Cenvill Investors, Inc. v. Condominium Owners Organization of Century Village East, Inc.

556 So. 2d 1197, 1990 Fla. App. LEXIS 878, 1990 WL 11125
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedFebruary 14, 1990
DocketNo. 88-2394
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 556 So. 2d 1197 (Cenvill Investors, Inc. v. Condominium Owners Organization of Century Village East, Inc.) 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
Cenvill Investors, Inc. v. Condominium Owners Organization of Century Village East, Inc., 556 So. 2d 1197, 1990 Fla. App. LEXIS 878, 1990 WL 11125 (Fla. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinions

HERSEY, Chief Judge.

This litigation arose from a controversy between appellants as lessors of certain recreational facilities and appellees as tenants of those facilities. Pursuant to section 718.401(4)(a), Florida Statutes (1987), a nonfinal order required rent to be paid into the registry of the court. The main issue on appeal calls into question the constitutionality of section 718.401(4)(a), Florida Statutes (1987).

Ashby “A” Condominium Association (Ashby) is a plaintiff/appellee, and an “Association Lessee” under the leases. Plaintiff/ appellee, Trinchitella, is the owner of a condominium unit and an “Individual Lessee.” The additional plaintiff/appellee is the Condominium Owners Organization of Century Village East, Inc. (COOCVE), a Florida not-for-profit corporation. COOCVE, in its capacity as agent for the condominium associations, has entered into various contracts with the lessors, appellants.

The Second Amended Complaint filed by the lessees alleged that the lessors failed to allow the COOCVE Recreation Committee to exercise policy-making and decision-making powers as required by a contract between the parties. The complaint seeks a determination as to whether the committee has such decision-making powers and also seeks damages for certain allegedly unauthorized expenditures made by the lessors.

Upon motion of the plaintiff/lessees and without an evidentiary hearing, the trial court entered the order now on appeal requiring rent to be paid into the registry of the court.

Rent under the long-term leases is of two types. There is an increment referred to as “base rent” which is payment for rental of the facilities. A second increment is referred to as “operational rent” which is used to defray expenses such as maintenance, janitorial services and landscaping.

The trial court ordered periodic disbursement of base rent to the lessors and established a method for determining the appropriateness of disbursements of operational rent from time to time.

Before addressing the issues as presented by the parties, we pause to make reference to an aspect of the pleadings and certain actions of the parties that lend a suggestion of mootness to our inquiry. Both the pleadings and material in the transcript suggest that there is no controversy concerning the amount of rent that is due. In addition, the parties by agreement have arrived at a mutually satisfactory arrange[1199]*1199ment for payment and disbursement of rent during the pendency of the litigation, so that payment is not being made into the registry of the court. Even so, we do not choose to rest our disposition upon mootness since there remain issues constituting a case and controversy.

We treat the cross appeal first. Ap-pellees contend that the trial court erred in ordering periodic and automatic disbursement from the registry of the court to appellants of all “base rent” without an evidentiary hearing or any showing of the presence of factors specified in the statute as justifying disbursement. In view of concessions by appellees in the pleadings and elsewhere in the record that no dispute exists with regard to the base rent, we find that any error is harmless and affirm as to the cross appeal.

Turning next to the direct appeal, appellants present four issues for our consideration. First, it is argued that section 718.-401(4), Florida Statutes (1987), was improvidently invoked by appellees and thus erroneously applied by the trial court. Appellants take the position that the statute does not apply in a case such as this where neither the amount of rent nor the lessors’ entitlement to it is placed in issue. In four counts the second amended complaint seeks declaratory relief, injunctive relief and damages related to the lessors’ refusal to allow meaningful participation by the COOCVE Recreation Committee in policy-making decisions regarding the operation of the recreational facilities. The amount of rent due from time to time is not in controversy.

The portion of the statute material to this question provides:

(4)(a) In any action by the lessor to enforce a lien for rent payable or in any action by the association or a unit owner with respect to the obligations of the lessee or the lessor under the lease, the unit owner or the association may raise any issue or interpose any defense, legal or equitable, that he or it may have with respect to the lessor’s obligations under the lease. If the unit owner or the association initiates any action or interposes any defense other than payment of rent under the lease, the unit owner or the association shall, upon service of process upon the lessor, pay into the registry of the court any allegedly accrued rent and the rent which accrues during the pend-ency of the proceeding, when due.

This is an action by an association and a unit owner with respect to obligations of the lessor under the lease. By the plain language of the statute, therefore, it applies to the controversy between these parties.

The dual purpose of the statute also lends support to the proposition that it should apply under these circumstances. One purpose of the statute is explained in Saul v. Basse, 375 So.2d 290 (Fla. 2d DCA 1979):

[§ 718.401(4)(i) ] contemplates the establishment of. a secured fund which would be available to satisfy any monetary judgment obtained in favor of petitioners against respondents. Failure to require all rents to be deposited into the registry of the court may cause irreparable injury to petitioners in that petitioners could be required to seek other sources to satisfy any judgment they should obtain. Such alternative sources may not exist or may be insufficient to fully satisfy the judgment.

A second purpose of the statute is to require the unit owners to continue to pay rent during the pendency of litigation. This is intended to benefit the lessor who, in the absence of such a provision, might be totally deprived of rental payments throughout the course of protracted litigation and even after prevailing in that litigation might very well be confronted with the requirement of bringing suit for eviction or past due rent.

Thus, the statute, while imposing burdens, likewise affords benefits to both contracting parties. While we make no other judgment on the wisdom of the legislation, we hold that it was appropriately applied in this case.

Appellant questions the standing of plaintiff/appellee, Condominium Owners Organization of Century Village East, Inc., (COOCVE) to invoke the statute. [1200]*1200COOCVE is obviously neither a “unit owner” nor a condominium “association.” It is, rather, an umbrella organization formed as an advisory group to all of the associations and has acted as their agent in dealings with the lessors. COOCVE’s standing or capacity to invoke the statute is said to be predicated upon two theories. Appel-lees argue first that because appellants have previously dealt with COOCVE as the agent for the associations, they are now estopped to deny that agency for purposes of this litigation. The second argument advanced by appellees is that rule 1.210 of the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure confers status upon COOCVE to entertain the present suit in its capacity as one in whose name a contract has been made for the benefit of another.

Both of these arguments miss the point.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
556 So. 2d 1197, 1990 Fla. App. LEXIS 878, 1990 WL 11125, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cenvill-investors-inc-v-condominium-owners-organization-of-century-fladistctapp-1990.