Penthouse North Ass'n, Inc. v. Lombardi

436 So. 2d 184
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedApril 27, 1983
Docket81-347, 81-1011
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 436 So. 2d 184 (Penthouse North Ass'n, Inc. v. Lombardi) 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
Penthouse North Ass'n, Inc. v. Lombardi, 436 So. 2d 184 (Fla. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

436 So.2d 184 (1983)

PENTHOUSE NORTH ASSOCIATION, INC., Appellant,
v.
Remo M. LOMBARDI, et al., Appellees.
Remo M. LOMBARDI, et al., Appellants,
v.
PENTHOUSE NORTH ASSOCIATION, INC., Appellee.

Nos. 81-347, 81-1011.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

April 27, 1983.
Rehearing Denied September 7, 1983.

Rod Tennyson of Powell, Tennyson & St. John, P.A., West Palm Beach, for Penthouse North Association, Inc.

*185 Larry Klein, West Palm Beach; Levy, Shapiro, Kneen & Kingcade, Palm Beach, and Coleman, Leonard & Morrison, Fort Lauderdale for Remo M. Lombardi, Nadja Subric and Victoria Novotny.

GLICKSTEIN, Judge.

This consolidated appeal raises two issues; namely, (1) whether a condominium association can bring an action in 1979 against its lessors for breach of the lessors' fiduciary duties as officers and directors of the association in 1966 when the lease between the lessors and the association was executed; and (2) whether the lessors are entitled to attorneys' fees in the event of the successful defense of such action.

The association's second amended complaint alleged that in 1966 the lessors executed the lease without informing the members of the association of the escalation clause in the lease; that the lessors enriched themselves at the association's expense; that the lessors relinquished control of the association in 1968; that but for decisions of the Supreme Court of Florida, the present action would have been brought prior to 1977; and that it was not until 1979 — when the action was finally brought — that the association knew the lessors were going to enforce the escalation clause.

The association, in contending its right to bring an action in 1979, relies upon the decision of our sister court in Burleigh House Condominium, Inc. v. Buchwald, 368 So.2d 1316 (Fla. 3d DCA), cert. denied, 379 So.2d 203 (Fla. 1979), which was decided solely on the court's analysis of the statute of limitations. We disagree with that analysis.

Factually, the cases are similar. There, the association brought action in 1977, alleging that the lessors of the recreational lease had breached their fiduciary duty to the condominium purchasers in 1969 by including provisions for excessive rental at a time when the lessors controlled the association. The trial court dismissed the complaint on the ground that the action was barred by the statute of limitations. The Third District Court of Appeal reversed, holding that the association's cause of action did not accrue until the 1977 decision of the supreme court in Avila South Condominium Association, Inc. v. Kappa Corporation, 347 So.2d 599 (Fla. 1977), which recognized a cause of action in favor of the condominium association and its unit owners. Therefore the association's action was not barred. In deciding as it did, the panel in Buchwald primarily relied upon United States v. One Red Chevrolet Impala Sedan, 457 F.2d 1353, 1358 (5th Cir.1972) which we find to be clearly distinguishable from the present case and not a sound foundation for the extension constructed by our sister court.

The Chevrolet case upon which Buchwald stands or falls was an action against the government to recover property which had been forfeited pursuant to libels of information. In United States v. United States Coin and Currency, 401 U.S. 715, 91 S.Ct. 1041, 28 L.Ed.2d 434 (1971), the Supreme Court of the United States gave full retroactivity to its earlier decisions in Marchetti v. United States, 390 U.S. 39, 88 S.Ct. 697, 19 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968) and Grosso v. United States, 390 U.S. 62, 88 S.Ct. 709, 19 L.Ed.2d 906 (1968) which held that the privilege against self-incrimination was a complete defense to a forfeiture proceeding based on criminal prosecutions against a gambler for failure to register and pay the related gambling tax. Accordingly, in Chevrolet, the Fifth Circuit recognized that the government could have absolutely no defense to the action to recover the property, which had been unlawfully forfeited to it pursuant to a statute subsequently held to be unconstitutional. It would have been an absurdity to prevent the property owner from recovery of his property under such circumstances when there was utterly no defense. The court said in Chevrolet:

Moreover, the time at which a cause of action accrues should be interpreted in light of the general purposes of the limitation statute and the practical ends to be served by the limitation of time. Crown Coat Front Company v. United States, *186 386 U.S. 503, 87 S.Ct. 1177, 18 L.Ed.2d 256 (1967); Cooper v. United States [442 F.2d 908 (7th Cir. 1971)], supra. Looking to these purposes and practicalities, we see no possibility that due to the passage of long periods of time, appellant will be able to succeed on the basis of a stale or unjust claim. The government seized the property involved here in a manner which no one thought to be unconstitutional at the time of forfeiture and for years afterward. However, it is clear today that the government had no right to do so. The government has lost no defenses or evidence due to the passage of time, which would entitle it to keep the property. The government simply never had, nor could it have, any such evidence or defense. Considering, therefore, the lack of governmental interest in applying the limitations period of the instant case and plaintiff's lack of expectancy of success in the intervening years, we hold that the cause of action accrued as of January 29, 1968, the date of decision in Marchetti and Grosso.

Id. at 1358.

We agree with the result in Chevrolet. However, we find no parallel between Buchwald and Chevrolet. Instead, we liken Buchwald and the present case to those many occasions on which the Supreme Court of Florida has overturned or receded from common law rules in the area of torts. See, for example, Banfield v. Addington, 104 Fla. 661, 140 So. 893 (1932), which allowed the customer of a beauty shop to sue the operator thereof — a married woman; Hargrove v. Town of Cocoa Beach, 96 So.2d 130 (Fla. 1957), which permitted suit against a municipality for torts committed by its police officers; and Gates v. Foley, 247 So.2d 40 (Fla. 1971), which recognized wives' claims for loss of consortium. In none of these cases did the supreme court say that as to all incidents which occurred since the year "1" the cause of action would now accrue as of the date of its new decision. It simply turned the page on an old common law rule which it had previously recognized. Similarly, we find nothing in Hoffman v. Jones, 280 So.2d 431 (Fla. 1973) to invite actions — based on accidents occurring during the millennium — in which prospective plaintiffs now believed themselves to be comparatively, not contributorily, negligent. We believe the court was of the same mind in Avila. Accordingly, we affirm the dismissal with prejudice of the association's second amended complaint as well as the dismissal of its earlier pleading.

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Related

Penthouse North Ass'n v. Lombardi
461 So. 2d 1350 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1984)

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