Ruiz v. Policlinica Metropolitana, C.A.

260 So. 3d 1081
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedSeptember 26, 2018
DocketNos. 3D17-1535; 3D17-1523
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 260 So. 3d 1081 (Ruiz v. Policlinica Metropolitana, C.A.) 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
Ruiz v. Policlinica Metropolitana, C.A., 260 So. 3d 1081 (Fla. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

LINDSEY, J.

Appellants/defendants below appeal the trial court's orders denying their respective motions for determination of entitlement to attorney's fees against the Appellee/plaintiff below pursuant to section 768.79, Florida Statutes (2015), and Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.442. Because: (1) all three of the $3,500 offers of judgment, respectively, complied with both the statute and the rule; (2) a final judgment of no liability was entered in favor of one defendant; (3) the plaintiff was awarded zero damages as to the other defendants; and, (4) the trial court made no finding that the defendants' offers of judgment were not made in good faith, we reverse and remand with instructions to hold an evidentiary hearing to determine reasonable attorney's fees.

I. BACKGROUND

Medex Trading, LLC ("Medex") filed the underlying lawsuit on July 15, 2011. The operative complaint is the fourth amended complaint, filed by Medex and Policlinica Metropolitana, C.A. ("Policlinica"). Policlinica, Premium Medical Group, Inc. ("Premium"), Ivett Corvaia ("Corvaia"), and Luis A. Ruiz ("Ruiz") were not parties to the initial lawsuit. However, the trial court entered an order on the motions to dismiss the second amended complaint, wherein the court determined that Policlinica is an indispensable party and should be joined in the controversy. As such, Medex added Policlinica as an additional plaintiff and also added Premium and Corvaia as additional defendants in the pleading that became the third amended complaint. Medex and Policlinica subsequently added Ruiz as a defendant in the fourth amended complaint.

Prior to trial, Ruiz, Corvaia, and Premium had each presented Policlinica with separate offers of judgment/proposals for *1084settlement in the amount of $3,500 (the "offers"). Policlinica did not accept any of the offers. Following a multi-day bench trial, the trial court entered a final judgment wherein it found in favor of Ruiz and against Medex and Policlinica. The trial court also entered judgment for damages in favor of Medex and Policlinica and against Corvaia and Premium. However, the trial court awarded all of the damages to Medex and none to Policlinica.

A. Ruiz's Entitlement Order - 3D17-1535

Thereafter, Ruiz filed the following: (i) a motion for determination of entitlement to attorney's fees against Policlinica pursuant to section 768.69 and rule 1.442, and predicated upon Ruiz's offer; (ii) a motion for determination of entitlement to attorney's fees against Medex; and (iii) a motion to tax costs against Medex and Policlinica. The trial court granted Ruiz's motion for attorney's fees against Medex and his motion to tax costs against Medex and Policlinica. However, the trial court denied Ruiz's motion for attorney's fees against Policlinica.

In its order denying Ruiz's motion for attorney's fees against Policlinica, the trial court found Ruiz's proposal was not ambiguous and properly stated that it included attorney's fees, that it was a nominal offer, and that Policlinica did not accept it and is thereby deemed to have rejected it. In addition, the trial court expressly found that Ruiz's offer "was made in good faith."

The trial court further found that the "judgment was entered in favor of Ruiz and against Policlinica and therefore Policlinica did not obtain a judgment that was at least 25 percent less than the amount of the offer."1 Nonetheless, the trial court denied Ruiz's motion for determination of entitlement to attorney's fees against Policlinica, reasoning that:

awarding attorneys' fees and costs would lead to an absurd result, including because Policlinica was forced into this litigation against its will based on the Court's finding that it was an indispensable party and that ... Policlinica ... did not assert any claims separate or beyond those pleaded by Plaintiff Medex and did not ask for damages in addition to or beyond those sought by Medex, and under the circumstances of this case, it was not unreasonable for Policlinica to reject the offer.

The trial court further found that:

the purposes of the offer of judgment statute would not be furthered by enforcing the Offer against Policlinica given that settling Policlinica's claims would not have resulted in eliminating any of the claims to be considered by the Court and therefore would not have resulted in any of the efficiencies the offer of judgment statutes are designed to promote.

And, the trial court ruled in the alternative that:

even had this Court determined that Ruiz was entitled to an award of attorneys' fees and costs pursuant to his Offer, the Court would nonetheless have reduced any award of attorneys' fees and costs to zero because, consistent with [the trial court's other findings in Ruiz's Entitlement Order] and pursuant to [ rule] 1.442(h)(2), including because the Court finds that Policlinica's rejection of the Offer did not cause additional delay cost and expense, did not prolong the litigation, and it was not unreasonable under the circumstances of this case for Policlinica to reject the Offer.

Ruiz's timely appeal follows.

B. Premium and Corvaia's Entitlement Order - 3D17-1523

Similarly, Premium and Corvaia filed their separate motions for determination *1085of entitlement to attorney's fees against Policlinica pursuant to section 768.69 and rule 1.442, and predicated upon their respective offers. The trial court found that Premium's and Corvaia's respective offers were not ambiguous and properly stated they included attorney's fees, they were nominal offers, and that Policlinica did not accept them and was thereby deemed to have rejected them. The trial court made no finding with respect to the faith of the offers, whether made in bad faith or not in good faith. Rather, the trial court found that the only reason the final judgment, "as a technical matter, does not award damages to Policlinica is to avoid a double recovery and because the [predecessor judge] found that as between the two of them, Medex suffered the damages more directly."

The trial court concluded that "[a]bsent Medex, however, Policlinica would have been awarded all of the damages awarded to Medex." In addition, the trial court, despite awarding zero damages to Policlinica, expressly stated in its order that Policlinica suffered damages and that it disagreed with Premium and Corvaia's argument that Policlinica did not obtain a judgment that was at least 25 percent less than the amount of the offers. As such the trial court declined to award attorney's fees to Premium and Corvaia. The trial court based this decision on its finding that:

awarding attorneys' fees and costs would lead to an absurd result, including because Policlinica was forced into this litigation against its will based on the Court's finding that it was an indispensable party and that when Policlinica was added as an indispensable party it did not assert any claims separate or beyond those pleaded by Plaintiff Medex and did not ask for any damages in addition to or beyond those sought by Medex, and under the circumstances of this case, it was not unreasonable for Policlinica to reject the Offer[s].

The trial court ruled in the alternative:

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260 So. 3d 1081, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ruiz-v-policlinica-metropolitana-ca-fladistctapp-2018.