Jax Utilities Management, Inc. v. Hancock Bank, A Foreign Corp.

164 So. 3d 1266
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJune 10, 2015
Docket14-0664
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 164 So. 3d 1266 (Jax Utilities Management, Inc. v. Hancock Bank, A Foreign 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
Jax Utilities Management, Inc. v. Hancock Bank, A Foreign Corp., 164 So. 3d 1266 (Fla. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING OR CLARIFICATION

LEWIS, C.J.

We deny Appellant’s Motion for Rehearing or Clarification, but we withdraw our previously issued opinion and substitute this opinion in its place.

Appellant, Jax Utilities Management, Inc. (“Jax”), challenges the trial court’s entry of a final summary judgment in favor of Appellee, Hancock Bank, arguing that the trial court erred by holding that (1) the statute of limitations set forth in section 95.11(5)(b), Florida Statutes (2011), barred Jax’s equitable lien claim, and (2) section 713.3471, Florida Statutes (2011), precluded Jax’s common law claims of eq *1268 uitable lien and unjust enrichment. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

BACKGROUND

On December 29, 2011, Jax brought an action against Appellees based on a failed housing development project. In an Amended Complaint, Jax asserted a breach of contract claim against Plummer Creek, LLC, (Count I) and equitable lien and unjust enrichment claims against Hancock Bank (Counts II and III, respectively). Hancock Bank moved for summary judgment based upon its affirmative defenses that section 95.11(5)(b), Florida Statutes, barred Jax’s equitable lien claim and section 713.3471, Florida Statutes, precluded both of Jax’s common law claims.

The parties’ summary judgment evidence established in part the following: In December 2005, Plummer Creek, as owner, and Jax, as contractor, entered into a Standard Form Agreement for the development of the project, which entailed the construction of “429 builder lots and amenities.” In January 2006, Plummer Creek, as borrower, and Peoples First Community Bank (“Peoples First”), as lender, entered into a Loan Agreement to fund the development. The Loan Agreement was for the principal amount of $15,975,000 and was to be evinced by a Note and used “to finance the purchase of land ... and to construct improvements thereon for the engineering, planning and development of 429 single family building lots and other improvements that will comprise Plummer Creek Subdivision, together with such other improvements necessary or desirable to service the Project.” Under the Loan Agreement, Plummer Creek was required to make scheduled payments to Peoples First and to submit pay requests. Plum-mer Creek’s failure to make a scheduled payment, a material adverse change in Plummer Creek’s financial condition, or any one of the other enumerated events constituted a default under the Loan Agreement. Between 2006 and 2009, Plummer Creek performed its obligations under the Loan Agreement.

On May 28, 2009, however, Plummer Creek’s sole source capital, Stokes Land Group, was informed by its investors that they would no longer fund the project. On June 1, 2009, Stokes Land Group informed Peoples First that it was no longer able to provide capital and make payments on the loan in light of its investors’ decision. As such, in June 2009, Peoples First notified Plummer Creek that it would cease making further advances under the Loan Agreement. On June 27, 2009, Plummer Creek missed an interest payment. Although on June 30, 2009, Jax submitted two pay applications to Plum-mer Creek, in the amounts of $11,922.98 and $468,680.10, Plummer Creek failed to pay them and failed to submit them to Peoples First. In December 2009, pursuant to a Purchase and Assumption Agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as receiver of Peoples First, Hancock Bank assumed Peoples First’s assets and liabilities, including the Note, Mortgage, and Loan Documents relating to the subject property. On March 21, 2011, Hancock Bank initiated foreclosure proceedings against the project. In September 2011, Hancock Bank obtained a Final Judgment of Foreclosure against Plummer Creek in the amount of $18,884,800.38; and in January 2012, > a Certificate of Sale and Certificate of Title were filed. Based upon evidence relating to Construction Acceptance Checklists, Jax claimed that its last day on the job was June 20, 2009, while Hancock Bank *1269 claimed it was May 14, 2010. 1

The trial court entered a Final Summary Judgment in favor of Hancock Bank. The trial court concluded that Jax’s equitable lien claim was barred by the one-year statute of limitations set forth in section 95.11(5)(b), Florida Statutes, regardless of which party’s position about Jax’s last day on the job was correct. In doing so, the trial court rejected Jax’s argument that the statute of limitations did not begin to run until the equitable lien claim accrued upon the initiation of the foreclosure proceeding. The trial court further concluded that Jax’s equitable lien and unjust enrichment claims were precluded by section 713.3471, Florida Statutes, and reasoned that the Legislature clearly intended to alter the common law and that the statute is so repugnant to Jax’s common law claims that they cannot coexist. This appeal followed.

ANALYSIS

Summary judgment is proper only when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. Haynes v. Universal Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co., 120 So.3d 651, 653 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013). An order granting a motion for summary judgment is reviewed de novo. Id. Similarly, a trial court’s interpretation of a statute is reviewed de novo. M.D.C. v. B.N.M.J., 117 So.3d 489, 490 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013).

Construction of Section 95.11(5)(b)

Jax first argues that the statute of limitations set forth in section 95.11(5)(b), Florida Statutes, began to run not from the last furnishing of labor, services, or material, but from the initiation of the foreclosure proceeding. We disagree. “Except as provided in subsection (2) [fraud and products liability] and in s. 95.051 [tolling] and elsewhere in these statutes, the time within which an action shall be begun under any statute of limitations runs from the time the cause of action accrues.” § 95.031, Fla. Stat. (2011). “A cause of action accrues when the last element constituting the cause of action occurs.” § 95.031(1), Fla. Stat. “An action to enforce an equitable lien arising from the furnishing of labor, services, or material for the improvement of real property” must be commenced within one year. § 95.11(5)(b), Fla. Stat. (2011).

By its plain language, section 95.11(5)(b) requires that a claim for equitable lien be brought within one year of the last furnishing of labor, services, or material for the improvement of real property. Roehner v. Atl. Coast Dev. Corp., 356 So.2d 1296, 1297 (Fla. 4th DCA 1978) (“This is an appeal from a denial of a motion to dismiss a complaint to enforce an equitable lien, said complaint filed in excess of one year after the last furnishing of labor, services or material. We reverse upon the authority of s 95.11(5)(b) (Fla.Stat.1975) which unequivocally requires such a suit to be filed within one year after the last furnishing of labor, services or material for the improvement of real property.”); see also Westburne Supply, Inc. v. Cmty. Villas Partners, Ltd., 508 So.2d 431, 434-35 (Fla.

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164 So. 3d 1266, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jax-utilities-management-inc-v-hancock-bank-a-foreign-corp-fladistctapp-2015.