Lynch v. Welan Investment Co.

16 Fla. Supp. 41
CourtCircuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida, Miami-Dade County
DecidedDecember 17, 1959
DocketNo. 58 C 10868
StatusPublished

This text of 16 Fla. Supp. 41 (Lynch v. Welan Investment Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida, Miami-Dade County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lynch v. Welan Investment Co., 16 Fla. Supp. 41 (Fla. Super. Ct. 1959).

Opinion

ROBERT H. ANDERSON, Circuit Judge.

Opinion, December 17, 1959: On December 17, 1958 plaintiffs Paul H. Lynch and Sigrund E. Lynch, his wife, filed their complaint to quiet title to all of lot 17, block 3, Fairhaven Amended, a subdivision of Dade County, according to the plat recorded in plat book 8, page 120, of the public records of Dade County.

Plaintiffs link their claim of title to both parts of said lot to a common source, namely, that of H. J. Goebbels, deceased, who acquired title to said lot 17, block 3, in 1925, by deed from the original subdivider, Fairhaven Company. In 1938, H. J. Goebbels conveyed the larger portion of said lot to Samuel B. Harris, and Arthur H. Patten, and their respective wives, from whom by mesne conveyances the plaintiffs acquired their title to this larger part of said lot from Abraham J. Shekter and wife on July 7, 1958.

When H. J. Goebbels conveyed said lot to Harris and Patten in 1938, he excepted from his deed the south 25 feet square, and reserved the same for “right-of-way”, for the obvious reason that his own deed from Fairhaven Company reserved an easement in Fairhaven Company over the same “with the right to build wharf or dock or similar structure therefrom into the waters of Bay Biscayne.”

In November 1958, some eighteen years after H. J. Goebbels’ death, the plaintiffs secured quit claim deeds from his heirs to all of said lot, which they claim vests title in them in the smaller part of said lot, described interchangeably in the pleadings as the south 25 feet square and the southerly 25 feet of lot 17, block 3, of Fairhaven Subdivision Amended, recorded in plat book 8, page 120, of the public records of Dade County, and hereinafter referred to as “said property.” In the interest of clarity, a survey of said lot 17, as well as Fair Isle Street, made by Maurice H. Connell & Associates, Inc., consulting engineers of Miami, showing the location of “said property” in relation to the balance of said lot and to Fair Isle Street and Biscayne Bay, is attached to this opinion as exhibit A, and by reference made a part hereof. This court finds, upon the evidence and testimony presented, that the location of “said property” is correctly portrayed on the survey map as cross-hatched by pencil extending from the waters of Biscayne Bay to Fair Isle Street.

[44]*44The defendant, Welan Investment Co., disclaims any interest in any part of said lot, except “said property”, while Burke Properties, Inc., a dissolved Florida corporation, Joseph Weintraub, M. S. Salomon and M. R. Dack, as trustees of Burke Properties, Inc., claim no interest whatsoever in any part of said lot and should be dismissed as parties-defendant. The contest therefore between the parties as far as quieting title to land is concerned, is reduced to a consideration of the conflicting claims of the plaintiffs and the defendant, Welan Investment Co., to “said property.”

Welan Investment Co. claims title to “said property” by purchase from Louis E. Kloeber and wife, who by mesne conveyances acquired title thereto from W. A. Rothar, as special master in chancery, appointed December 21, 1938, in a final decree of foreclosure of tax certificates on “said property.” The entire record of the foreclosure action bearing circuit court of Dade County chancery no. 54719 was, by stipulation of the parties., introduced in-evidence in this cause.

The plaintiffs claim said master’s deed is void and attack the final decree of the foreclosure upon which it is based because they assert the holder of the legal title to “said property” was not made a party-defendant in the foreclosure action, and this would render the foreclosure proceeding a nullity.

The answer of Welan Investment Co. to this contention of the plaintiffs is three-fold —

1. That to demonstrate the accuracy of their claim that the legal title holder was other than as alleged in the complaint in the tax foreclosure suit, the plaintiffs would be compelled to go beyond or outside the record of the foreclosure action, which is regular on its face; and that this would constitute a collateral attack upon the final decree long since final by the passage of almost twenty years of time, and this cannot be done.
2. That the foreclosure action properly made all persons known, as well as those unknown, who were interested, or claimed any interest in “said property”, parties-defendant, and the final decree was binding upon every such person, including plaintiffs’ grantors to “said property”.
3. That even if the plaintiffs are correct in their contention that the foreclosure decree did not bind their predecessor in title to “said property”, yet the plaintiffs are estopped by laches of almost twenty years delay from asserting such contention, during which time Welan Invest[45]*45ment Co. has in good faith, in reliance upon its title to “said property”, expended a large sum of money not only in the purchase of “said property”, but in preparing to necessarily use it in connection the development of Fair Isle, which the defendant simultaneously bought.

These contentions of Welan Investment Co. will be examined in their numerical order, but first in the interest of clarity, it is stated at this point that counsel for the respective parties have held their own pre-trial conferences with commendable results. Not only were all exhibits agreed by stipulation to be admitted, subject to any party’s right to object to their relevancy or materiality, but certain portions of the answer and counterclaim of defendant, Welan Investment Co., which would otherwise have required much time to prove, were judicially admitted to be correct, unless the same were ruled out of the chancellor’s consideration upon the same grounds. Since this did not occur, the following allegations of the answer and counterclaim stand admitted —

1. Paragraphs 2, 3, 4 and 11 of the counterclaim of Welan Investment Co., pages 14, 15 and 18, which read —

2. That the property known as Fair Isle, plats of which were duly recorded in the Public Records of Dade County, Florida, on November 13, 1925, in Plat Book 23 at Page 6, and again on June 15, 1935, in Plat Book 34 at Page 70, is correctly shown as to extent, location, and area on the sketched survey prepared by Biscayne Engineering Company, hereto attached as Exhibit B, heretofore made part hereof by reference; that Fair Isle was purchased by said L. E. Kloeber on April 6, 1922 from the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund of the State of Florida, and on that date by their deed No. 17041, said Trustees duly conveyed Fair Island to said L. E. Kloeber, who recorded his deed in the Public Records of Dade County, Florida, on July 13, 1922, in Deed Book 302, at Page 325; that this is the same L. E. Kloeber who duly deeded Fair Island and “said property” to Welan Investment Company by his warranty deed of conveyance of April 6, 1945, duly recorded on April 19, 1945, in the Public Records of Dade County, Florida, in Deed Book 2500, at Page 22, a true copy of said deed being hereto attached as Exhibit G, and by reference made a part hereof.
3. That Welan Investment Company duly succeeded to and became vested with War Department of the United States permit, issued by B. H.

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Bluebook (online)
16 Fla. Supp. 41, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lynch-v-welan-investment-co-flacirct11mia-1959.