Case Name: Joseph MOURNING and Taneisha Mourning, Appellants, v. BALLAST NEDAM CONSTRUCTION, INC., a foreign corporation, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2007-09-26
Citations: 964 So. 2d 889
Docket Number: No. 4D06-2557
Parties: Joseph MOURNING and Taneisha Mourning, Appellants, v. BALLAST NEDAM CONSTRUCTION, INC., a foreign corporation, Appellee.
Judges: POLEN, J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 964
Pages: 889–902

Head Matter:
Joseph MOURNING and Taneisha Mourning, Appellants, v. BALLAST NEDAM CONSTRUCTION, INC., a foreign corporation, Appellee.
No. 4D06-2557.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
Sept. 26, 2007.
Roy W. Jordan, Jr. of Roy W. Jordan, Jr., P.A., West Palm Beach, for appellants.
Sylvia H. Walbolt and Laura W. Paquin of Carlton Fields, P.A., Tampa, and Dean A. Morande of Carlton Fields, P.A., West Palm Beach, for appellee.

Opinion:
CORRECTED OPINION
HAZOURI, J.
We withdraw our prior opinion, and substitute the following corrected opinion in its place.
Joseph and Taneisha Mourning (Mourning) appeal from a non-final order granting Ballast Nedam Construction, Inc.'s (Ballast) motion to vacate the final judgment which had been entered in favor of Mourning.
The issue before this court is whether the trial court reversibly erred in vacating the final judgment against Ballast based on the trial court's failure to serve Ballast with the order resetting the trial on damages. Mourning contends the trial court's failure to serve the order was remedied by Mourning subsequently mailing Ballast a copy of the order. We agree and reverse.
In April of 2003, Joseph Mourning was involved in a single-car automobile accident while driving on a road that was under construction. Mourning and his wife subsequently filed a lawsuit against Ballast, alleging that Ballast negligently maintained the construction site. A default was entered against Ballast for failing to respond to the complaint.
After entering the default on liability, the trial court entered an order dated April 22, 2005, setting the trial on the unliquidated damages to be held during the September 12, 2005, docket. This order was not served on Ballast by the court or Mourning at the time of its entry. However, Mourning subsequently mailed a copy of the order to Ballast which was received by Ballast in June 2005. This case was not reached on the trial docket of September 12, 2005 and thereafter Mourning sought a special trial date. In response to Mourning's request, the trial court entered an order on October 5, 2005, resetting the trial for an eight-week trial docket beginning November 7, 2005.
On October 15, 2005, Mourning mailed a copy of the court's order to Ballast. On December 12, 2005, the court conducted a jury trial on Mourning's unliquidated damages. Ballast failed to appear for the trial. A verdict in the amount of $1,155,000 was entered in favor of Mourning. Final judgment was entered on May 24, 2006, and amended on June 6, 2006, to add Ballast's insurer to the final judgment.
On June 8, 2006, Ballast filed a motion to vacate the default judgment. Ballast argued that the damages judgment was inappropriately entered and violated due process because Mourning, not the trial court, had served Ballast with the order resetting the trial on damages. By way of this motion, Ballast sought to have the damages judgment set aside only on that specific basis. Ballast filed a separate motion to set aside the entire default based on excusable neglect, which is not the subject of this appeal.
At the hearing on Ballast's motion to vacate the default judgment, the trial court acknowledged that it did not serve a copy of the order resetting the damages trial and concluded that, even though Ballast received a copy of the order mailed by Mourning, the amended final judgment had to be set aside because of the due process violation caused by the court's fail ure to serve the order setting trial in accordance with the requirements of Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.440(c).
Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.440(c) provides:
(c) Setting for Trial. If the court finds the action ready to be set for trial, it shall enter an order fixing a date for trial. Trial shall be set not less than 30 days from the service of the notice for trial. By giving the same notice the court may set an action for trial. In actions in which the damages are not liquidated, the order setting an action for trial shall be served on parties who are in default in accordance with rule 1.080(a).
Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.080(a) provides:
(a) Service; When Required. Unless the court otherwise orders, every pleading subsequent to the initial pleading and every other paper filed in the action, except applications for witness subpoena, shall be served on each party. No service need be made on parties against whom a default has been entered, except that pleadings asserting new or additional claims against them shall be served in the manner provided for service of summons.
Although rule 1.080(a) provides that pleadings and papers generally need not be served upon a defaulted party, Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.080(h)(l)-(3) requires service of an order setting an-action for trial and the final judgment.
Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.080(h)(l)-(3) provides:
(h) Service of Orders.
(1)A copy of all orders or judgments shall be transmitted by the court or under its direction to all parties at the time of entry of the order or judgment. No service need be made on parties against whom a default has been entered except orders setting an action for trial as prescribed in rule 1.440(c) and final judgments that shall be prepared and served as provided in subdivision (h)(2). The court may require that orders or judgments be prepared by a party, may require the party to furnish the court with stamped, addressed envelopes for service of the order or judgment, and may require that proposed orders and judgments be furnished to all parties before entry by the court of the order or judgment.
(2) When a final judgment is entered against a party in default, the court shall mail a conformed copy of it to the party. The party in whose favor the judgment is entered shall furnish the court with a copy of the judgment, unless it is prepared by the court, and the address of the party to be served. If the address is unknown, the copy need not be furnished.
(3) This subdivision is directory and a failure to comply with it does not affect the order or judgment or its finality or any proceedings arising in the action.
It is uncontroverted that the trial court did not send the order of October 5, 2005, to Ballast. It is uncontroverted that Mourning did in fact send the order of October 5, 2005, setting trial to Ballast on October 15, 2005. It is further uncontro-verted that the trial itself did not take place until December 12, 2005, which is 58 days after Ballast received notice of the jury trial docket.
Ballast argued, and the trial court accepted, that rule 1.440(c) and rule 1.080(h)(l)-(3), must be strictly construed as bright-line rules that the court must send out the order setting an action for trial. Ballast further argued the failure of that to occur required the setting aside of the default final judgment for unliquidated damages.
A trial court's ruling on a motion to vacate under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.540 is reviewed under the abuse of discretion standard. Rosso v. Golden Surf Towers Condo. Ass'n, 711 So.2d 1298, 1300 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998). However, in this case there appears to be no factual dispute upon which the trial court based its determination to vacate the default final judgment. The trial court based its decision on a pure question of law, i.e., that rule 1.440(c) and rule 1.080(h)(l)-(3) required as a matter of law that the order setting the trial on the unliquidated damages must be served by the court and not by Mourning's counsel. Therefore, since the court's ruling was as a matter of law, our standard of review is de novo.
In support of its position, Ballast cites Lauxmont Farms, Inc. v. Flavin, 514 So.2d 1133 (Fla. 5th DCA 1987), Pierce v. Anglin, 721 So.2d 781 (Fla. 1st DCA 1998), and Viets v. American Recruiters Enterprises, 922 So.2d 1090 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006). We find these cases distinguishable.
The underlying principle inherent in rule 1.440(c) is one of due process. Rule 1.440(c) mandates the parties to litigation are entitled to an order setting a case for trial and the order setting the case for trial shall give at least thirty days notice from the entry of that order to the trial date itself. See Bennett v. Cont'l Chems., Inc., 492 So.2d 724 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986). This requirement of due process as it relates to claims for unliquidated damages is reiterated in Lauxmont Farms, Pierce, and Viets. Ballast relies heavily upon Lauxmont Farms, and asserts it is squarely on point. The facts outlined in Lauxmont Farms are somewhat limited and so it is questionable that it is "squarely on point" with the instant case.
Lauxmont Farms involved an appeal from a judgment which awarded un-liquidated damages without a trial. Although a default judgment can be entered to establish liability, a trial is necessary to establish unliquidated damages. See Bowman v. Kingsland Dev., Inc., 432 So.2d 660 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983). The Lauxmont Farms court held that the award of unliq-uidated compensatory damages by summary judgment is error. The court noted:
After the motion for summary judgment and compensatory damages were [sic] granted, the attorney for appellee sent a notice of nonjury trial to the appellant. The notice was defective because the order was sent by the opposing attorney rather than the court and did not give the requisite thirty-days notice of trial. Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.440(c). Lauxmont Farms did not attend the nonjury trial in which the trial court awarded $1,600,000 in punitive damages and $6,400 in attorney's fees and costs.
Lauxmont Farms, 514 So.2d at 1134. The court went on to state:
We have stated before that a party has a due process entitlement to notice and an opportunity to be heard on unliquidated damages pursuant to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.440. Bowman v. Kingsland Development, Inc., 432 So.2d at 663. Lauxmont Farms' fundamental due process rights were violated by the defective notice of nonjury trial for both compensatory and punitive damages as well as attorneys fees and costs.
Lauxmont Farms, 514 So.2d at 1134.
Ballast asserts that Lauxmont Farms establishes a bright-line rule that not only must an order setting the case for trial set the trial at least thirty days from the date of the order, but that the order must be sent by the trial court. We disagree. The language in Lauxmont Farms referring to the notice as being defective because it was sent by opposing counsel rather .than the court is unnecessary for the disposition in Lauxmont Farms and is therefore dicta. As noted earlier, the judgment for unliqui-dated damages was determined by summary judgment rather than a jury trial and Lauxmont Farms did not get an order setting its case for trial with the requisite thirty days notice.
In Pierce, the court reversed a final judgment that was entered only on a motion for default and affidavit without a trial on unliquidated damages having been set or held. Unlike the instant case, no order setting trial under rule 1.440(c) was ever entered or served upon defendant Pierce.
In Viets, our court vacated a default judgment on the defendant's counterclaim because there was no trial held on the unliquidated damages. There was not even a notice of trial in Viets, only an order on a motion for default judgment and affidavit without any hearing. The plaintiff/eounter-defendant in Viets was given no opportunity to defend. This court in Viets held these defects violated due process because there was no notice or order setting the hearing on the motion for default judgment and damages were awarded without a hearing.
Ballast argues that our court in Viets cites Lauxmont Farms with approval. There is no specific discussion of the requirements of rule 1.440(c) in Viets, and we cited to Lauxmont Farms as support for vacating a default judgment where there was a lack of due process. Mailing of a notice or an order was not involved in Viets. In the instant case, there was an order, it was served on Ballast, the order gave Ballast notice of the calendar call, the duration of the trial docket, and the trial itself did not take place until December 12, 2005. Ballast received due process and chose not to show up and defend.
Although Ballast has cited to this court numerous cases involving the question of the necessity of notice of setting a trial date for due process purposes, in each instance either an order was not sent, a jury trial was not held, or if a trial took place, the trial occurred before the thirty-day requirement. To read into rule 1.440(c) in conjunction with rule 1.080 that the order setting a case for jury trial to be effective must be placed in envelopes addressed to a defendant by the court itself is unreasonable and adds nothing to the requirement to afford Ballast due process. We can discern no due process implication if Ballast receives the order setting the trial docket in a timely fashion and that order comes in a properly addressed envelope sent' through the U.S. mail by Mourning's counsel. We fail to see the logic in permitting Ballast to ignore the order and thereafter engage in "gotcha" tactics to set aside the final judgment.
The dissent advocates a bright-line rule that the order setting the instant case for trial must be sent to Ballast by the trial court in order to assure due process. However, the dissent fails to explain or delineate how Ballast was deprived of due process by receiving the order setting the case for jury trial in an envelope mailed by Mourning. It is the identical order Ballast would have received had the order been posted by the trial court. If Ballast were asserting any of the following: (1) that it did not receive the order, or (2) that without receiving an order in an envelope mailed by the court, it created doubt as to the order's authenticity, or (3) that the trial commenced less than 30 days from the receipt of the order, then there would be due process implications. None of that is alleged in the instant case.
The dissent lists a litany of cases to support her position concerning bright-line rules. None of those cases except Bennett v. Continental Chemicals, Inc., 492 So.2d 724 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986), are germane to the facts in this case. Even Bennett is distinguishable from the instant case because in Bennett, the trial court never entered an order setting the case for trial. The court in Bennett disapproved of what apparently was a local procedure that parties scheduling non-jury matters simply have the trial date and time reserved on the judge's calendar. Additionally in Bennett, the case could not be set for trial because it was not at issue.
The dissent also relies heavily on this court's opinion in Stowe v. Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Co., 937 So.2d 156 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006), in advocating a bright-line rule. However, this court in Nicholson-Kenny Capital Management Inc. v. Steinberg, 932 So.2d 321 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006), in fact made an exception to the bright-line rule in the application of Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.820(h). In Nicholson-Kenny, this court would not permit Steinberg to engage in "gotcha" tactics. The dissent attempts to distinguish this court's departure from an application of a bright-line rule in Nicholson Kenny by concluding that the defendant in Nicholson-Kenny "waived" the bright-line rule by participating in the pretrial conference even though the plaintiff failed to file a motion for a trial de novo. In the instant case, Ballast received the order setting the case for trial, and without any explanation or justification failed to appear to defend the jury trial for unliquidated damages. This failure to appear constitutes a waiver and such conduct should not be countenanced.
The dissent's reference to the Florida Supreme Court's recent decision in Campbell v. Goldman, 959 So.2d 223 (Fla.2007), as additional support for the application of a bright-line rule is misplaced. The issue in Campbell is whether a proposal for settlement could be enforced without citation to section 768.79, Florida Statutes. The majority in Campbell held that the attorney fee-shifting provision of a proposal for settlement was created by statute and because it is penal and in derogation of the common law, rule 1.442 and section 768.79 must be strictly construed. Id. Neither of the rules implicated in the instant case is penal in nature nor in derogation of the common law.
To elevate form over substance under the facts of this case does nothing to advance the due process of law. We therefore reverse and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Reversed and Remanded.
POLEN, J., concurs.
GUNTHER, J., dissents with opinion.
. After entry of the default judgment, Mourning filed a unilateral pretrial statement on August 19, 2005, a copy of which was sent certified mail to Ballast. In anticipation of the trial in September 2005, Mourning also set the deposition of two treating physicians and sent notices to Ballast, one on September 2, 2005 and the other on September 14, 2005. Ballast failed to respond or to attend these depositions.
. This order provides for mandatory attendance at the calendar call scheduled for October 21, 2005. Because there were numerous cases set on the calendar, one of the purposes of the calendar call was to set the actual trial date for any individual case. By attending the calendar call, parties could be apprised when their case would be reached during the eight-week period. Ballast failed to attend the calendar call.
. The definition of waiver in Black's Law Dictionary is as follows:
The intentional or voluntary relinquishment of a known right, or such conduct as warrants an inference of the relinquishment of such right, or when one dispenses with the performance of something he is entitled to exact or when one in possession of any right, whether conferred by law or by contract, with full knowledge of the material facts, does or forbears to do something the doing of which or the failure of forbearance to do which is inconsistent with the right, or his intention to rely upon it. The renunciation, repudiation, abandonment, or surrender of some claim, right, privilege, or of the opportunity to take advantage of some defect, irregularity, or wrong. An express or implied relinquishment of a legal right....
Black's Law Dictionary 1580 (6th ed.1995).