Court Opinion

ID: 9351962
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-01-04 16:02:48.662149+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:57:39.925428
License: Public Domain

Third District Court of Appeal
                               State of Florida

                        Opinion filed January 4, 2023.
       Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

                            ________________

                             No. 3D21-1358
                      Lower Tribunal No. 06-1866 SP
                          ________________

     State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company,
                                  Appellant,

                                     vs.

                Best Medical Treatments, Inc., etc.,
                                  Appellee.

      An Appeal from the County Court for Miami-Dade County, Stephanie
Silver, Judge.

      Birnbaum, Lippman & Gregoire, PLLC, and Nancy W. Gregoire
Stamper (Ft. Lauderdale); Beighley, Myrick, Udell & Lynne, P.A., and Maury
Udell, for appellant.

     Twig, Trade, & Tribunal, PLLC, and Morgan L. Weinstein (Ft.
Lauderdale), for appellee.

Before SCALES, LINDSEY, and BOKOR, JJ.

     PER CURIAM.
        Appellant State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company appeals

from a final judgment following a jury trial. The trial court awarded attorney’s

fees to counsel for Appellee, Best Medical Treatments, Inc. a/a/o Lilian

Gonzalez, Luis Gonzalez, and Zoila Soto. On appeal, State Farm argues

that the fee award was incorrectly granted directly to counsel, rather than to

Best Medical. We reverse and remand the case to the trial court so that fees

can be awarded directly to Best Medical as party to the litigation.

   I.     BACKGROUND

        The underlying case involved a car accident after which the three

named individuals received medical care from Best Medical. In 2006, Best

Medical sued State Farm for less than $5,000 in past-due PIP benefits. Best

Medical is the assigned beneficiary of the named insured.

        In March 2016, Best Medical filed a Motion for Attorney’s Fees, Interest

on Attorney’s Fees and Costs. At the same time, its counsel (Peter G.

DePrimo, Esq.) filed a Motion for Attorney’s Fees, Interest on Attorney’s Fees

and Costs under his own name. The opening paragraph of both motions

indicated that Best Medical was the one seeking the award, via assignment

from State Farm’s insured. In 2019, both Best Medical and DePrimo re-filed

their motions.

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      On April 12, 2021, the trial court held a hearing at which DePrimo

sought a rate of $600 per hour for 66.5 hours of work, while State Farm

sought to limit the fee award to $550 per hour for 66.3 hours of work.

Discussion of DePrimo’s fees concluded early in the hearing; the trial court

agreed with State Farm’s estimate and declared that it would “award the 550

at 66.3 hours, so for a total award for Mr. DePrimo of $36,465 by stipulation

of the defense, understanding the plaintiff stipulated to the number of hours

and was just asking for the $600 rate.”

      No objection was made at the time. On April 13, 2021, before the

hearing was fully concluded, the court awarded the requested attorney’s fees

directly to DePrimo. State Farm timely appealed.

      In its initial brief, State Farm alleges that this fee order was made “in

the absence of any advance notice to State Farm and without completing the

fee hearing,” that that it “was submitted to the court . . . but, apparently, was

not provided to State Farm’s counsel in advance of its entry.” In its answer,

Best Medical does not dispute this allegation; it asserts that “[t]he trial court

stated it would enter judgment payable to Mr. DePrimo for the amounts

specified and, after stating that such award was by stipulation and receiving

no objection, did so in its fee order.” In its reply, State Farm further clarifies

that while it agreed to the amounts, “it never stipulated to an order ‘payable

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directly to the firm’ or ‘payable to Mr. DePrimo,’ as [Best Medical] insists,

because the court never uttered those words or any others disclosing that

intention” and that “[h]ad it done so, State Farm’s counsel would have had

notice of the court’s intention to enter the DePrimo Fee Order and an

opportunity to object.”

   II.     ANALYSIS

   The parties addressed the applicable standard of review and Section

627.428(1), Florida Statutes (2022). However, the statutory argument is

ultimately dispositive. Florida law requires attorney’s fees to be paid to a

party to the litigation, not to non-party counsel.

         a. The standard of review

         State Farm argues that the applicable standard of review is de novo,

which applies to entitlement to attorney’s fees, the legal conclusions of a trial

court, and the right to procedural due process.

         Best Medical admits that entitlement to attorney’s fees is subject to de

novo review. However, Best Medical argues that the issue on appeal is really

a review of an order fixing said fees and so is subject to review for abuse of

discretion. See Babun v. Stok Kon + Braverman, 335 So. 3d 1236, 1240

(Fla. 3d DCA 2021) (“The appellate standard of review for an awarded

amount of attorney’s fees is abuse of discretion.”).

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      State Farm is correct; the applicable standard of review is de novo.

Here, the amount of the fees is not contested. Instead, the issue on appeal

is entitlement, which is subject to de novo review.           See id. at 1240

(“Entitlement to attorney’s fees is subject to de novo appellate review.”)

      b. Section 627.428(1), Florida Statutes

      Both parties cite to section 627.428(1), Florida Statutes (2022), which

permits an award of attorney’s fees only to an insured or a beneficiary:

                  Upon the rendition of a judgment or decree by
            any of the courts of this state against an insurer and
            in favor of any named or omnibus insured or the
            named beneficiary under a policy or contract
            executed by the insurer, the trial court or, in the event
            of an appeal in which the insured or beneficiary
            prevails, the appellate court shall adjudge or decree
            against the insurer and in favor of the insured or
            beneficiary a reasonable sum as fees or
            compensation for the insured’s or beneficiary’s
            attorney prosecuting the suit in which the recovery is
            had.

      State Farm argues the fee order violates section 627.428. It contends

a plain reading of the above statute describes only two classes that are

entitled to an attorney’s fee award: insureds and beneficiaries. State Farm

asserts that, as stated in Borg-Warner Acceptance Corp. v. Philco Finance

Corp., 356 So. 2d 830, 832 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978), “[a] fee money award is

payable by one party to another . . . not by one party to the other’s lawyer,

either as a debt or a penalty.” State Farm asserts that the award must be

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payable from it to Best Medical, not from it to Best Medical’s counsel. It also

cites a recent opinion from this Court affirming the substance of the final

judgment but ultimately reversing “because ‘[e]ntering a judgment against a

nonparty is fundamental error.’” Corredor v. Nichols, 342 So. 3d 793, 794

(Fla. 3d DCA 2022) (quoting Norville v. BellSouth Advert. & Publ’g Corp.,

664 So. 2d 16, 16 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995).

          By contrast, Best Medical argues that the fee order does not violate

section 627.428. It asserts there is no clear statutory prohibition on a trial

court awarding fees directly to a party’s counsel and that since Best Medical

requested the relief, the fee order can be made payable to its counsel.

          State Farm is correct. The trial court’s award of attorney’s fees was

substantively correct, but the statute requires attorney’s fees to be paid to a

party to the litigation, not to non-party counsel.

   III.     CONCLUSION

          Because section 627.428 requires attorney’s fees to be paid directly to

an insured or beneficiary as party to the litigation, we reverse and remand

this case to the trial court so that the fee award can be granted to Best

Medical as party to this litigation.

          Reversed and remanded.

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