GEORGE J. BAYA AND MARY PHILLIPS BAYA, HIS WIFE, APPELLANTS,
v.
CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN FLORIDA FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICT, A PUBLIC CORPORATION, AND ZIBE WILLIAMS, GUSSIE W. BEVER, LOIS W. CRAIG, EUNICE W. PERRY, BLANCHE W. SCARBOROUGH, F. H. WILLIAMS, JR., AND CECIL BARBER, APPELLEES

Fla. 2d DCA | 1966-03-09
No. 6095
SHANNON, Acting C. J., and LILES, J., concur.
184 So. 2d 501 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1966) Negative Treatment
Cited by 19 cases

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Synopsis

This case addresses the appeal of various orders concerning a rural road over the Bayas' property where the Williams heirs had established prescriptive rights. The court upheld the trial court's denial of the Bayas' requests for attorney's fees, injunctive relief to keep gates locked, and full cost recovery, finding no error in the lower court's rulings.


Holding

The court affirmed the trial court's orders on all three issues. Attorney's fees may be taxed only upon clear proof of specific, certain, and conclusive fraud or malice, which was not established here. The gate cannot be kept locked as an injunction, as this would be contrary to the prescriptive right granted. Cost apportionment between the parties is proper when a decree is affirmed in part and reversed in part.


Key Quotes

“Under certain circumstances of fraud or malice attorneys' fees may be taxed, but such malice or fraud must be specific, certain and conclusive.”

Establishes the standard for awarding attorney's fees in cases involving fraud or malice

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Facts & Procedural History

The Bayas own land over which a rural road runs leading from the Williams heirs' lands north to State Road 70. In a prior appeal (Baya v. Central & So…

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Opinion of the Court
MORROW, R. O., Associate Judge.

MORROW, R. O., Associate Judge.

In Baya v. Central & Southern Florida Flood Control District, Fla.App.1964, 166 So.2d 846, this court affirmed in part and reversed in part a Final Decree which adjudicated to be public by prescription a rural road leading from the Williams heirs’ lands north over the Bayas’ lands to S.R. 70. This court reversed the chancellor’s adjudication of public rights but sustained his findings that the Williams heirs had a private prescriptive right in the. road both by necessity and by private adverse use. This court remanded the cause for entry of a decree “consistent with those findings.” Upon remand the chancellor first modified his final decree by a decree pursuant to mandate, dated September 18, 1964, from which no appeal was taken, and then subsequently entered another order dated January 22, 1965, from which the Bayas now take this timely interlocutory appeal.

The order appealed (1) denies Baya’s request to tax as costs against the Williams heirs attorneys’ fees and other expenses incurred by the Bayas in resisting a contempt rule allegedly botained by the Williams heirs through fraud and malice; (2)denies the Bayas’ motion for an order further modifying the final decree by striking certain phrases and entering an injunction restraining the Williams heirs from interfering with any gate or lock maintained by the Bayas; and (3) partially denies Baya’s motion to tax as costs against the Williams heirs the full cost ($1554.55) of the transcript of record used on the prior appeal by requiring the Williams heirs to pay only half ($777.28), such expense.

The appellant contends that the Court should tax costs against the Williams heirs for attorneys’ fees and other expenses incurred by reason of the appellants Baya resisting a contempt order allegedly obtained by the Williams heirs through fraud and malice. Under certain circumstances of fraud or malice attorneys’ fees may be taxed, but such malice or fraud must be specific, certain and conclusive. It does not appear that such circumstances here existed, and it does appear that the contempt proceedings and the Order to-Show Cause' against Baya had been dismissed on November 12, 1964, prior to. hearing thereon. This order was not appealed. We find no error in the trial court’s not fixing of attorneys’ fees.

The order appealed provides that: the defendants Baya do not have the right to keep the gate locked, and that there is. no showing of a need to keep the gate-locked. This complies with the original' opinion of this Court, which stated that the gate was secured by a lock from time-to time which apparently was placed thereon by Baya, and consented to by the Williams heirs. Part of the time the gate was. not locked, and it would be contrary to-prescriptive right to injunctively order it, to be kept locked.

It is pointed out that the order pursuant, to mandate was not appealed, and the court has lost jurisdiction to change said order..

The contention of the appellant that the-easement is not sufficiently described is. without merit.

The final point raised by the appellant is the taxing of only one-half of the costs of the transcript of record against the Williams heirs. The Decree appealed' was affirmed in part and reversed in part,. *503and apportioning the costs between the parties comports with Fla.Appellate Rule 3.16, 31 F.S.A., which provides that reasonable costs may be taxed in the lower court after the filing of mandate. It is pointed out that the time for reviewing judgment for such costs has long since passed (F.A.R. 3.16, subd. c).

The order appealed is affirmed.

Affirmed.

SHANNON, Acting C. J., and LILES, J., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Weisenberg v. Carlton, 233 So. 2d 659 (Fla. 2d DCA 1970)
    …asis for recovery in certain circumstances, e. g., a suit for malicious prosecution, as an element of damages. We are able to uncover only one other Florida case on point.1 In Baya v. Central & Southern Florida Flood Control District, Fla.App.1966, 184 So. 2d 501, this court had before it the issue of whether a trial judge erred in not taxing costs against the Williams heirs, who were ap-pellees in the appeal, for attorneys’ fees and other expenses incurred by appellants’ resistance of a contempt order alleg…
  • Raulerson v. Metzger, 375 So. 2d 576 (Fla. 5th DCA 1979)
    …ase, since the award of fees was entered against William A. Raulerson, individually, and not charged against the estate of the decedent. Nor are fees available under the theory espoused in Baya v. Central and Southern Florida Flood Control District, 184 So. 2d 501 (Fla. 2d DCA 1966), since there is no evidence of fraud or malice on the part of William Raulerson. The award of attorneys’ fees was error. Costs, however, were properly awarded. Accordingly, the finding of the trial court that William A. Raulerson…
  • Baya v. Williams, 184 So. 2d 675 (Fla. 2d DCA 1966)
    …y of the proper order. The chancellor en [*676] tered such an order modifying his original decree pursuant to our mandate. That order was never appealed. In Baya v. Central & Southern Florida Flood Control District, decided March 9, 1966, Fla.App., 184 So. 2d 501, this court affirmed the chancellor’s denial of various post-decretal motions by plaintiffs regarding costs, the striking of certain phrases from the modified decree and an injunction to restrain the Williams heirs from interfering with any gate or…

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