Court Opinion

ID: 9379376
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-03-15 15:04:11.38654+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:15:41.428433
License: Public Domain

DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA
                             FOURTH DISTRICT

     DESTINY FULFILLED OUTREACH MINISTRIES, INC. d/b/a
      LITTLE WALKER’S AT THE EARLY LEARNING CENTER,
                         Appellant,

                                    v.

                       INVESTMENTS SWK, LLC,
                              Appellee.

                              No. 4D22-228

                            [March 15, 2023]

   Appeal from the County Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit,
Broward County; John Hurley, Judge; L.T. Case No. CONO21-024517.

   Michael L. Buckner of Buckner Legal Self-Help Program, Inc., Coral
Springs, for appellant.

   Donna Greenspan Solomon of Solomon Appeals, Mediation &
Arbitration, Fort Lauderdale, for appellee.

    ORDER DENYING APPELLEE’S MOTION FOR ATTORNEY’S FEES

GROSS, J.

   By a separate opinion, we affirmed a final judgment for eviction. That
decision affirmed the county court’s decision that the parties did not have
a meeting of the minds sufficient to create a lease for a term of years, so
that the tenancy created was month-to-month.

   In that appeal, the lessor, Investments SWK, LLC, moved for prevailing
party attorney’s fees pursuant to Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure
9.400(b) and section 83.231, Florida Statutes (2022). We deny the motion
for attorney’s fees because the lessor’s motion does not identify the legal
basis for a fee award.

  Section 83.231 governs the removal of tenant and judgment in
nonresidential eviction cases and states:
      If the issues are found for plaintiff, judgment shall be entered
      that plaintiff recover possession of the premises. If the
      plaintiff expressly and specifically sought money damages in
      the complaint, in addition to awarding possession of the
      premises to the plaintiff, the court shall also direct, in an
      amount which is within its jurisdictional limitations, the entry
      of a money judgment in favor of the plaintiff and against the
      defendant for the amount of money found due, owing, and
      unpaid by the defendant, with costs. . . . Where otherwise
      authorized by law, the plaintiff in the judgment for possession
      and money damages may also be awarded attorney’s fees and
      costs. If the issues are found for defendant, judgment shall
      be entered dismissing the action.

§ 83.231, Fla. Stat. (2022) (emphasis added).

   Unlike the fee statute governing residential tenancies, 1 section 83.231
does not create a prevailing party’s right to recover fees in a commercial
tenancy. The language “[w]here otherwise authorized by law” indicates
that there can be no award of attorneys’ fees without some additional legal
basis for such an award. The lessor fails to identify any additional
authority authorizing attorney’s fees and relies solely on Rule 9.400 and
section 83.231 in its motion.

   Accordingly, we deny the lessor’s motion for appellate attorney’s fees.
See Fla. Dep’t of Health & Rehab. Servs. v. Morse, 708 So. 2d 640, 641–42
(Fla. 3d DCA 1998) (reversing attorney’s fees awarded to landlord and
noting that even if section 83.231 applied, fees under section 83.231 could
be awarded only “where otherwise authorized by law,” and the landlord did
not suggest any other authorization to the court warranting prevailing
party attorney’s fees in that case); Nuñez v. Aviv Air Conditioning, Inc., 319
So. 3d 731, 734 (Fla. 3d DCA 2021) (noting that while Part II of Chapter
83, which applies to residential tenancies, has a provision that allows the
prevailing party to recover attorney’s fees in any civil action to enforce the
provisions of the rental agreement, Part I, which applies to nonresidential
tenancies contains no such provision).

CONNER and ARTAU, JJ., concur.

1 See § 83.48, Fla. Stat. (2022) (“In any civil action brought to enforce the
provisions of the rental agreement or this part, the party in whose favor a
judgment or decree has been rendered may recover reasonable attorney fees and
court costs from the nonprevailing party.”).

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Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

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