Major League Baseball v. Morsani

790 So. 2d 1071, 26 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 465, 2001 Fla. LEXIS 1401, 2001 WL 776662
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJuly 12, 2001
DocketSC96004
StatusPublished
Cited by249 cases

This text of 790 So. 2d 1071 (Major League Baseball v. Morsani) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Major League Baseball v. Morsani, 790 So. 2d 1071, 26 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 465, 2001 Fla. LEXIS 1401, 2001 WL 776662 (Fla. 2001).

Opinion

790 So.2d 1071 (2001)

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, et al., Petitioners,
v.
Frank L. MORSANI, etc., et al., Respondents.

No. SC96004.

Supreme Court of Florida.

July 12, 2001.

*1073 John W. Foster, Sr. of Baker & Hostetler LLP, for Petitioners.

Cunningham Clark & Greiwe, P.A., Tampa, FL; and Joel D. Eaton of Podhurst, Orseck, Josefsberg, Eaton, Meadow, Olin & Perwin, P.A., Miami, FL, for Respondents.

SHAW, J.

We have for review Morsani v. Major League Baseball, 739 So.2d 610 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999), wherein the district court certified the following question:

Does section 95.051, Florida Statutes (1993), prohibit the application of the doctrine of equitable estoppel to an action filed outside of the applicable statute of limitations?

Morsani, 739 So.2d at 616. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. We answer in the negative as explained herein and approve Morsani on this issue.

I. FACTS

The relevant facts are set forth in the district court opinion under review, which provides in part:

The present appeal involves Count I of the plaintiffs complaint, which alleges tortious interference in the acquisition of the Minnesota Twins. The plaintiffs allege that, in 1984, the owners of a majority of the stock of Minnesota Twins, Inc. agreed to sell their controlling interest to the plaintiffs on condition that the plaintiffs first purchase the minority interest from a different party. The plaintiffs subsequently purchased the minority interest for $11,500,000. Thereafter, the majority owners sold their interest to another buyer, and the defendants demanded that the plaintiffs assign the minority interest to the new majority owner for $225,000. At that time, the minority interest in the Minnesota Twins was worth $25,000,000.
The plaintiffs further allege that they agreed to the assignment because the defendants promised that the plaintiffs would be an "absolute front runner" and "at the top of the list" to obtain a majority ownership interest in a baseball franchise in time to begin the 1993 baseball season. The defendants also told the plaintiffs that if they failed to assign the minority interest, the plaintiffs would never own an interest in a major league baseball team. It is undisputed that the plaintiffs never obtained an ownership interest in any major league baseball team, even though Major League Baseball granted other new baseball franchises.
After two more failed attempts to purchase baseball franchises, the plaintiffs filed a complaint, alleging interference with advantageous contractual and business relationships and violation of antitrust laws. The defendants moved for summary judgment claiming that the statute of limitation had run as to Count I. At the hearing on the motion, the plaintiffs conceded that the statute of limitations had run, but argued that the defendants were equitably estopped from raising the statute of limitations because the defendants had induced the plaintiffs to forbear suit on the Minnesota Twins transaction.
The trial court granted summary judgment as to Count I as a matter of law. The trial court found that section 95.051, Florida Statutes (1993), which enumerates the eight specific circumstances that toll the statute of limitations, constitutes a legislatively mandated exclusive catalogue of grounds that can avoid the application of the statute of limitations, as the statute was authoritatively construed by the supreme court in Fulton County Administrator v. Sullivan, *1074 22 Fla. L. Weekly S578 (Fla. Sept. 25, 1997). Because equitable estoppel was not included among the permissible grounds for avoiding the effect of the statute of limitations set out in section 95.051, the trial court held that the plaintiffs' claims were barred by the statute of limitations.

Morsani v. Major League Baseball, 739 So.2d 610, 612-13 (Fla. 2nd DCA 1999) (footnote omitted).[1]

The district court reversed, holding that the doctrine of equitable estoppel can operate to bar a statute of limitations defense. Because of the doubt raised by this Court's decision in Fulton County Administrator v. Sullivan, 22 Fla. L. Weekly S578 (Fla. Sept. 25, 1997),[2] and the district court's decision in Hearndon v. Graham, 710 So.2d 87 (Fla. 1st DCA 1998),[3] the court certified the above question.

II. THE APPLICABLE LAW

The standard of review governing a trial court's ruling on a motion for summary judgment posing a pure question of law is de novo.[4] As a rule, statutes of limitation impose a strict time limit for filing legal actions.[5] The effect of the statutes of limitation, however, can be deflected by several legal theories, including the doctrine of equitable estoppel, as explained below.

A. Statutes of Limitation

At common law, there were no fixed time limits for filing lawsuits.[6] Rather, fixed limitations on actions are predicated on public policy and are a product of modern legislative, rather than judicial, processes.[7] A prime purpose underlying statutes of limitation is to protect defendants *1075 from unfair surprise and stale claims:

"As a statute of [limitations], they afford parties needed protection against the necessity of defending claims which, because of their antiquity, would place the defendant at a grave disadvantage. In such cases how resolutely unfair it would be to award one who has willfully or carelessly slept on his legal rights an opportunity to enforce an unfresh claim against a party who is left to shield himself from liability with nothing more than tattered or faded memories, misplaced or discarded records, and missing or deceased witnesses. Indeed, in such circumstances, the quest for truth might elude even the wisest court."

Nardone v. Reynolds, 333 So.2d 25, 36 (Fla.1976) (quoting Wilkinson v. Harrington, 104 R.I. 224, 243 A.2d 745, 752 (1968)).

Time limitations on legal actions in Florida are governed by the provisions of chapter 95, Florida Statutes (1991). Section 95.11 sets forth the limitations period for an action based on an intentional tort:

95.11 Limitations other than for the recovery of real property.—Actions other than for recovery of real property shall be commenced as follows:
. . . .
(3) WITHIN FOUR YEARS.—
. . . .
(o) An action for assault, battery, false arrest, malicious prosecution, malicious interference, false imprisonment, or any other intentional tort....

§ 95.11, Fla. Stat. (1991).

Section 95.051 delineates an exclusive list of conditions that can "toll" the running of the statute of limitations:

95.051 When limitations tolled.—
(1) The running of the time under any statute of limitations ... is tolled by:
(a) Absence from the state of the person to be sued.
(b) Use by the person to be sued of a false name that is unknown to the person entitled to sue so that process cannot be served on him.
(c) Concealment in the state of the person to be sued so that process cannot be served on him.
(d) The adjudicated incapacity, before the cause of action accrued, of the person entitled to sue.

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790 So. 2d 1071, 26 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 465, 2001 Fla. LEXIS 1401, 2001 WL 776662, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/major-league-baseball-v-morsani-fla-2001.