Point East One Condominium v. POINT EAST, ETC.

348 So. 2d 32, 1977 Fla. App. LEXIS 16279
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJune 28, 1977
Docket76-469
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 348 So. 2d 32 (Point East One Condominium v. POINT EAST, ETC.) 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
Point East One Condominium v. POINT EAST, ETC., 348 So. 2d 32, 1977 Fla. App. LEXIS 16279 (Fla. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinion

348 So.2d 32 (1977)

POINT EAST ONE CONDOMINIUM CORPORATION, INC., et al., Appellants,
v.
POINT EAST DEVELOPERS, INC., et al., Appellees.

No. 76-469.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

June 28, 1977.

*33 Becker & Poliakoff and Alan S. Becker, Miami Beach, for appellants.

Steel, Hector & Davis and Darrey A. Davis, Coral Gables, Broad & Cassel and Lewis Horwitz, Bay Harbor Island, for appellees.

Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., as amicus curiae.

Before HENDRY, C.J., and PEARSON and HUBBART, JJ.

PEARSON, Judge.

This is an appeal from a final order dismissing the complaint[1] of (1) condominium associations in several large condominium development units and (2) the individual condominium owners as the claimed representatives of a class of all the owners. The complaint sought a declaration that a 99 year recreational facility lease is unlawful and void. The defendants are (1) the developer of the condominiums, (2) the lessors of the recreational facility lease, and (3) two savings and loan associations alleged to have joined in the declarations of condominium, to have supplied capital for the development and to be holding mortgages encumbering the property. The Attorney General of Florida moved for and was granted leave to file a brief as amicus curiae.

The complaint is in five counts, all seeking essentially the same relief and based upon the same ultimate facts, but urging different claims for the illegality of the recreational facility lease. Primarily, the counts are as follows: Counts one and two claim that the lease is void because of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, Section 501.201, et seq., Florida Statutes (1975). Count three claims that the lease violates the Florida Condominium Act, specifically Section 711.66(5)(e), Florida Statutes (1975). Count four claims that the lease violates, by way of its provision for a lien upon the individual units for unpaid rent, the Florida Constitutional ban upon forced sale of a homestead. Count five claims that all of the defendants, including the savings and loan associations through their actions of drafting, approving and execution of the declarations of condominiums and the recreational facility lease, violated Chapter 542, Florida Statutes (1975), which prohibits combinations restricting trade and commerce.

The trial judge in his final order of dismissal set out the basis for his order as follows:

"The subject Community Facility Lease was executed, and the vested rights and obligations of the parties accrued thereunder more than seven years prior to the enactment and effective date of the Florida Deceptive Practices Act and more than eight years prior to the enactment and effective date of the amendment to *34 the Condominium Act. At the time of execution, such leases were authorized by the Condominium Act (Section 711.121, Florida Statutes). The relief sought by plaintiffs would result in the destruction of the pre-existing vested rights of the defendants under the Community Facility Lease. The legislation relied on as the basis for the relief sought in this cause cannot be applied retrospectively to the subject Community Facility Lease without infringing upon the constitutional inhibition against impairment of the obligation of contracts. Plaza del Prado Condominium Association, Inc. v. The Del Prado Management Company, Inc., Fla.App. 1974, 298 So.2d 544; Trustees of Tufts College v. Triple R. Ranch, Inc., Fla. 1973, 275 So.2d 521.
"The allegations as to violations of the Florida Deceptive Practices Act and the 1974 amendment to the Condominium Act are incorporated and made a part of all counts of the complaint. The supplemental allegations that the Community Facility Lease also violates the letter and intent of Article X, Section 4, Florida Constitution, is legally insufficient as a basis for the relief sought under any set of factual circumstances. The claim against the defendant savings and loan associations charging that their actions in making mortgages in connection with the condominium project constituted a combination in violation of Chapter 542, Florida Statutes, is legally insufficient as a basis for the relief sought under any set of facts which could be proved."
* * * * * *

Plaintiffs' brief on appeal presents four points, each urging error upon the trial court's order in failing to rule that the complaint afforded a basis for relief upon one of the legal theories advanced in the several counts of the complaint.[2]

The complaint alleges that the defendant developer submitted its land to condominium by filing a declaration of condominium. Each unit owner, simultaneous with his purchase of a unit at the condominium complex, under the declaration of condominium, became a lessee under the Recreational Facility Lease. The Lease provided for a lien which could be enforced against an individual apartment unit in case the owner of said apartment defaulted in payment of rent prescribed by the lease, as well as a lien upon the assets and common surplus of the association, said lien being a first lien paramount and superior to all others upon any right, title, and interest of the lessees in and to the lease of the demised premises therein. Also, the Lease is made binding on all successors in title to the individual condominium apartments, and the lien provisions constitute a covenant running with the land, even if the condominium itself is terminated.

By virtue of the Lease, each unit owner is obliged to pay a specified sum each month for ninety-nine years, with the sum to be increased in accordance with a cost of living index, but without a corresponding provision for a decrease should the cost of living decrease. Such payments are required by each unit owner regardless of whether the unit owner uses the facilities or not. Additionally, a transferee of a unit must assume performance of the transferor's obligations as a lessee under the Lease. And, the Lease provides that the assignment of said Lease and conveyance of the lessee's apartment unit must be simultaneous.

The complaint further alleges that Point East Condominium complex and its facilities have consumer appeal and are unique because of their location, price and the facilities offered. Plaintiffs argue that the facilities, services or personalty involved under the Lease are not part of the sales price or other part of the condominium unit but are separate and distinct facilities, personalty or services. The result is that by offering to sell a unique item with consumer appeal, the defendant developer had sufficient leverage to induce the plaintiffs to *35 accept the ninety-nine year Lease. Plaintiffs argue that the revenues collected under the Lease are unconscionable in that such revenues will eventually exceed several million dollars per year and will be collected well after the defendants have no economic interest left in the condominium complex.

In addition, the above activities of the defendants are alleged to restrain trade because they exclude condominium buyers from exercising their own free choice in selecting other recreational facilities, services or personalty, and preclude competitors of the defendant from offering the same or similar facilities to the plaintiffs.

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Bluebook (online)
348 So. 2d 32, 1977 Fla. App. LEXIS 16279, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/point-east-one-condominium-v-point-east-etc-fladistctapp-1977.