MacKendree & Co. v. Pedro Gallinar & Assoc.

979 So. 2d 973, 2008 WL 313881
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedFebruary 6, 2008
Docket3D07-1478
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 979 So. 2d 973 (MacKendree & Co. v. Pedro Gallinar & Assoc.) 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
MacKendree & Co. v. Pedro Gallinar & Assoc., 979 So. 2d 973, 2008 WL 313881 (Fla. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

979 So.2d 973 (2008)

MacKENDREE & CO., P.A. and Ronald O. MacKendree, Appellants,
v.
PEDRO GALLINAR & ASSOCIATES, P.A. and MacKendree & Gallinar, LLP, Appellees.

No. 3D07-1478.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

February 6, 2008.

*974 Ross and Girten and Lauri Waldman Ross and Theresa L. Girten, Miami; Sandler & Sandler and Martin Sandler, Miami, for appellants.

James W. Cusack, Miami; Woodbury & Santiago, P.A. and Michael P. Woodbury and Robert P. Santiago, Miami, for appellees.

Before WELLS, ROTHENBERG, and SALTER, JJ.

ROTHENBERG, J.

The defendants, MacKendree & Co., P.A. ("MacKendree") and Ronald O. MacKendree ("Ronald MacKendree") (collectively, "the MacKendree defendants"), appeal from a final order granting summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs, Pedro Gallinar & Associates, P.A. ("Gallinar") and MacKendree & Gallinar, LLP (collectively, "the Gallinar plaintiffs"). We reverse.

In 2003, Ronald MacKendree decided to reduce his workload and sell his accounting practice to Gallinar. The Gallinar accounting firm was located in a neighboring office and headed by one of Ronald MacKendree's acquaintances. MacKendree and Gallinar executed a partnership agreement and a contemporaneous asset purchase agreement to effectuate the transfer. Both agreements were signed by MacKendree and Gallinar through agents acting in their representative capacities. However, two letters of clarification regarding both agreements were subsequently executed and signed by Ronald MacKendree and Gallinar's president without specifically stating that they were signing these clarifications in their representative capacities.

The partnership agreement took effect on October 1, 2003. It created MacKendree & Gallinar, LLP to ease the transfer of MacKendree's practice into Gallinar's control. The MacKendree and Gallinar partnership ended on December 1, 2005. The express intention of the parties was that Ronald MacKendree would retire[1] by December 1, 2005, thus completing the turnover to Gallinar. In the two years leading up to the final transfer, MacKendree and Gallinar shared office space, operating under the name MacKendree & *975 Gallinar, LLP, but they maintained separate incomes and practices in all other respects.

The asset purchase agreement governed the sale of most of MacKendree's clients (a limited number of clients were excluded from the deal and reserved for continued service by Ronald MacKendree). The price was set at ninety percent of MacKendree's 2004 billings,[2] with a $50,000 deposit (paid in two annual installments of $25,000), and the remainder payable in monthly installments beginning on the closing date, December 1, 2005.

In November 2005, Ronald MacKendree sent a letter to his clients explaining that he was turning his practice over to Gallinar. Thereafter, Ronald MacKendree packed up his personal belongings and moved out of the office. Gallinar made the two $25,000 down payments as scheduled. Ronald MacKendree ceased working full-time, but returned periodically at Gallinar's request to perform per diem work. The per diem services rendered by Ronald MacKendree for Gallinar were not mentioned within either of the two agreements. Subsequently, Gallinar fell behind on the payment schedule outlined in the asset purchase agreement. In March 2006, Gallinar paid $28,500, which MacKendree accepted, although at the time, an additional $12,500 in contract payments (under the asset purchase agreement) was allegedly unpaid and outstanding.

The conflict between the parties came to a head when Gallinar terminated the employment of one of MacKendree's longtime employees, Diane Annesser. After Annesser was terminated, Ronald MacKendree became concerned with Gallinar's handling of his former business and confronted Gallinar's president. As a result, Gallinar terminated Ronald MacKendree's per diem services, and according to Ronald MacKendree, Gallinar failed to compensate him for some of his per diem fees and owed MacKendree for other amounts receivable and contract payments. Shortly thereafter, Ronald MacKendree resumed business with some of the clients previously sold to Gallinar.

On April 25, 2006, MacKendree sent a formal demand for overdue contract payments to Gallinar. Three days later, the Gallinar plaintiffs filed the instant lawsuit against the MacKendree defendants. The Gallinar plaintiffs sued the MacKendree defendants for breach of the asset purchase agreement, breach of the implied covenant of good faith, rescission of the asset purchase agreement, civil conspiracy, and breach of the partnership agreement. The MacKendree defendants counterclaimed for unpaid per diem fees, contract payments, and other amounts payable to MacKendree.

The MacKendree defendants moved for summary judgment on their counterclaims and all of the Gallinar plaintiffs' allegations, arguing in part that Ronald MacKendree could not be held personally liable for breach of either of the two agreements. The trial court, however, denied the motion brought by the MacKendree defendants. The Gallinar plaintiffs then moved for partial summary judgment on Count IX of the complaint, which alleged breach of the partnership agreement. The trial court granted the Gallinar plaintiffs' motion, finding as a matter of law that MacKendree breached the partnership agreement and that Ronald MacKendree did not retire. The trial court later granted the Gallinar plaintiffs' motion for dismissal of *976 all remaining claims and counterclaims, finding them moot, and issued a final judgment ordering the MacKendree defendants to return the $50,000 deposit paid by Gallinar plus $27,868.84 in interest.

Our review of the trial court's order granting summary judgment is de novo. See Volusia County v. Aberdeen at Ormond Beach, L.P., 760 So.2d 126, 130 (Fla. 2000); Sheikh v. Coregis Ins. Co., 943 So.2d 242, 243 (Fla. 3d DCA 2006). Summary judgment may only be granted where there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Volusia County, 760 So.2d at 130. The MacKendree defendants argue that the order on appeal must be reversed because: (1) Ronald MacKendree cannot be held personally liable; (2) unresolved issues of fact preclude summary judgment against MacKendree for breach of the partnership agreement; and (3) the trial court erred in dismissing the MacKendree defendants' independent counterclaims as moot. We agree.

Ronald MacKendree Cannot Be Held Personally Liable

We review the two agreements as a whole to determine whether the parties intended to bind their principal businesses alone, or also the signing agents in their individual capacities. Falsten Realty Co. v. Kirksey, 103 Fla. 225, 137 So. 267, 269 (1931); Porlick, Poliquin, Samara, Inc. v. Compton, 683 So.2d 545, 547 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996). A review of the instant agreements reveals that the parties intended to bind the businesses alone, not the individual agents. Both agreements define the parties as MacKendree & Co., P.A. and Pedro Gallinar & Associates, P.A., not Ronald MacKendree, or any other agent of these firms. The individuals who negotiated and signed the agreements did so on behalf of their separate firms, acting in their representative capacities.

The Gallinar plaintiffs argue that the letters of clarification executed after the original agreements support the trial court's summary judgment against Ronald MacKendree individually.

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979 So. 2d 973, 2008 WL 313881, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mackendree-co-v-pedro-gallinar-assoc-fladistctapp-2008.