Brown v. Powell

531 So. 2d 731
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedSeptember 7, 1988
Docket87-2216, 87-2477 and 87-2881
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 531 So. 2d 731 (Brown v. Powell) 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
Brown v. Powell, 531 So. 2d 731 (Fla. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

531 So.2d 731 (1988)

James M. BROWN, Jr., and Bianca Brown, Appellants,
v.
Jack POWELL, et al., Appellees.
James M. Brown, Jr., and Bianca Brown, Appellants/Cross Appellees,
v.
Betty Simmons, Appellee/Cross Appellant, and
Jack Powell, et al., Appellees.

Nos. 87-2216, 87-2477 and 87-2881.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

September 7, 1988.
Rehearing and Rehearing Denied October 24, 1988.

*732 Larry Klein of Klein & Beranek, P.A., and Alan S. Zangen, West Palm Beach, for appellants/cross appellees.

David E. Horvath of David E. Horvath, P.A., Palm Beach Gardens, for appellee/cross appellant.

Burton G. Sharff of Evans, Sharff & Kamber, P.A., West Palm Beach, for appellees.

David E. Eastman of Parker, Skelding, McVoy & Labasky, Tallahassee, for amicus curiae — The Florida Manufactured Housing Ass'n, Inc.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied October 24, 1988.

GUNTHER, Judge.

We reverse the order awarding attorney's fees and the final judgment entered in favor of defendants/appellees. We remand for trial on the issue of whether the plaintiffs/appellants' conduct constituted a waiver of the eviction notices served pursuant to section 723.061, Florida Statutes (1985). We decline to address Betty Simmons' cross appeal on attorney's fees. As to the Trews' cross appeal, we affirm the denial of the Trews' motion for summary judgment.

This action for eviction of the tenants of a mobile home park pursuant to chapter 723, Florida Statutes (1985), was tried before a jury. However, upon renewed motion by appellees, the trial judge granted a directed verdict at the conclusion of appellees' case, but before appellants' rebuttal. The trial court ruled, inter alia, that appellants' notices of eviction were defective under section 723.061, Florida Statutes (1985), because the notices failed to state the specific nature of the projected change of the use of the land comprising the mobile home park; that the notice of eviction was not delivered to all tenants affected thereby, in particular, the plaintiffs' son, Jeffrey M. Brown, as required by section 723.061(1)(d), Florida Statutes (1985); and that as a matter of law, appellants by their letters of June 27, 1986, and August 2, 1986, amended or rescinded the six-month notices of eviction previously delivered to the appellees. Also, in the final judgment, the trial court certified, as a question of great public importance, the following question:

[W]hether Section 723.061(1)(d), Florida Statutes, (1985), requires the owners of a mobile home park, in their notices of eviction, to specify what the nature of the projected change of use of the land will be. .. .

We answer the certified question in the negative and hold that the trial court erred in ruling that the notices of eviction were defective under section 723.061, Florida Statutes (1985). Furthermore, the trial court erred in ruling that the June 27 and August 2, 1986 letters, as a matter of law, amended or rescinded the notices of eviction.

Although lengthy, a recitation of the facts is helpful in understanding this case. *733 Appellants, James and Bianca Brown, are owners of the 30-acre Carefree Cove Club mobile home park located in Hypoluxo along Lake Worth. In February 1985, appellants called a meeting and told the tenants that appellants planned to sell the park and that the tenants had the right of first refusal to purchase the property. Appellants also gave the tenants' association written notice of its right of first refusal. Appellants put up a "For Sale" sign on the property and gave the exclusive right to sell the property to their son Jeffrey M. Brown, who was a realtor. By December 1985, there were no viable offers to purchase the park by either the tenants or third parties. Appellants were still willing to sell the park to the tenants in early 1986, but the association's offers were rejected as too low by appellants. On May 8, 1986, appellants presented a lease purchase option to John Hilley, attorney for the tenants' association. Appellants were willing to lease the property to the tenants' association for five years during which the association would operate the park, hire employees, and collect the tenants' rent. At the end of five years, the association could either purchase the property or vacate.

Appellants received no response to their offer. As a result, appellants decided to close the park. Jeffrey M. Brown, who had appellants' power of attorney, sent notices of eviction by certified mail to all tenants on June 5 and 6, 1986. The notice stated:

It is regrettable after 28 years as a Mobile Home Park, but notice for eviction, pursuant to current 1985 Florida State Statute 723.061(1)(d), is herein given.
Due to a projected change of use of the land, it shall be necessary for you to remove your personal property (to include your mobile home and all appurtenances) prior to January 1, 1987, and secure other accommodations.

Although Jeffrey M. Brown owned a mobile home inside the park, he neither paid rent nor resided there. Furthermore, he did not mail a notice of eviction to himself.

The eviction notices caused phone calls and protests by the tenants. Appellants responded by asking the tenants why they had not acted sooner when they were offered a chance to purchase the park or execute a lease purchase option. Appellants learned that many of the tenants knew nothing about the lease purchase option because the tenants' association had never informed the tenants of appellants' offer. The tenants asked appellants to reconsider, which appellants initially refused to do. However, appellants ultimately consented to again negotiate for a lease purchase option.

On June 27, 1986, Jeffrey M. Brown sent a letter to all tenants. In the letter, Brown outlined appellants' efforts to sell the mobile home park to the tenants' association prior to the eviction and that appellants had only recently learned of the association's failure to convey the offer to the tenants. Brown informed the tenants that appellants had:

[R]econsidered, reworked the offer to our bottom line, even without negotiations from the association. We feel it is fair to both sides and certainly a better solution than what most everyone is faced with.
Time is of the essence — while as of that meeting only one person had moved their Mobile Home, plans by others are progressing. Once, as I estimate it, 10 — 20% leave the park it will become uneconomical for your group to execute such a lease.

Jeffrey M. Brown outlined the proposed lease/purchase option which appellants had offered to the tenants' association at a meeting on June 25, 1986. Brown concluded the letter by saying:

At that meeting, we re-offered a lease with an option to buy. Again, timing is critical for you. We know there are certainly bad feelings out there.
We realize now, most of you didn't know about this offer — which is why we are presenting it to each of you personally ourselves.
There are certainly many things that will need to be done and of course a lease will need to be drafted, including all necessary details.

This letter is two fold in propose [sic]:

*734 1) To inform you of the possibility of a lease/option. (We didn't feel it was our obligation — but knew it needed to be done. You might want to postpone your immediate plans in order that a solution regarding a lease may be worked out.)

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531 So. 2d 731, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-powell-fladistctapp-1988.