River Bridge Corp v. American Somax Ventures

76 So. 3d 986, 2011 Fla. App. LEXIS 18978, 2011 WL 5964335
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedNovember 30, 2011
DocketNos. 4D09-1589, 4D10-857
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 76 So. 3d 986 (River Bridge Corp v. American Somax Ventures) 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
River Bridge Corp v. American Somax Ventures, 76 So. 3d 986, 2011 Fla. App. LEXIS 18978, 2011 WL 5964335 (Fla. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

WARNER, J.

Prior to reversal of a judgment of $8,573,804 in favor of appellee, American Somax Ventures (“ASV”), the trial court [988]*988entered an award of attorney’s fees to the ASV of $3,553,376.09, based upon a lodestar amount and a Rowe contingency factor of 2.0. When the final judgment was reversed, the appellants moved for relief from the attorney’s fee judgment, because of the reversal of the underlying judgment. The trial court denied the same without a hearing. We reverse, concluding that a hearing is necessary to determine the proper attorney’s fee award.

The protracted dispute in this case arose out of a breach of contract lawsuit commenced by ASV in 2000 against the appellants, River Bridge Corporation and River Bridge Realty Corporation (collectively referred to as “River Bridge”). A detailed factual history of that litigation is set forth in this court’s opinion in River Bridge Corp. v. American Somax Ventures, 18 So.3d 648 (Fla. 4th DCA 2009). In brief, ASV had contracted with River Bridge to build homes in the first pod of a large development owned by River Bridge. Part of the contract obligated River Bridge to build amenities for the development and to market the homes built by ASV. River Bridge also gave ASV a right of first refusal for other pods in the development. ASV did not sell as many homes as it anticipated, and when River Bridge sent notices of its intent to sell the remaining pods, ASV considered these not in compliance with the right of first refusal and as constituting an anticipatory breach of contract.

Eventually, ASV filed suit for breach of contract in 2000. It alleged that River Bridge breached its contract both by failing to construct the amenities and by violating its right of first refusal. It also sued for a violation of the agreement to market the ASV homes.

As set forth in River Bridge, the jury made an award of $1,248,817 as damages for the River Bridge’s failure to build the amenities and properly market the property. The remaining sum [$7,324,987] was awarded for lost profits for each of the parcels subsequently built and sold by other builders in breach of the right of first refusal. Id. at 650. River Bridge appealed.

While the appeal was pending, ASV moved for and was awarded fees based upon the contract. The parties stipulated that ASV was entitled to fees as the prevailing party. The trial court applied a 2.0 contingency fee multiplier to a lodestar amount of $1,576,434.85 for an award of attorney’s fees in the amount of $3,152,869.70, plus prejudgment interest, resulting in a total fee judgment of $3,553,376.09. River Bridge appealed this judgment.

In River Bridge, this court reversed the award for breach of the right of first refusal, concluding that the testimony supporting the award of lost profits was too speculative to justify recovery. We remanded to the court to vacate that portion of the award. Thus, ASVs recovery was reduced by nearly 85%.

After the reversal, River Bridge moved the court for relief from the attorney’s fees judgment, arguing that the trial court should vacate the fee judgment and hold an evidentiary hearing to determine which party prevailed in the underlying action, and the amount of attorney’s fees and costs to which that party was entitled. During the pendency of the appeal of the fee judgment, this court relinquished jurisdiction for the trial court to consider appellants’ rule 1.540 motion. Without holding an evidentiary hearing, the trial court denied the motion, stating that it would have awarded the same amount had the jury awarded only the $1,248,817 which was upheld by the appellate court. River Bridge also appeals that order.

[989]*989We address the denial of the motion for relief from judgment first. We hold that the trial court erred in failing to conduct an evidentiary hearing on the motion.

Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.540(b)(5) provides for relief from a judgment where “a prior judgment or decree upon which it is based has been reversed or otherwise vacated.” In this case, the attorney’s fees award was based upon the earlier final judgment which was substantially reversed by our court. Where a judgment on which attorney’s fees are predicated is reversed, the attorney’s fees judgment should generally be reversed for further proceedings also. See, e.g., Viets v. Am. Recruiters Enters., 922 So.2d 1090, 1096 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006); Marty v. Bainter, 727 So.2d 1124, 1125 (Fla. 1st DCA 1999). Generally, an evidentiary hearing is required on a motion for relief, unless the allegations do not state a colorable entitlement to relief. See Schuman v. Int’l Consumer Corp., 50 So.3d 75 (Fla. 4th DCA 2010). Here, we conclude they do.

River Bridge contends that ASV is not the prevailing party after reversal of the right of first refusal portion of the judgment, which is a separate and distinct claim from the remaining claims on which it recovered. Although ASV claims that the various claims were'inextricably intertwined and arose out of a common core of facts, this is a matter substantially in dispute.

The determination of an award of attorney’s fees is within the sound discretion of the trial court and will not be disturbed on appeal, absent a showing of a clear abuse of that discretion. Centex-Rooney Constr. Co. v. Martin Cnty., 725 So.2d 1255, 1258 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999). “However, the determination of whether multiple claims within a lawsuit are separate and distinct is a matter of law to be reviewed de novo.” Anglia Jacs & Co. v. Dubin, 830 So.2d 169, 171 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002). Further, the party seeking fees has the burden to allocate them to the issues for which fees are awardable or to show that the issues were so intertwined that allocation is not feasible. Lubkey v. Compuvac Sys., Inc., 857 So.2d 966, 968 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003).

“[T]he party prevailing on the significant issues in the litigation is the party that should be considered the prevailing party for attorney’s fees.” Moritz v. Hoyt Enters., Inc., 604 So.2d 807, 810 (Fla.1992). However, in a multicount action, where each claim is separate and distinct and would support an independent action, as opposed to being an alternative theory of liability for the same wrong, the prevailing party on each distinct claim is entitled to an award of attorney’s fees for those fees generated in connection with that claim. See Folta v. Bolton, 493 So.2d 440, 442 (Fla.1986).

Where the plaintiff has failed to prevail on a claim that is distinct in all respects from his successful claims, the hours spent on the unsuccessful claim should be excluded in considering the amount of a reasonable fee. Pappert v. Mobilinium Assocs. V, 512 So.2d 1096, 1099 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987). Where the plaintiff achieved only limited success, the trial court should award only that amount of fees that is reasonable in relation to the results obtained. Id. However, in Chodo-row v. Moore, 947 So.2d 577 (Fla. 4th DCA 2007), we examined the principles to be applied in awarding fees where claims are inextricably intertwined:

In the event a party is entitled to an award of fees for only some of the claims involved in the litigation, i.e., because a statute or contract authorizes fees for a particular claim but not others, the trial [990]

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Bluebook (online)
76 So. 3d 986, 2011 Fla. App. LEXIS 18978, 2011 WL 5964335, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/river-bridge-corp-v-american-somax-ventures-fladistctapp-2011.