Idalberto Bueno v. Rancho La Florida LLC

• Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida
• Decided: June 11, 2025
• Docket: 3D2024-1577
• Status: Published

Opinion

Third District Court of Appeal State of Florida

Opinion filed June 11, 2025. Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

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No. 3D24-1577 Lower Tribunal No. 22-20782-CA-01 ________________

Idalberto Bueno, Appellant,

vs.

Rancho La Florida LLC, et al., Appellees.

An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Ariana Fajardo Orshan, Judge.

Joey Gonzalez, Attorney P.A., and Joey D. Gonzalez, for appellant.

Kondla & Associates, P.A., and M. Emelina Mejer-Kondla, for appellees.

Before FERNANDEZ, SCALES and LOBREE, JJ.

SCALES, J. In this case involving a joint venture to breed pedigree cattle, after the

jury returned a verdict for appellees Ruben Ruiz Velasco and Rancho La

Florida LLC, appellant Idalberto Bueno appealed both the final judgment and

the trial court’s interlocutory order granting appellees a judgment on the

pleadings on appellant’s conversion count.

We affirm the trial court’s interlocutory order granting appellees a

judgment on the pleadings because, without a tort independent from the

alleged breach of contract, a party cannot recover in tort for the same

damages the party seeks in its breach of contract count. Island Travel &

Tours, Ltd. v. MYR Indep., Inc., 300 So. 3d 1236, 1239 (Fla. 3d DCA 2020)

(“It is a fundamental, long-standing common law principle that a plaintiff may

not recover in tort for a contract dispute unless the tort is independent of any

breach of contract.”); Peebles v. Puig, 223 So. 3d 1065, 1068 (Fla. 3d DCA

2017) (“[W]hen a contract is [allegedly] breached, the parameters of a

plaintiff’s claim are defined by contract law, rather than by tort law.”).

We also affirm the trial court’s decision to decline to give appellant’s

proposed special jury instructions on damages for the alleged breach of the

oral joint venture agreement. The trial court did not abuse its discretion by

finding that the pleadings and trial testimony did not support Bueno’s

proposed instructions that sought to define the parties’ respective losses

2 under their agreement. Llompart v. Lavecchia, 374 So. 2d 77, 80 (Fla. 3d

DCA 1979) (recognizing that “issues upon which instructions are required

are those formulated by the pleadings and presented by the evidence”).

Affirmed.