Case Name: Clarence J. SUGGS, et ux., Appellants, v. Tim COWART d/b/a Tim Cowart and Associates, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1983-09-15
Citations: 437 So. 2d 238
Docket Number: No. 82-1067
Parties: Clarence J. SUGGS, et ux., Appellants, v. Tim COWART d/b/a Tim Cowart and Associates, Appellee.
Judges: SHARP, J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 437
Pages: 238–242

Head Matter:
Clarence J. SUGGS, et ux., Appellants, v. Tim COWART d/b/a Tim Cowart and Associates, Appellee.
No. 82-1067.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
Sept. 15, 1983.
William 0. Birchfield and Stephen H. Durant of Martin, Ade, Birchfield & Johnson, for appellants.
James G. Sisco, St. Augustine, for appel-lee.

Opinion:
ORFINGER, Chief Judge.
The issue before us in this appeal from a non-final order denying appellant's motion for change of venue, is the determination of proper venue when each of two parties has filed a separate action against the other in different counties, both actions arising out of the same transaction or occurrence. We reverse the order denying the change of venue.
Appellants (the owners) owned certain real property in St. Johns County, which they listed for sale with appellee (the broker). The broker produced a purchaser who entered into a contract with the owners to purchase the subject property, and when the owners refused to close, the purchasers brought an action for specific performance and ultimately secured a judgment requiring the owners to convey. This final judgment was not appealed, and the owners performed. The broker was not a party to that action, but the owners had alleged as a defense that the contract for sale and purchase had been procured "as a result of fraud and misrepresentation in that [the broker], with fraudulent intent, represented to ." the owners certain facts alleged not to be true.
On June 3, 1982, the broker filed the instant action in St. Johns County to recover his brokerage commission on the sale mentioned above. Before any service of process in the St. Johns action, the owners, who reside in Duval County, filed an action for damages in Duval County against the broker, alleging that the broker fraudulently induced them to execute the sales contract with respect to who would be responsible for the sales commission and with regard to other aspects of the proposed transaction, as a result of which, the owners allege, they were compelled to sell their home for less than it was worth. They further allege that if the broker was their agent, he breached his duty to them in inducing them to sign a contract which required them to pay a real estate commission while representing to them that the buyer would pay it.
In the Duval County action, service of process was perfected on June 8, 1982, at 11:35 o'clock A.M. In the St. Johns County action, service of process was perfected on June 8, 1982, at 7:55 o'clock P.M. Thus, although the St. Johns County action was filed first, process was first perfected in the Duval County action. The St. Johns County action involves only a claim for the brokerage commission. The Duval County action seeks damages from the broker, but additionally, seeks a determination that the owners are not liable for the real estate commission, and thus the entitlement by the broker to his commission is inextricably involved in the Duval County action as well.
More than a question of venue is involved. We are really dealing with the question of which court, the Duval County Circuit Court or the St. Johns County Circuit Court, has jurisdiction of the parties and of this controversy. A similar question was reviewed and decided by the supreme court in Martinez v. Martinez, 153 Fla. 753, 15 So.2d 842 (1943). In that domestic relations dispute, the wife had first filed an action in Polk County for separate maintenance and custody of the children. The husband later filed an action in Pinellas County for divorce and custody of the children. Service was perfected first in the husband's suit in Pinellas County, and although clearly the issues were broader in that action than in the action for separate maintenance, the supreme court adopted the view that in case of conflict between courts of concurrent jurisdiction, the one first exercising jurisdiction acquires control to the exclusion of the other, and that jurisdiction attaches when the summons is served. Thus, it was held by the Martinez court that the Pinellas County Circuit Court had acquired jurisdiction of the controversy, although it was filed later in time.
In Hunt v. Ganaway, 180 So.2d 495 (Fla. 1st DCA 1965), the district court of appeal held that Martinez had been superseded by the 1956 revision of Article V of the Florida Constitution and Rule 1.2 of the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure (see Rule 1.050 of the current rules) which provided, in essence, that civil suits were deemed commenced when filed. Thus, reasoned the Hunt court, the court in which an action was first filed acquired jurisdiction notwithstanding that service of process was first perfected in the competing action in another court.
In Mabie v. Garden Stredt Management Corporation, 397 So.2d 920 (Fla.1981), the supreme court settled the apparent conflict between Hunt and Martinez, holding:
When two actions between the same parties are pending in different circuits, jurisdiction lies in the circuit where service of process is first perfected. Martinez v. Martinez, 153 Fla. 753, 15 So.2d 842 (1943). The First District Court of Appeal, finding that a later rule change overruled Martinez, held that the suit filed first prevails. Hunt v. Ganaway, 180 So.2d 495 (Fla. 1st DCA 1965), cert. denied, 188 So.2d 806 (Fla.1966). Although there is a rational basis for reaching that conclusion, we find that the better policy is to follow Martinez and have the date of service of process govern the jurisdictional conflict presented by this case. We affirm Martinez and disapprove Hunt, (footnotes omitted).
397 So.2d at 921.
Mabie clearly applies here. The interrelationship of the claims would make it compulsory that the owners counterclaim for their damages in the St. Johns action if they are to prevail on their contention that they do not owe a real estate commission, and would require the broker to counterclaim for his broker's commission in the Duval County action. If two separate actions were maintained, a determination in one action on the issue of fraud in the inducement with respect to the contract for sale and purchase would be res judicata on that issue in the other action.
Thus we have two separate lawsuits, filed in two different places, involving the same parties and revolving about the same set of facts. One lawsuit will resolve all questions arising in this dispute. The parties should not be burdened with the expense of two actions, nor should the courts be burdened with two cases involving the same issues, when one will take care of the problems. Neither should we approve a situation where, as here, each party is motivated to rush to judgment in his action in the hope that a determination of a common issue will be binding in the other suit. Perhaps St. Johns County would be the better place to litigate all the issues, but the supreme court has said that in a situation like this where the parties file separate actions in different counties, the action will be maintained in the county in whose action service of process was first perfected. Mabie v. Garden Street Management Corporation, supra. In this case, that means Duval County, so we reverse, and remand this cause with directions to transfer the action to Duval County.
REVERSED and REMANDED.
SHARP, J., concurs.
COWART, J., dissents with opinion.