Srygley v. Capital Plaza, Inc.

82 So. 3d 1211, 2012 WL 955506, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 4483
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMarch 22, 2012
Docket1D11-2130
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 82 So. 3d 1211 (Srygley v. Capital Plaza, Inc.) 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
Srygley v. Capital Plaza, Inc., 82 So. 3d 1211, 2012 WL 955506, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 4483 (Fla. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

RAY, J.

Paul D. and Shelley Z. Srygley, Appellants, appeal the final summary judgment entered against them in a quiet-title action involving a condominium unit in Bay County, Florida. Capital Plaza, Inc., Appellee, initiated the action, claiming that it is the rightful owner of the unit pursuant to a tax deed it obtained through the tax deed sale process set forth in sections 197.512, 197.522, and 197.542, Florida Statutes (2009). Because the tax deed sale was conducted in accord with the statutory requirements, we affirm.

The material facts are not in dispute. Before Appellee recorded its tax deed, Appellants were the titleholders to the property at issue. Because Appellants failed to pay the ad valorem taxes for 2006, Bay County issued a tax certificate. Following an application for a tax deed, the clerk of the court provided Appellants notice of the application and the date of the property sale, through certified U.S. mail. In addition, the clerk advertised the upcoming sale once a week for four consecutive weeks in an area newspaper of general circulation. The highest bidder at the first sale failed to meet the statutory payment obligations, so the clerk canceled the sale.

After canceling the first sale, the clerk made one advertisement in the same newspaper for the date of the second sale, but did not send Appellants any individualized notice. At the second sale, Appellee entered the highest bid and satisfied the statutorily mandated payment require *1212 ments. Subsequently, Bay County conveyed the property to Appellee by tax deed.

Thereafter, Appellee instituted the instant action against Appellants and certain lienholders, asserting that any rights the defendants may have had in the property were extinguished by the tax deed. 1 Appellants filed an answer, but did not assert the affirmative defenses that they paid the taxes or did not receive adequate notice of the application for tax deed and date of the first sale. Appellee moved for final summary judgment, arguing that the undisputed facts showed that the clerk properly granted it the property after having notified Appellants of the tax deed application and the date of the tax deed sale. The court agreed, granted Appellee’s motion, and entered final summary judgment quieting title in Appellee.

On appeal, Appellants argue that the trial court misconstrued the statute governing notice of a second tax deed sale. They claim that, as the titleholders, they were entitled to individualized notice of the second sale. In the alternative, Appellants argue that if the trial court’s construction is correct, the statute violates their right to due process. The resolution of these issues depends on our construction of the relevant statutes and' a consideration of the effect of those statutes on a property owner’s right to due process. As a result, the de novo standard of review applies. McNealy v. Verizon Support Ctr./Sedgwick Claims Mgmt. Servs., 79 So.3d 192 (Fla. 1st DCA 2012) (setting forth the standard of review governing statutory construction); R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Martin, 53 So.3d 1060, 1071 (Fla. 1st DCA 2010) (noting that the consideration of whether the right to due process has been violated is to be conducted de novo).

Established rules of statutory construction demand that when interpreting a statute, courts should give terms their plain meaning. Carmack v. State, Dep’t. of Agric., 31 So.3d 798, 800 (Fla. 1st DCA 2009). When the plain meaning of a statute is clear, a court should look no further than the language of the statute. Wolf v. Progressive Am. Ins. Co., 34 So.3d 81, 81 (Fla. 1st DCA 2010). Accordingly, we begin our analysis with a review of the pertinent statutes.

Pursuant to section 197.522(l)(a), Florida Statutes (2009), the tax deed sale process begins with notification by certified or registered mail to certain persons identified in section 197.502(4), Florida Statutes (2009), including any legal titleholder of record. This notification must advise the recipient that an application for a tax deed has been made, and it must be mailed at least twenty days before the date of the sale. § 197.522(l)(a). Additionally, section 197.512(1), Florida Statutes (2009), mandates that after a tax certificate has been acquired and all fees connected therewith are paid, “the clerk shall publish a notice once each week for 4 consecutive weeks at weekly intervals in a newspaper selected as provided in s. 197.402.”

Section 197.542(2), Florida Statutes (2009), requires that at the time of the sale, the high bidder pay five percent of the bid or $200.00, whichever is greater. The statute further requires that the high bidder tender full payment of the balance of the bid, plus taxes and costs, within twenty-four hours of the sale. § 197.542(2). The high bidder’s failure to comply with these obligations requires the clerk to cancel the sale and readvertise a new tax deed sale of the property. Id. Section 197.542(3), Florida Statutes (2009), describes the procedure and notice require- *1213 merits for all necessary resales due to cancellation of the first sale. It provides in pertinent part as follows:

[T]he clerk shall immediately readver-tise the sale to be held within BO days after the date the sale was canceled. Only one advertisement is necessary. No further notice is required ... The clerk must receive full payment before the issuance of the tax deed.

§ 197.542(3) Fla. Stat. (2009).

Appellants do not assert any deficiency in the notice they received about the initial tax deed application and date of sale. Their only complaint is that they were not given similar notice of the second tax deed sale. However, Appellants cite no statutory language or case law suggesting that section 197.522(l)(a) has any application to notification of any tax deed sales following a cancellation of the first one. The fact that the Legislature enacted a separate section prescribing the clerk’s notification duties for all subsequent tax deed sales belies Appellants’ claim that section 197.522(l)(a) applies. See § 197.542(2) Fla. Stat. (2009) (requiring the clerk to “readvertise the sale as provided in this section,” rather than section 197.522). In section 197.542(3), the Legislature uses clear and unequivocal language in setting forth the requirements for a second sale; namely, the clerk must read-vertise the sale once, the new sale must take place within 30 days of the canceled sale, and no other notice is necessary. The Legislature’s precise description of the initial notice requirements in section 197.522(l)(a) indicates that it knew how to put in specific language as to re-notification in the event an initial sale is canceled and a second sale necessitated. Cf. K.J.F. v. State, 44 So.3d 1204, 1210 (Fla. 1st DCA 2010) (comparing statutes to illustrate that the inclusion of a certain requirement in one circumstance and the omission of it in another indicates that the Legislature intended not to impose the requirement where it did not expressly so state). That the Legislature did not include any language to the effect that titleholders must be re-notified through certified mail of any subsequent tax deed sales suggests that it did not believe such notice was necessary.

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Bluebook (online)
82 So. 3d 1211, 2012 WL 955506, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 4483, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/srygley-v-capital-plaza-inc-fladistctapp-2012.