Bennett's Leasing, Inc. v. First Street Mortgage Corp.

870 So. 2d 93, 2003 Fla. App. LEXIS 18001, 2003 WL 22768444
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedNovember 25, 2003
Docket1D02-4856
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 870 So. 2d 93 (Bennett's Leasing, Inc. v. First Street Mortgage Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bennett's Leasing, Inc. v. First Street Mortgage Corp., 870 So. 2d 93, 2003 Fla. App. LEXIS 18001, 2003 WL 22768444 (Fla. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

870 So.2d 93 (2003)

BENNETT'S LEASING, INC., Creditor, Appellant,
v.
FIRST STREET MORTGAGE CORPORATION, etc., Appellee.

No. 1D02-4856.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

November 25, 2003.

*94 Glenn K. Allen, of Glenn K. Allen, P.A., Jacksonville, for Appellant.

David E. Otero and Jacob A. Brown, of Akerman Senterfitt, Jacksonville, for Appellee.

BENTON, J.

Bennett's Leasing, Inc. (Bennett's), is a creditor of First Street Mortgage Corporation (FSMC), an insolvent corporation whose assets were assigned for the benefit of creditors under chapter 727, Florida Statutes (Supp.1998), originally to Michael Moecker and Associates, Inc. After a superseding assignment to Michael Moecker, individually, and three months after entry of an interlocutory order confirming the superseding assignment, Bennett's moved to vacate the interlocutory order. Eventually the trial court entered the amended order denying the motion to vacate from which (along with the order denying rehearing) Bennett's now appeals. We dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction.

Proceedings below began on December 15, 1998, when FSMC assigned its assets for the benefit of creditors to Michael Moecker and Associates, Inc. On January 11, 1999, Bennett's filed a claim (for $89,476.99 for services rendered and equipment sold or leased to FSMC) and its "Motion to Dismiss Chapter 727 Action," in which, arguably, it alluded to the statutory prohibition against non-bank corporate assignees "under any assignment for the benefit of creditors." § 660.41(3), Fla. Stat. (1997) (prohibiting a corporation that is neither a bank, an association as defined in chapter 665, nor a trust company from acting "[a]s assignee ... of any insolvent... corporation or under any assignment for the benefit of creditors."). On February 17, 1999, however, Bennett's withdrew its motion to dismiss "without prejudice [to] ... its[] objection to Assignor's/Assignee's Chapter 727 action."

On May 22, 2002, the corporate assignee filed a motion to substitute "Michael Moecker, individually, for Michael Moecker & Associates, Inc., as Assignee...." The trial court granted the motion the following day, entering an order substituting "Michael Moecker, individually, ... for Michael Moecker & Associates, Inc., as Assignee in this assignment for the benefit of creditors nunc pro tunc to the Filing Date of December 15, 1998."

On August 25, 2002, Bennett's moved to vacate this order, in hopes apparently of securing another, completely independent assignee who would undo everything the corporate assignee had done. Bennett's argued that the assignment to the corporate assignee on December 15, 1998, and every action taken since the date of the assignment, including each sale of assets, all payments of professional fees, and the motion to substitute assignee itself[1] were *95 void under section 660.41(3), Florida Statutes (1997).

The trial court denied the motion to vacate, ruling in an amended order[2] entered on October 28, 2002:

4. By failing to assert its defense to these proceedings during the nearly four years for which it has been pending, Bennett has waived its right to assert that defense.... [T]he right to raise this issue existed at the time this case was filed by MMA [Michael Moecker and Associates, Inc.] on December 15, 1998. Bennett either actually knew and raised the argument of the capacity of MMA to serve as an assignee on January 11, 1999, or because of the existence of § 660.41(3), Fla. Stats., had constructive knowledge of the argument. Bennett signified its intention to relinquish such argument either in its withdrawal of its motion to dismiss on February 17, 1999, or in its failure to raise this issue throughout the pendency of the case. Viewed from another perspective, Bennett's silence as to the issue of MMA's capacity all these years, constitutes grounds for finding a procedural waiver....

. . . .

6.... Regardless of whether MMA or Michael Moecker, individually, served as the assignee of First Street Mortgage Corp., the Court Approved Acts were necessary to enforce or carry out the provisions of Chapter 727. If the Court were to try to und[o] the process at this time, it would be contrary to the provisions of Chapter 727.

Bennett's filed a motion for rehearing, which the trial court denied on November 12, 2002. Bennett's filed its notice of appeal on November 18, 2002.

On January 16, 2003, we issued an order to show cause "why this appeal should not be redesignated as an appeal of a nonfinal order." Bennett's responded, contending that the amended order entered October 28, 2002, is in fact a final order since it "permits the illegal assignee(s) to conduct transactions which will and have divested the rights of [Bennett's]." We rejected this contention by order entered February 5, 2003, and do so again today.

*96 The basic rule is that a judgment or order is final if it brings to a close all judicial labor in the lower tribunal. See GEICO Fin. Servs., Inc. v. Kramer, 575 So.2d 1345, 1346 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991); Pruitt v. Brock, 437 So.2d 768, 773 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983). Since the order entered May 23, 2002, approving the substitution of assignees did not bring judicial labor to an end, it was not a final order. A fortiori, the amended order entered October 28, 2002, denying the collateral attack on the interlocutory order entered May 23, 2002, did not bring judicial labor to an end, either, and is also non-final. FSMC's assets remain to be distributed in the proceeding still pending below, as Bennett's acknowledged in its initial brief when it stated "that a final judgment/order has not occurred in this proceeding with a final distribution of assets and discharging the assignee."

Bennett's, which has been afforded two opportunities to address the jurisdictional question in the present case (most recently by order entered September 15, 2003), has argued that the amended order entered October 28, 2002, was, even if a non-final order, nevertheless appealable

pursuant to Fla. R.App. P. 9.130(a)(5), as an Appeal of a non-final order entered on a motion filed under Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.540(b), reason (4) "that the judgment or decree is void", pursuant to Florida Statute, § 660.41(3), which prohibits corporations from acting as an assignee.
... In addition, pursuant to Fla. R.App. P. 9.130(3)(C)(i) which allows review of non-final orders which have determined "the jurisdiction of the person". Appellant maintains that the assignment to a corporation was illegal pursuant to Florida law and that this prevented the corporation from being able to serve as an assignee. In personam jurisdiction is based on the particular court having legal authority over the person. As the corporation was prevented by Florida law from serving as an assignee, the corporation did not have the ability to appear or be recognized by the lower court or to Motion to Substitute the Assignee which is a material argument of the Appellant's Appeal.

Although at one point we deemed these proceedings "an appeal of a nonfinal order pursuant to Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.130(a)(5) (2002)," closer analysis persuades us that we lack jurisdiction under Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.130, just as we lack jurisdiction under Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.110.

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Bluebook (online)
870 So. 2d 93, 2003 Fla. App. LEXIS 18001, 2003 WL 22768444, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bennetts-leasing-inc-v-first-street-mortgage-corp-fladistctapp-2003.