DALE REGIS LAUER AND HARRY BAKER FRIEDMAN, APPELLANTS,
v.
PATRICIA D. WILSON AND KAREN F. ALBERT ET AL., APPELLEES

Fla. 1st DCA | 1978-02-15
No. GG-428
ERVIN, J., concurs., BOOTH, J., dissents.
355 So. 2d 187 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1978) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 cases

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Holding

Wives who gratuitously execute a warranty deed to their husbands' property, without misrepresentation and without independent contract, are not liable on the covenants of warranty.


Facts & Procedural History

Wives executed a deed to their husbands' property gratuitously at the request of the husbands' attorney. They had no title to the property, and all pa…

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Opinion of the Court
SMITH, Acting Chief Judge.

SMITH, Acting Chief Judge.

By summary judgment the trial court discharged the appellee wives as parties defendant to appellants’ action on the covenants of appellees and their husbands as grantors of a statutory warranty deed given December 23, 1973, three months after the inchoate right of dower in married women was abolished. Chapter 73-107, Laws of Florida. The trial court’s decision was predicated on unstated findings that the appellee wives executed the deed only to release any dower rights that may previously have vested. Reserving the question of whether the wives’ covenants may be reformed or rescinded for a unilateral mistake not amounting to a breach of legal duty, and for which the appellants should not profit, Crosby v. Andrews, 61 Fla. 554, 55 So. 57 (1911); Wicker v. Board of Pub. Instr. of Dade County, 106 So. 2d 550 (Fla.1958), or for other reasons, we must agree with appellants that the record contains no evidence establishing that the wives were requested to join in the deed only to release any possibly vested dower rights. The record therefore does not dispel all factual issues concerning an essential element of appellees’ defense. The summary judgment is

REVERSED.

ERVIN, J., concurs.

BOOTH, J., dissents.

Dissent
BOOTH, Judge,

BOOTH, Judge,

dissenting:

There is no issue of material fact here. The sole question is one of law, to wit: Are the wives liable to the immediate grantees on covenants in a deed to husbands’ property which the wives executed gratuitously at the request of the husbands’ attorney.

The wives had no title to the property, and there was no misrepresentation as to that fact. All parties knew the wives had no title, as evidenced by the wives not being party to either the contract for sale, the promissory note, the purchase money mortgage or to the collateral agreement. The last three instruments were executed the same day as the deed. There was no evidence of an independent contract of warranty between the wives and the grantees. The sole purpose alleged for the wives’ execution of the deed was relinquishment of dower. Under these facts, the able trial judge correctly entered summary judgment in favor of the wives. As between the immediate parties to the transaction, and in the absence of misrepresentation, the wives’ gratuitous execution of a warranty deed to their husbands’ property does not create an independent obligation on the part of the wives, or render them liable oh covenants of warranty.

I would affirm the judgment below.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Kirsh v. Mannen, 393 So. 2d 63 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981)
    …69 (Fla.1958); MacKenzie v. Avis Rent-A-Car Systems, Inc., 369 So. 2d 647 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979), cert. denied, 379 So. 2d 202 (Fla.1979); Bankers Ins. Service Corp. v. Southeastern Home Mortgage Co., 363 So. 2d 401 (Fla. 4th DCA 1978); Lauer v. Wilson, 355 So. 2d 187 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978); B & J Van Beber Equipment Rental, Inc. v. Pedersen, 348 So. 2d 1163 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977); Mathews Corp. v. Tutten Enterprises, Inc., 343 So. 2d 902 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977); Sullivan v. Bloom, 342 So. 2d 1036 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977); Stone…

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