaintiff and the defendant have at one tim…
  • Visingardi v. Tirone, 178 So. 2d 135 (Fla. 3d DCA 1965)
    …principle that it failed to contain sufficient allegations that would have been entitled to be admitted into evidence at the time of trial. See: Evans v. Borkowski, Fla.App. 1962, 139 So. 2d 472; Harrison v. Consumers Mortgage Company, Fla.App.1963, 154 So. 2d 194; Rule 1.36(e), Florida Rules of Civil Procedure 30 F.S.A. It appears that the affidavit of this doctor amounts to no more than a conclusion or speculation similar to the one discussed in the recent case of Holl v. Talcott, Fla.App.1965, 171 So. 2d 4…

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