CHRISTOPHER T. NEALE, APPELLANT,
v.
THOMAS J. AYCOCK, III, ET AL., APPELLEES

Fla. 1st DCA | 1976-12-16
No. CC-180
BOYER, C. J., and MILLS, J., concur., SMITH, J., dissents without opinion.
340 So. 2d 535 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1976) Caution
Cited by 24 cases

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Holding

The court held that a trial court's discretion to stay proceedings is limited and cannot be used to prejudice a party's right to have their claim determined by the proper jurisdiction.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court has broad discretion to grant or deny a stay of proceedings.

[2] A stay of proceedings may be granted in equity to avoid an inequitable result.

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Facts & Procedural History

Appellant filed a partition suit in Lafayette County to claim his share of a trust principal after his mother's death. A related action concerning the…

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

Interlocutory review is sought of an order entered in the circuit court of Lafayette County staying all proceedings in that action until termination of a certain pending action in the circuit court of Duval County.

In June of 1960, Thomas J. Aycock, Sr. executed a trust agreement naming Ava Johnson Aycock, Thomas J. Aycock, Jr. and Ava Aycock Neale Parker as co-trustees. Pursuant to a provision of the trust agreement the Florida First National Bank of Jacksonville was named a co-trustee following the death of Ava Johnson Aycock in 1964.

Christopher T. Neale, appellant, is the grandson of Thomas J. Aycock, Sr., and the son of Ava Aycock Neale Parker. Under the terms of the trust, appellant was to receive a portion of the income generated by the trust from his 25th birthday until the death of his mother. Upon the latter event, he contends that he was entitled to have distributed to him one quarter of the principal of the trust. Appellant’s mother died on March 26, 1975. The primary trust asset is a tract of land in Lafayette County containing in excess of 24,000 acres and valued at more than $6,000,000.

Within two months of the death of appellant’s mother, David S. Parker, as administrator of the estate of Ava Aycock Neale Parker, filed an action in the circuit court of Duval County against the Florida First National Bank and Dorothy DeShong Ay-cock, as personal representative of Thomas J. Aycock, Jr. All counts of that complaint have been dismissed with prejudice except a count seeking an accounting, primarily attacking the propriety and correctness of expense allocations as between principal and income over the term of the trust, and a temporary injunction enjoining distribution of the trust assets pending a complete audit. Appellant is not a party to that action.

On February 19,1976, appellant, as plaintiff, commenced a partition suit in Lafayette County seeking to have partitioned and distributed to him that portion of the trust assets to which he allegedly became entitled under the terms of the trust upon the death of his mother. Among the defendants in that action are the appellees here, the Florida First National Bank of Jacksonville, as trustee for Cherye Darline Aycock, a beneficiary under the Thomas J. Aycock trust, and the Florida First National Bank of Jacksonville, as a co-trustee of the Thomas J. Aycock trust.

Upon motion of Florida First National Bank of Jacksonville filed in the partition action pending in Lafayette County, the circuit judge entered the order here appealed staying all further proceedings and action until termination of the Duval County case.

Unquestionably, a trial court has broad discretion to order or deny an application for a stay of proceedings in cases pending before it. (Air Comfort Mechanical, Inc. v. Simmons, Fla.App.2d 1971, 252 So. 2d 285, 30 Fla.Jur., Stay of Proceedings, Section 4, Page 349) A stay of proceedings may be obtained in equity on considerations which would warrant similar stays at law, especially when a stay is shown to be necessary to avoid an inequitable result. (30 Fla.Jur., Stay of Proceedings, Section 3)

However, the broad discretion vested in the trial court is not without its limitations. In his partition suit, appellant claims to have been entitled to have partitioned and distributed to him one quarter of the principal of the subject trust immediately upon the death of his mother. He is entitled to have that issue determined by the court which has jurisdiction of the res, the circuit court in Lafayette County. Appellant is not a party to the action in Duval County, nor are the issues or subject matter of the two suits the same. By the Lafayette County action, appellant seeks to have partitioned and distributed to him his vested interest in the trust estate. By the Duval County action, another party seeks an independent audit and an accounting. The Duval County Circuit Court has no jurisdiction of appellant and the Lafayette County Circuit Court has no jurisdiction of the subject matter of the Duval County action. It is manifestly unjust to require appellant to await the whims and delays of the parties to the Duval County action, over which he has no control and in which he has no right of participation, all the while being deprived of substantial property which he claims, and is entitled to have determined, to be legally his. Common experience teaches us that where large sums are involved litigation tends to move slowly and repetitiously. By the time the Duval County action matures in the trial court, is tried, appealed and perhaps again tried, the subject of the Layfayette County action may well have depreciated in value or appellant’s life expectancy may well have expired.

Appellee seeks comfort in A. J. Armstrong Co. v. Romanach, Fla.App.3d 1964, 165 So. 2d 817; Blake v. Blake, Fla.App.3d 1965, 172 So. 2d 9 and Maddox Grocery Co. v. Hay, Sup.Ct.Fla.1924, 87 Fla. 492,100 So. 747. Those cases are clearly distinguishable and are not here controlling.

REVERSED.

BOYER, C. J., and MILLS, J., concur. SMITH, J., dissents without opinion.


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Citator

Cited By (12 total)

  • Rewjb GAS Invs. v. Land O' SUN Realty, Ltd., 643 So. 2d 1107 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994)
    …no authority, however, to persuade us that such a condition cannot be imposed. The granting of a stay of proceedings by a trial court, pending the outcome of an action in another court, is in the broad discretion of the trial court. Neal v. Aycock, 340 So. 2d 535 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976). Here lessees are seeking to stay eviction proceedings even though their lease may not be in effect. If it is determined that these leases were terminated, an unconditional stay would cost the lessors the difference between the b…
  • Ricigliano v. Peat, 585 So. 2d 387 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991)
    …ssociates. Trial courts are afforded broad discretion in granting or denying stays, and the state and federal actions sub judice are sufficiently similar to warrant the trial court’s stay of the subsequently filed state action. See Neale v. Aycock, 340 So. 2d 535 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976), cert. denied, 351 So. 2d 405 (Fla.1977); Horowitz v. United Investors Corp., 227 So. 2d 719 (Fla. 3d DCA 1969), cert. denied, 237 So. 2d 180 (Fla.1970); 1 [*388] Am.Jur.2d Actions § 95; 1 Fla.Jur.2d Actions § 40. We hold that, u…
  • City OF Palm BAY v. State, 588 So. 2d 624 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991)
    …denial of a continuance in administrative proceedings is a discretionary matter, similar to the discretion to grant or deny a stay in judicial proceedings. City of Sarasota v. AFSCME Council, 79, 563 So. 2d 830 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990); Neale v. Aycock, 340 So. 2d 535 (Fla. 1st DCA), cert. denied, 351 So. 2d 405 (Fla.1977). A stay is appropriate where two cases are pending between the same parties, involving the same set of facts, and directed to the same result. Solomon v. Gordon, 148 Fla. 572, 4 So. 2d 710, 711…

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