In an opinion written in under 1,000 words, Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal put foreclosure cases across Florida in jeopardy in Desbrunes v. U.S. Bank National Association in February. Originally published in...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Breach of Contract/Damages: court erred by precluding setoff when calculating damages because purpose of award is to restore the injured party to the position it would have realized no for the other...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE FINANCIAL SERVICES UPDATE - Ad Valorem Taxes: land lease holders are considered equitable owners of land for tax purposes if land lease renews automatically and is perpetual; owners of condominium...more
His light was red, swore the nuns. My light was green, slurred the drunk. Question of fact, ruled the judge. Summary judgment, denied. If cases were that simple, our courts wouldn’t have enough to do. Trial court motion...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Foreclosure: final summary judgment in borrower’s favor inappropriate where borrower merely asserted that lender mistakenly filed copy of original note with court, instead of original, and where...more
A foreclosure judgment, followed by sale of the mortgaged property, doesn’t necessarily end a foreclosure case. If the sale proceeds don’t fully pay the debt, the next step is a money judgment against the borrower for the...more
A mortgage judgment in Florida does two things – it sets the amount owed to the lender, and it orders the sale of the mortgaged property and applies the proceeds to pay down the debt. Where the sale proceeds are insufficient...more
Real Property Update: - Lis Pendens/Subsequent Liens: lis pendens statute only serves to discharge liens that exist or arise prior to entry of foreclosure judgment but does not affect liens that arise after entry of...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE: Jurisdiction/Deficiency Judgment: Second DCA agrees with Third DCA that “a circuit court has subject matter jurisdiction to adjudicate an independent deficiency action when the plaintiff had...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Foreclosure/Unclean Hands: defense of unclean hands insufficient where borrower alleges bank’s loan officer inflated borrower’s income and assets to qualify for loan where borrower signed off on...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Foreclosure/Leave to Amend: borrower should have been granted leave to amend to assert affirmative defenses pursuant to motion filed 13 days before trial because there was no prejudice, the...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - - Foreclosure/Standing/Hearsay: copy of a note with undated allonge containing blank endorsement sufficient to establish standing as a matter of law, even though bank did not have formal...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - - Foreclosure/Standing: substitute plaintiff failed to establish standing to enforce note and fact that original plaintiff had filed original note endorsed in blank before assignment did not...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Certiorari; discovery: Certiorari review was not available to an owner of property seeking review of a trial court’s order denying his discovery requests, where the order did not completely...more
For years, the typical post-default strategy of secured lenders has been to foreclose the collateral through the power-of-sale contained in the deed of trust, credit the foreclosure proceeds to the outstanding loan balance,...more
Fall is football time. And as every football fan knows, not every player on the line of scrimmage is an eligible receiver. Imagine how dramatically it would change the game if the entire offensive line were eligible to catch...more
REAL PROPERTY UPDATE - Foreclosure/Standing: party whose motion to intervene in foreclosure action was denied did not have standing to appeal final judgment of foreclosure – Market Tampa Investments, LLC. V Stobaugh,...more
The Nevada Supreme Court recently issued two significant opinions that impact deficiency judgment actions in Nevada, and is preparing to issue a third. In Munoz v. Branch Banking and Trust Company, Inc., the Court held that...more