DAVID A. HILL ET AL., APPELLANTS,
v.
FRANK M. VETTER, JR., APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 1970-02-13
No. 69-634
PIERCE, Acting C. J., and MANN, J., concur.
231 So. 2d 286 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1970) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 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 interlocutory appeal, the court reversed an order denying the defendant's motion to dismiss based on improper venue. The plaintiff sued in Lee County on an oral contract for a truck sale, but the court found that the contract was breached in Charlotte County where both parties resided at the time of breach, making that the proper venue.


Holding

The court held that venue was improper in Lee County and should have been in Charlotte County. The contract was breached no later than September 1967 when Hill denied owing the obligation while both parties still resided in Charlotte County, making that the situs of the breach.


Headnotes

[1] A breach of contract occurs when a party denies owing the indebtedness, even in the absence of an express payment date.

[2] A plaintiff's assertion that a payment request was premature does not rebut a defendant's prima facie showing that venue lies in the county of the defendant's residence.

Previewing 2 of 5 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

“the admitted facts of this case do not allow its application. Accordingly, we must reverse.”

Court's conclusion that despite the general rule about payment venue, the specific facts here require reversal

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

Plaintiff Frank Vetter sued defendant David Hill in Lee County on an oral contract for the sale of a truck. The contract was entered into in April 196…

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
McNULTY, Judge.

McNULTY, Judge.

This is an interlocutory appeal from an order denying appellant’s motion to dismiss on his plea of privilege as to venue.

Appellee Vetter, plaintiff below, sued on an oral contract for the sale of a truck alleging that appellant Hill defaulted in the payment therefor. Suit was brought in Lee County, the present residence of the plaintiff; and the theory of venue relied upon was, and is, that the contract was breached in Lee County.1 In this regard, plaintiff urges the general rule that payment under a contract must be made at the place of residence of the payee (in this case Lee County) there being no other situs agreed upon in the contract.2 We do not, nor indeed does appellant, take issue with this rule of law; but the admitted facts of this case do not allow its application. Accordingly, we must reverse.

It appears from plaintiff-appellee’s answers to interrogatories, propounded to him by defendant-appellant, that the contract was entered into in April, 1966, that no express date for payment was agreed upon and that when the contract was entered into both the plaintiff and defendant resided in Charlotte County. Admittedly, defendant still resides in Charlotte County. It also appears that plaintiff didn’t move to Lee County from Charlotte County until April, 1968, and that this suit was filed in 1969. So the critical point of time is when the contract was breached, or. to put it another way it is when payment was due, and from thence we can determine where it was breached.

Plaintiff admits, in his answer to the interrogatories aforesaid, that he made “requests” for payment in March, April, June or July and in September, all of 1967. During this time, as we’ve noted, both parties resided in Charlotte County. He alleges, however, that demand was not made until June, 1969, after he moved to Lee County and placed the matter in the hands of his attorney. It is significant, though, that in further answering the interrogatories, plaintiff stated:

“ * * * In September of 1967, the Plaintiff, Frank M. Vetter, Jr., through his agent, Frank M. Vetter, Sr., again requested payment of said indebtedness, in reply to this request, the Plaintiff (sic) David A. Hill denied owing said indebtedness.” (Emphasis supplied.)

So, considering all the facts and circumstances herein, we think the distinction plaintiff-appellee makes between “request” for payment and “demand” for payment is an exercise in casuistry. Even if we accept it and consider the initial contacts made by plaintiff as mere “requests” for payment, we find it difficult to see how plaintiff can gainsay that he ought to be charged with notice of a “breach” of contract when, admittedly, Hill “denied owing said indebtedness” in September, 1967. This, we think, is cer*288tainly the date of breach, if the earlier occasions of “requests” were not. Plaintiff seeks to rebut this conclusion by saying that since there was no express date of payment in the contract, a “reasonable time” test must be applied; and that therefore, when Hill “denied” the obligation he, plaintiff, can only be charged with notice that Hill considered the request premature, and not altogether unowed. However this may be, the plaintiff himself must have considered the obligation as being due on and prior to September, 1967, else he would not have requested payment. His position now to the contrary, in the present posture of the case, cannot operate as a rebuttal of the prima facie showing made by defendant-appellant, whose burden it is, that venue lies in Charlotte County; and appellee has not otherwise rebutted such showing. Accordingly, appellant’s plea of privilege should have been allowed.

Reversed.

PIERCE, Acting C. J., and MANN, J., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Maloney v. Fleishaker, 238 So. 2d 496 (Fla. 2d DCA 1970)
    …rating in Broward County at all times relevant to this case and, absent any rebuttal by plaintiff, satisfies the burden imposed upon movants. L. B. McLeod Construction Company v. State, 106 Fla. 805, 143 So. 594 (1932); Hill v. Vetter, Fla.App.1970, 231 So. 2d 286. Although it appears that Financial Fire & Casualty Company’s failure to assert a venue privilege amounts to a tacit admission that venue as to it alone would have been proper in Hillsborough County, this waiver cannot be taken to deny its codefend…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw