Case Name: FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT COMPANY, Appellant, v. AMERICAN LIMITED CORPORATION, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1987-09-03
Citations: 511 So. 2d 1103
Docket Number: No. 86-1464
Parties: FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT COMPANY, Appellant, v. AMERICAN LIMITED CORPORATION, Appellee.
Judges: ORFINGER, J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 511
Pages: 1103–1103

Head Matter:
FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT COMPANY, Appellant, v. AMERICAN LIMITED CORPORATION, Appellee.
No. 86-1464.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
Sept. 3, 1987.
Barry R. Davidson and John W. Little, III, of Steel, Hector & Davis, Miami, for appellant.
William L. Coalson of Greene, Greene & Coalson, P.A., Jacksonville, for appellee.

Opinion:
COBB, Judge.
Florida Power and Light Company (FPL) filed a condemnation proceeding seeking a 300-foot wide easement across land in Putnam County owned by American Limited Corp. American counterclaimed for specific performance, asserting that FPL had orally contracted to buy the land in question for $150,000. FPL answered the counterclaim and raised the statute of frauds as an affirmative defense. The specific performance claim was severed for separate trial from the condemnation action.
At the conclusion of a nonjury trial, the trial judge granted specific performance requiring conveyance of the property to FPL for $150,000. This holding was based on a finding that promissory estoppel negated the statute of frauds defense. We reverse. Promissory estoppel is not a valid bar to the statute of frauds defense under Florida law. Tanenbaum v. Biscayne Osteopathic Hospital, Inc., 190 So.2d 777 (Fla.1966). Equitable relief is not available to one who relies upon the validity of an unenforceable express contract rather than seeking quantum meruit relief. 27 Fla.Jur.2d, Statute of Frauds, § 12 (1981).
REVERSED.
ORFINGER, J., concurs.
DAUKSCH, J., dissents with opinion.
. See § 725.01, Fla.Stat. (1985).