Rhodes v. O. Turner & Co., LLC

117 So. 3d 872, 2013 WL 3716943, 2013 Fla. App. LEXIS 11223
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJuly 17, 2013
DocketNo. 4D12-3836
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 117 So. 3d 872 (Rhodes v. O. Turner & Co., LLC) 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
Rhodes v. O. Turner & Co., LLC, 117 So. 3d 872, 2013 WL 3716943, 2013 Fla. App. LEXIS 11223 (Fla. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

CONNER, J.

A default final judgment can be vacated more than one year after it is entered only in limited circumstances, such as when the judgment is void. Lois Rhodes obtained a default final judgment against the Appellees; however the trial court subsequently vacated it on grounds the judgment was void because the complaint failed to state a cause of action on all claims. We reverse, holding Rhodes’s civil theft claim stated a cause of action.

Factual Background

According to her complaint, Rhodes was referred to 0. Turner & Company, LLC (Turner LLC), for accounting and personal financial services to assist in paying off her debts. An employee of the firm, Byron Rainer, advised Rhodes to liquidate her individual retirement account (IRA) into an escrow account held by Turner LLC. Rainer prepared the paperwork to liquidate the IRA, adding language directing the brokerage company to rush the request and not contact Rhodes prior to disbursing the funds. The IRA funds were disbursed, causing Rhodes to incur not only early termination and withdrawal fees, but also income tax liability. Turner LLC also charged Rhodes $2425 for incorporation fees and legal documents. Rhodes alleged these penalties and fees were not explained to her. Rhodes also alleged Rainer is a convicted felon and Othel Turner, the president of Turner LLC, knew this when he hired Rainer.

The complaint further alleged that Rhodes hired an attorney who demanded an explanation of the fees charged to Rhodes as well as confirmation that Turner LLC was holding Rhodes’s funds. When no explanation or confirmation was received, Rhodes filed a police complaint. Othel Turner told the investigating officer that “Rhodes had a legally formed escrow account,” and that he would return Rhodes’s money within a week, but failed to do so. Rhodes’s attorney contacted the officer a week later to advise that he had heard nothing from Othel Turner. The officer advised she would visit Othel Turner again.

The next day, Rhodes’s counsel received a phone call from Othel Turner advising the money would be sent in a week. Two days later, an attorney representing Othel Turner sent an e-mail to Rhodes’s counsel indicating for the first time that money taken from the IRA was a purported loan from Rhodes to Turner LLC. In response, Rhodes sent civil theft demand letters to Turner LLC, Othel Turner, and Rainer, pursuant to section 772.11, Florida Statutes (2012).

When these demand letters went unanswered, Rhodes filed a complaint against Turner LLC, Othel Turner, and Rainer for civil theft, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty. A default was entered against all three defendants after they failed to answer the complaint. In March 2011, Rhodes obtained a default judgment against all three defendants for $410,451.79, three times the amount taken from the IRA plus attorney’s fees and costs as provided by section 772.11(1). Othel Turner individually filed a motion to vacate the default judgment, more than a year after it was entered, arguing the complaint failed to state a cause of action. After a hearing, the trial court granted the motion, agreeing that all three counts of the complaint failed to state a cause of action and the default judgment was void.

Analysis

Rhodes contends that the trial court erred in determining the default [875]*875judgment should be vacated as void because her complaint did not state a cause of action. She argues that each of the three counts of her complaint states a cause of action. The standard of review of a trial court’s ruling on a motion to vacate is gross abuse of discretion. See Arsali v. Chase Home Fin., LLC, 79 So.3d 845, 849 n. 5 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012). Whether a complaint states a cause of action is an issue of law, reviewed de novo. Kreizinger v. Schlesinger, 925 So.2d 431, 432 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006).

“On motion and upon such terms as are just, the court may relieve a party or a party’s legal representative from a final judgment, decree, order, or proceeding for the following reasons: ... (4) that the judgment or decree is void....” Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.540(b). Despite Rhodes’s arguments to the contrary, “[f]ailure to state a cause of action may be fatal to a complaint and render void a default final judgment based upon the complaint.” Neuteleers v. Patio Homeowners Ass’n, Inc., 114 So.3d 299, 301 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013) (citing Lee & Sakahara Assocs. AIA, Inc. v. Boykin Mgmt. Co., 678 So.2d 394, 396 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996)); Becerra v. Equity Imports, Inc., 551 So.2d 486, 488 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989) (“Failure to state a cause of action, unlike formal or technical deficiencies, is a fatal pleading deficiency not curable by a default judgment.”); Opti, Inc. v. Sales Eng’g Concepts, Inc., 701 So.2d 1234, 1235 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997) (complaint which failed to state a cause of action for any judicial relief other than to compel arbitration was a nullity for entering a monetary judgment, thus the default final judgment was reversed). Confining ourselves to the four corners of the complaint, we now examine whether the three counts of the complaint stated a cause of action supporting the default final judgment against Oth-el Turner.

Civil Theft

Under section 772.11(1), Florida Statutes (2012), a person who is injured by a violation of section 812.014(1) (theft) can recover three times the damages sustained, plus costs and attorney’s fees. “[T]o establish an action for civil theft, the claimant must prove the statutory elements of theft, as well as criminal intent.” Gersh v. Cofman, 769 So.2d 407, 409 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000). Under section 812.014(1), “[a] person commits theft if he or she knowingly obtains or uses, or endeavors to obtain or to use, the property of another with intent to, either temporarily or permanently: (a) Deprive the other person of a right to the property or a benefit from the property [or] (b) Appropriate the property to his or her own use or to the use of any person not entitled to the use of the property.” “Obtains or uses” includes “[cjonduct previously known as stealing; larceny; purloining; abstracting; embezzlement; misapplication; misappropriation; conversion; or obtaining money or property by false pretenses, fraud, or deception.” § 812.012(3)(d)l., Fla. Stat. (2010).

Othel Turner asserts that Rhodes pleaded legal conclusions and not ultimate facts to show that he personally committed theft against Rhodes. He also asserts that Rhodes failed to allege any facts to demonstrate criminal intent, citing Moynet v. Courtois, 8 So.3d 377 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009). We agree that in Moynet the Third District held that the plaintiff failed to state a cause of action for civil theft because there was no allegation of criminal intent on the defendant’s part. Id. at 380.

The complaint in this case alleges:

15. ... Officer Lyons met with Mr. [Othel] Turner on September 14, 2010, at which time Mr. Turner told the officer ... that he was willing to return the funds to Rhodes but that it would take [876]*876one week to liquidate them and that he would contact the undersigned [counsel for Rhodes] to make the arrangements to do so. One week later the undersigned contacted the officer and advised her that the undersigned had yet to hear from Defendant Turner, at which time she would visit him again.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
117 So. 3d 872, 2013 WL 3716943, 2013 Fla. App. LEXIS 11223, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rhodes-v-o-turner-co-llc-fladistctapp-2013.