Reid v. Bradshaw

302 So. 2d 180
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedOctober 24, 1974
DocketS-142
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 302 So. 2d 180 (Reid v. Bradshaw) 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
Reid v. Bradshaw, 302 So. 2d 180 (Fla. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

302 So.2d 180 (1974)

Robert L. REID and Carolyn E. Reid, Husband and Wife, Appellants,
v.
William H. BRADSHAW et al., Appellees.

No. S-142.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

October 24, 1974.

*181 Alan B. Fields, Jr., of Dowda, Hedstrom & Fields, Palatka, for appellants.

H. Staten Wilson, Jr. (Deceased), and Dale S. Wilson, of Norton, Arnold & Wilson, P.A., Green Cove Springs, for appellees.

JOHNSON, Acting Chief Judge.

Appellants herein seek review of a final judgment entered upon a final hearing in a quiet title action.

The primary question raised in this appeal is whether Chapter 712, Florida Statutes, known as the Marketable Title Act, has the effect of nullifying homestead interests which have not been recorded within the statutory period provided by said Act. That question as applied to the facts underlying this action was answered in the negative by the trial court and we agree.

As to the question of adverse possession, the trial court correctly found that the plaintiffs below had failed to establish the same.

Returning to the question of whether or not Chapter 712 has the effect of nullifying homestead interests, it is our finding and we so hold that in the absence of some overt act constituting an abandonment on the part of those claiming such homestead rights, the homestead right still exists. The mere lapse of time alone does not wipe out these rights.

We are aware of the fact that the very able jurist, the Honorable Judge Reed of the Fourth District Court of Appeal of Florida, in Marshall v. Hollywood, Inc., 224 So.2d 743 (affirmed by the Florida Supreme Court in 236 So.2d 114) said:

"... The specific enumeration of exceptions to the act in Section 712.03 and the specific provision in Section 712.05 for the protection of valid claims indicates a legislative intent to exclude no other claims from extinction by the operation of Sections 712.02 and 712.04. Dobbs v. Sea Isle Hotel, Fla. 1952, 56 So.2d 341; Biddle v. State Beverage Department, Fla.App. 1966, 187 So.2d 65. For this reason, we do not believe that the rationale in Wright v. Blocker, [144 Fla. 428, 198 So. 88] and Reed v. Fain, supra is pertinent to the Marketable Title Act and hold that under the circumstances depicted by the second amended complaint, the act may be applied to validate a record title even though it may be based on a void deed... ." (Emphasis supplied.)

Judge Reed, as concurred in by two other members of his Court, construed that the legislative intent of Chapters 712.03 and 712.05 was, by the specific provisions of said subsections to exclude no other claims from extinction by the operation of said Sections 712.03 and 712.04. While Judge *182 Reed did not in so many words say that constitutionally vested rights would also be extinguished by Chapter 712 supra, he indicated by his language that the same would be extinguished when he said: "the act may be applied to validate a record title even though it may be based on a void deed ...". In all candor, we must say that the language used both by Judge Reed in 224 So.2d 743 and by Justice Carlton in 236 So.2d 114, supra, gives us great trouble in trying to distinguish the facts and law in the case sub judice from the all encompassing statement of the law laid down in the Marshall case, supra. However, there is still that one distinguishing fact which the legislature did not treat in Chapter 712, nor did Judge Reed nor Justice Carlton in direct language, to wit: That the homestead in question in the case sub judice did not accrue until after the recordation of the "root of the title" as alleged in the complaint, and that the possession of the "homestead children" did not accrue until the death of the widow in 1952. From 1952 until the suit in this case was first filed in the Circuit Court, the period of 30 years had not elapsed. We think the children of the man in whom the homestead was vested at the date of his death had no rights which would be the subject of a title transaction, so long as the widow was alive, although the widow may have attempted to convey the fee title.

Although it might appear at first blush that we are flying directly in the face of our sister court, the Fourth District, as well as of the Florida Supreme Court, we think we have some good points of law, as applied to the facts in this case, which are worthy of consideration, at least to the extent that the trial courts may be guided in their decisions on facts similar to the ones in the case sub judice.

After much research, we think the strong language used by Justice Frank Hobson in Reed v. Fain, 145 So.2d 858, on rehearing, page 864, etc., has not been extinguished by Marshall v. Hollywood, Inc., supra, although Judge Reed said in Marshall v. Hollywood, Inc.,

"For this reason, we do not believe that the rationale in Wright v. Blocker and Reed v. Fain, supra is pertinent to the Marketable Title Act and hold that under the circumstances depicted by the second amended complaint, the act may be applied to validate a record title even though it may be based on a void deed ..."

The fact in Marshall, supra, was that the root of title was from a forged deed, and the real estate was not a homestead. Other things had to happen before a vested interest could attach. We agree with the Marshall cases except as to a homestead property which has not been abandoned.

From the words of Justice Hobson in Reed v. Fain, supra, we take strength in our belief as shown by that opinion, to wit:

"It has always been my understanding that `once a homestead always a homestead' so long as the head of the family, with a child or children in esse, retain such status ... The only exception to the rule . .. is that such property may, in a bona fide transaction based upon an `appropriate consideration,' be alienated as provided in and by our Constitution as the organic directives therein contained have been construed by this Court." (page 865)

At another point in the Reed opinion, we find these words:

"Homestead property is a special kind or species of property. It is so treated in our Constitution and in our statutes. The Legislature originally would have normally and specifically included homestead property had it intended such type of property to be embraced by Section F.S. 95.23, F.S.A... ." (page 864)

Even though the Second District Court, as agreed to by the Supreme Court, in the Marshall case, did "not believe that *183 the rationale in Wright v. Blocker and Reed v. Fain ... is pertinent to the Marketable Title Act ...", this does not change the long standing rule of law that no statute can breathe life into an instrument made and executed in contravention of constitutional inhibition.

While in the Reed case, supra, the statute in question was a statute of limitation involving real estate, we think the words of the court are equally applicable to the statute in question in this case. Had the Legislature wanted Chapter 712 to apply to homestead, such would have been specifically included because in all other statutes, and in the Constitution, the homestead is specifically included or excluded. In other words, in all the laws we have found, special treatment is given to homestead property.

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Bluebook (online)
302 So. 2d 180, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reid-v-bradshaw-fladistctapp-1974.