First States Investors 3300, LLC v. Pheil

52 So. 3d 845, 2011 Fla. App. LEXIS 1864, 2011 WL 478469
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedFebruary 11, 2011
DocketNo. 2D10-3491
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 52 So. 3d 845 (First States Investors 3300, LLC v. Pheil) 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
First States Investors 3300, LLC v. Pheil, 52 So. 3d 845, 2011 Fla. App. LEXIS 1864, 2011 WL 478469 (Fla. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

MORRIS, Judge.

First States Investors 3300, LLC, (First States) appeals a nonfinal order which vacated a deposit it made into the court registry and which ordered the disbursement of the monies to the appellees, who are the lessors of the commercial properties involved. We conclude that the trial court erred by first allowing the entire rental payments to be deposited into the court registry and then by ordering the disbursement of the monies, in toto, to the appellees, and we therefore reverse and remand.

I. Facts

In 1959, the parties entered into a commercial lease for property located in St. Petersburg, Florida. An amended lease was executed in 1973. Then, in 2010, First States filed its complaint and amended complaint seeking declaratory relief and accountings; First States also sought to quiet title and to partition various portions of the properties. First States alleged that due to ambiguities in the lease and provisions regarding rent escalation and price adjustments, First States was in doubt as to the proper amount of rent it was obligated to pay.

Shortly after the initial complaint was filed, but before the amended complaint was filed, First States filed an emergency motion to deposit rents into the court registry. The motion was not served on the appellees. Despite the lack of service on the appellees, the trial court granted the motion. Thereafter, the appellees filed a motion to vacate, arguing that the order was the equivalent of injunctive relief and that First States had not established its right to such relief. After a hearing, the trial court granted the appellees’ motion to vacate and ordered that the monies in the court registry be disbursed to the appel-[848]*848lees. It is from that order that First States appeals.

II. Analysis

A trial court has broad discretion in deciding whether to permit a deposit into the court registry as well as deciding whether to grant a withdrawal from the registry. See Pomponio v. Claridge of Pompano Condo., Inc., 378 So.2d 774, 780 n. 39 (Fla.1979). However, we conduct a de novo review of a trial court’s interpretation of a rule of court. See Baillargeon v. Sewell, 33 So.3d 130, 136 (Fla. 2d DCA 2010).

Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.600 provides:

In an action in which any part of the relief sought is a judgment for a sum of money or the disposition of a sum of money or the disposition of any other thing capable of delivery, a party may deposit all or any part of such sum or thing with the court upon notice to every other party and by leave of court. Money paid into court under this rule shall be deposited and withdrawn by order of court.

This rule is voluntary in nature, see Pomponio, 378 So.2d at 780 n. 39; Morroni v. Fisher, 647 So.2d 127, 129 (Fla. 2d DCA 1994), but the rule is inapplicable where the money in question is not the subject of the litigation, see Morroni, 647 So.2d at 129 (citing rule 1.600 and Wincast Assocs., Inc. v. Hickey, 320 So.2d 17 (Fla. 4th DCA 1975)); Geany v. Packers of Indian River, Inc., 660 So.2d 1144, 1145 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995) (citing Wincast Assocs., Inc.).

The first problem in this case is that only parts of the monies deposited into the court registry were the subject of the litigation. First States did not dispute the base rent amount. Rather, First States’ complaint was predicated on ambiguities in the rent escalation provisions. Thus, only the escalation amounts were the subject of the litigation and the trial court should not have permitted First States to deposit the full rental payments into the court registry. Had the trial court conducted a hearing prior to granting leave of court, this issue could have been fully fleshed out with the trial court’s determining what portions of the monies (i.e., the escalation amounts) could properly be deposited into the registry.

Further, if the appellees had been properly noticed of First States’ intention to deposit the monies into the court registry, the appellees would have been afforded due process as they could have presented their arguments against the deposit of the monies. However, we hold that any due process issue was rectified when the trial court conducted a hearing on the appellees’ motion to vacate.

Unfortunately, the hearing did not resolve the issue of what monies were properly subject to being deposited into the court registry, nor did it resolve the issue of the proper disbursement amount to the appellees. First States was not entitled to deposit all of the rent monies into the court registry because only the escalation amounts were the subject of the litigation. But neither were the appellees entitled to receive all of the rent monies which had been deposited. More specifically, the appellees were not entitled to receive the portion of the monies which constituted the escalation amounts. This is because where

a party seeking affirmative relief has paid money into [the] court upon condition that the party paying received something in return therefor[ ] or that a contingency happen, it cannot be delivered to the adversary party until the condition upon which it was paid has been performedf ] or the contingency occurs.

[849]*849Masser v. London Operating Co., 106 Fla. 474, 145 So. 72, 76 (1932); see also Suchman Corporate Park, Inc. v. Greenstein, 600 So.2d 532, 533 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992) (reversing order distributing monies paid into registry because the deposit was a tender by the mortgagors to secure the release of the mortgaged property upon payment of the amount which they alleged was due; court held that the monies should be paid to the mortgagees at the conclusion of the case only if the mortgagors were ultimately successful in proving their case and, if not, the monies would be returned to them).

In Masser, the appellants were the lessees of a hotel and they filed a complaint seeking specific performance of certain provisions of the lease. 145 So. at 74. The appellants also sought an injunction preventing the lessor from bringing ouster proceedings for nonpayment of the $7500 rent installment. Id. The court granted the injunction on the condition that the lessees pay the $7500 into the court registry and file a bond. Id. The lessor then filed a motion to dissolve the injunction which the court granted, resulting in an order dismissing the lessees’ complaint and disbursing the $7500 to the lessor. Id.

On review, the Florida Supreme Court noted that the lessees paid the $7500 into the registry for the trial court to make a determination of whether they had been damaged by the lessor’s failure to perform under the lease and, if so, for the trial court to determine what amount should be deducted from the $7500. Id. at 76. The lessees argued that the monies were deposited “as a condition precedent to the obtaining of certain relief[] and not as a tender to satisfy the lessor’s claim for rent.” Id. The lessees also argued that the trial court’s order, in essence, directed a judgment for the lessor. Id. The Florida Supreme Court accepted the lessees’ arguments finding that the deposit “was not made for the purpose of meeting the installment of rent due ... in the event the suit should be dismissed” but rather, it “was deposited with the intention ... of having the differences apparently existing between [the] lessor and lessees adjusted.” Id.

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52 So. 3d 845, 2011 Fla. App. LEXIS 1864, 2011 WL 478469, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-states-investors-3300-llc-v-pheil-fladistctapp-2011.