Opinion ID: 536607
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Acceptance of Benefits Doctrine

Text: 29 Wynfield's appeal on the contract claim is also barred under the acceptance of benefits doctrine, which provides that a party who voluntarily and knowingly accepts the benefits of a judgment or decree cannot seek a reversal of the judgment or decree on appeal. McMullen v. Fort Pierce Financing Constr. Co., 108 Fla. 492, 146 So. 567, 568 (Fla.1933). This doctrine is based on the theory that a party who voluntarily collects a judgment is estopped from seeking reversal of the judgment because acceptance of payment acts as a release of claimed errors of the trial court. Id. The doctrine precludes an appeal unless (1) the judgment appealed from consists of two or more separate, distinct and unrelated parts; or (2) there is no controversy regarding the amount of a judgment to which a litigant is entitled in any event. Id. 146 So. at 568-69. 30 Because Wynfield accepted and collected the quantum meruit judgment, the acceptance of benefits doctrine precludes Wynfield's contract appeal unless one of the two exceptions apply. The first exception is inapplicable for the same reasons Wynfield's election of remedies argument fails: quantum meruit and contract remedies are inconsistent, mutually exclusive, and alternative measures of recovery. Beefy Trail, 267 So.2d at 858. In this case, because the two remedies arise from the same wrong, Wynfield's contract claim is not separate, distinct and unrelated to its quantum meruit claim. 31 The second exception is also inapplicable because Wynfield's entitlement to the amount of the quantum meruit judgment was not uncontested. McMullen, 146 So. at 568. As in McMullen, the parties contested the amount of damages throughout the litigation. Id. 146 So. at 569. LeRoux Group has never admitted that it owed Wynfield any amount of the quantum meruit judgment--instead the parties have intensely contested liability. Admittedly, because LeRoux Group did not file a cross-appeal on the quantum meruit judgment, Wynfield's entitlement to this judgment could be characterized on appeal as uncontested. It would be unfair, however, to permit Wynfield to collect the quantum meruit judgment, and then allow Wynfield to meet the second exception by claiming that LeRoux Group did not contest the judgment. Instead, a more principled approach recognizes that Wynfield's pursuit and acceptance of LeRoux Group's payment of the quantum meruit damages bars Wynfield's appeal on the contract claim. 32 Further, this action is unlike situations where a party whose entitlement to a particular amount of recovery is uncontested seeks additional recovery under a single legal theory. 5 The issue here is not whether LeRoux Group owes Wynfield some additional amount of quantum meruit damages beyond those allegedly uncontested; instead, the issue Wynfield advanced on appeal is whether LeRoux Group owes Wynfield greater damages under a different legal theory (i.e. a contract theory). Thus, Wynfield's appeal does not fall within the second exception and its acceptance of the benefits of the quantum meruit judgment bars its appeal on the contract claim.