Opinion ID: 1092897
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Timing of Defendant's Actions Constituting a Waiver

Text: An inherent distinction has been noted between a plaintiff's acts in relation to abandonment and those of a defendant. Unlike a plaintiff whose post-abandonment actions cannot serve to revive an abandoned action, a defendant's post-abandonment actions can serve to waive his right to plead abandonment. Once abandonment has occurred, action by the plaintiff cannot breathe new life into the suit. Maraist & Lemmon, supra § 10.4 at 243. No `definite action' by a plaintiff or inaction by a defendant after accrual of the [three-]year period can be construed as a waiver of abandonment by the defendant, although a defendant by `definite action' may waive the abandonment. Middleton, 526 So.2d at 860. That a defendant's conduct occurred before the abandonment period elapsed as opposed to after is thus a distinction without a difference. The timing of a defendant's conduct cannot logically be construed as altering its character insofar as whether it is sufficient to constitute a waiver of the right to plead abandonment. Logic dictates that the same standard for determining if action of the defendant results in waiver and thereby an interruption of abandonment should apply regardless of whether the conduct occurred before or after the abandonment period elapsed. For those reasons, we conclude that a defendant's conduct that would amount to a waiver as an acknowledgment if taken after the abandonment period has elapsed can also be established by evidence outside the record to be a pre-abandonment waiver based on acknowledgment and serve to recommence the abandonment period running anew.