Case Name: W. Ward AKSOMITAS, Appellant, v. Sabitra MAHARAJ a/k/a Sabita Maharaj, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2000-05-03
Citations: 771 So. 2d 541
Docket Number: No. 4D98-0170
Parties: W. Ward AKSOMITAS, Appellant, v. Sabitra MAHARAJ a/k/a Sabita Maharaj, Appellee.
Judges: WARNER, C.J., and OWEN, WILLIAM C., Jr., Associate Judge, concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 771
Pages: 541–545

Head Matter:
W. Ward AKSOMITAS, Appellant, v. Sabitra MAHARAJ a/k/a Sabita Maharaj, Appellee.
No. 4D98-0170.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
May 3, 2000.
Opinion Denying Rehearing Aug. 30, 2000.
Rehearing Denied Sept. 13, 2000.
Philip M. Burlington of Caruso, Burlington, Bohn & Compiani, P.A., West Palm Beach, and F. Kendall Slinkman of F. Kendall Slinkman, P.A., West Palm Beach, for appellant.
James M. McCann, Jr., Nancy A. Romfh and Alan M. Herman of Akerman, Senter-fitt & Eidson, P.A., West Palm Beach, for appellee.
James M. McCann, Jr., Nancy A. Romfh, Alan M. Herman and Celeste B. Marcks of Akerman, Senterfitt & Eidson, P.A., West Palm Beach, for appellee on rehearing.

Opinion:
KLEIN, J.
Ward Aksomitas brought this action to foreclose a mortgage, but the trial court found that there was no consideration and denied foreclosure. He appeals, and we reverse.
Aksomitas, a lawyer, had represented the Maharajs until Mr. Maharaj died in 1986. After his death, Aksomitas claimed that he was owed attorney's fees for work he performed over a period of six years, and Mrs. Maharaj, in 1986, executed a promissory note in the amount of $150,000, secured by a mortgage, in favor of Akso-mitas. Maharaj did not pay the mortgage when it became due in 1988, and it was extended several times, but not paid.
Maharaj, who owned several pieces of property besides the one secured by the Aksomitas mortgage, began to have financial problems, and in 1993 she asked Akso-mitas to help her get a loan. At the request of Aksomitas, Mr. and Mrs. Sam-sonis agreed to lend Maharaj money if it was secured by her Loxahatchee Grove property. That property, however, was the security for Aksomitas' 1986 mortgage. Aksomitas then contacted the Mandell-Mueller Group, which had loaned money to the Maharajs in the past. Mandell-Muel-ler agreed to loan Maharaj money in return for a first mortgage on a parcel called Cypress Head. The proceeds of that loan were to be used to pay off the note to Aksomitas and satisfy his mortgage on Loxahatchee Grove. That would free up the Loxahatchee Grove property to secure the Samsonis loan.
In furtherance of this plan, Aksomitas recorded a satisfaction of his mortgage on Loxahatchee Grove, even though he had not yet been paid. He also had Maharaj sign the Mandell-Mueller note and mortgage. Mandell-Mueller then refused to fund their loan, the proceeds of which were to be used to pay off Aksomitas. Aksomi-tas, concerned that he now had no security for his note, had Mandell-Mueller assign the unfunded note and mortgage to Akso-mitas. The Samsonis loan was funded and that enabled Maharaj to stave off a foreclosure of a lien on another parcel.
In 1994, about a year after the above-described transactions, Maharaj contacted Aksomitas and asked for a partial release of the Mandell-Mueller mortgage which Aksomitas held and Aksomitas gave it to her. The Mandell-Mueller mortgage became due in November, 1995, and Maharaj requested an extension, which was granted by a written agreement to November 1997. Maharaj paid $20,000 in interest at that time, but made no further payments, and Aksomitas ultimately filed this foreclosure action as assignee of the Mandell-Mueller mortgage.
Maharaj filed an answer containing a number of defenses, one of which was that there was no consideration for the Man-dell-Mueller note and mortgage. After a non-jury trial, the court found that there was no consideration for the mortgage given by Maharaj to Mandell-Mueller, because the loan was never funded. The court reasoned that because Mandell-Mueller never obtained an enforceable note and mortgage, Aksomitas, who took the assignment of the note and mortgage from Mandell-Mueller with knowledge, could not enforce it either.
In Citibank International v. Mercogliano, 574 So.2d 1190 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991), Mercogliano executed a note and mortgage in favor of a bank after it was determined that her home had been purchased with bank funds embezzled by a third party. When the bank foreclosed, the trial court found that because the bank had not funded the mortgage, there was no consideration. The third district reversed, concluding that there was consideration because the bank had taken no further action in regard to the embezzlement. The fact that a mortgage is not actually funded, accordingly, does not mean there is no consideration. See also Crum v. United States Fidelity and Guar. Co., 468 So.2d 1004 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985)(a preexisting debt can be sufficient consideration for a mortgage).
We agree with Aksomitas that the trial court erred in viewing the issue of consideration too narrowly. It is undisputed that Aksomitas satisfied the 1986 note and mortgage that Maharaj had given Ak-somitas on Loxahatchee Grove, even though that note and mortgage were never paid. Aksomitas then had Mandell-Muel-ler assign him the Mandell-Mueller mortgage in order to protect himself for having satisfied his own mortgage prematurely. Although there may have been no consideration from Mandell-Mueller, Maharaj clearly benefitted from the whole transaction, because the 1986 note and mortgage to Aksomitas on Loxahatchee Grove were satisfied, and that constitutes consideration.
Because the trial court ruled that there was no consideration it did not address Maharaj's remaining defenses. We therefore reverse and remand for further proceedings.
WARNER, C.J., and OWEN, WILLIAM C., Jr., Associate Judge, concur.
EN BANC