Unique Caterers, Inc. v. Rudy's Farm Co.

338 So. 2d 1067, 1976 Fla. LEXIS 4561
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedSeptember 23, 1976
Docket48032
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 338 So. 2d 1067 (Unique Caterers, Inc. v. Rudy's Farm Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Unique Caterers, Inc. v. Rudy's Farm Co., 338 So. 2d 1067, 1976 Fla. LEXIS 4561 (Fla. 1976).

Opinion

338 So.2d 1067 (1976)

UNIQUE CATERERS, INC., Etc., Appellant,
v.
RUDY'S FARM COMPANY, Etc., Appellee.

No. 48032.

Supreme Court of Florida.

September 23, 1976.
Rehearing Denied November 22, 1976.

Seymour Kaplan of Heller & Kaplan, Miami, for appellant.

Lucien C. Proby, Jr., of Pallot, Stern, Proby & Adkins, Miami, for appellee.

Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., and Thomas A. Harris, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State of Florida, intervenor.

*1068 BOYD, Justice.

We have for our review an order of the Circuit Court, Eleventh Judicial Circuit, in which the court acting in its appellate capacity passed on the constitutional validity of Chapter 76, Florida Statutes, upholding it as constitutional. We have jurisdiction.[1]

Rudy's Farm Company filed a complaint on an account stated against Unique Caterers, Inc., a Florida corporation, in the County Court in and for Dade County, Florida. Attached to the complaint was a copy of a statement supported by invoices which showed a debt owed to Rudy's Farm by Unique of $1,630.61. Recovery of this amount plus interest was sought in the complaint.

At the same time the complaint was filed a Motion for Issuance of a Writ of Attachment was filed[2] pursuant to Section 76.09, Florida Statutes. The motion was not supported by an affidavit, nor is an affidavit required under the statute. A writ of attachment was issued by the Clerk of the County Court ordering the seizure of so much of the property of Unique Caterers as would satisfy a judgment of $1,630.61. Sufficient personalty of the defendant was seized by the Sheriff of Dade County. A Motion to Dissolve Attachment was denied by the County Court and the cause proceeded to trial before a jury. A directed verdict was entered by the trial court in favor of the plaintiff. Defendant appealed both the denial of its dissolution motion, claiming Chapter 76, Florida Statutes, to be unconstitutional, and the judgment for plaintiff to the Circuit Court, whose order we now review.

The order affirmed the judgment and found Chapter 76 to be constitutional. Our review of the record reveals no basis for reversing the Circuit Court's affirmance of the judgment. The constitutionality of Chapter 76 presents a much more difficult issue.

The question before us is whether the procedures of Florida's attachment statute, Chapter 76, Florida Statutes, violate the United States Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment guarantee that no state shall deprive any person of property without due process of law.

For many years the commercial statutes of the states were thought to be unassailable by due process attacks. Consistent with this view the Supreme Court of the United States upheld prejudgment attachment statutes. McKay v. McInnes, 279 U.S. 820, 49 S.Ct. 344, 73 L.Ed. 975 (1929); Coffin Bros. v. Bennett, 277 U.S. 29, 48 S.Ct. 422, 72 L.Ed. 768 (1928); Ownbey v. Morgan, 256 U.S. 94, 41 S.Ct. 433, 65 L.Ed. 837 (1921). But recently the concepts of due process have been expanded by the United States Supreme Court and the expansion entered the field of commercial law in Sniadach v. Family Finance Corp., 395 U.S. 337, 89 S.Ct. 1820, 23 L.Ed.2d 349 (1969). There it was held that, absent prior notice and hearing, prejudgment garnishment procedures violate fundamental principles of due process. The Court seemed to be limiting its holding to garnishment,

"We deal here with wages — a specialized type of property presenting distinct problems in our economic system." Id at 340, 89 S.Ct. at 1822.

Nevertheless Sniadach opened the door to due process attacks on commercial statutes which protect creditors by prejudgment deprivation of a debtor's property.

The concept of procedural due process as it relates to commercial statutes was further expanded in Fuentes v. Shevin, 407 U.S. 67, 92 S.Ct. 1983, 32 L.Ed.2d 556 (1972), where the replevin statutes of this State and Pennsylvania came under attack. The statutes authorized the summary seizure of *1069 goods and chattels upon the ex parte application of a person out-of-possession who claimed a right to them and posted a security bond. The core of procedural due process was stated to be that parties whose rights are affected are entitled to be heard, which includes the right to notice, and that hearing and notice rights must be meaningful both as to time and manner. The purpose of meaningful notice and hearing was said to be to minimize unfair or mistaken deprivation of property, and this purpose applied to not just the "necessities of life" as Sniadach might have indicated but to "property" generally. Meaningful notice and hearing was determined to be prior hearing and notice, where replevin was concerned, and so the replevin statutes of this State and Pennsylvania which did not provide for prior hearing were held to work a deprivation of property without due process of law. The power of the State to seize goods before final judgment in order to secure creditors' interests was not questioned as long as the claims were tested in a fair prior hearing. The Court recognized that there are extraordinary circumstances which justify postponement of notice and hearing but the examples cited by the Court: collection of internal revenue of the United States; fulfilling needs of a war effort; protection against a bank failure, misbranded drugs or contaminated food; are, as described by the Court, "truly unusual." Id at 90, 92 S.Ct. 1983.

Were we afforded only Fuentes as authority for decision in this case we would probably hold the challenged attachment statute unconstitutional for failure to require prior notice and hearing, even though such a holding might seem to defeat, in part, the remedy the statute offers. The grounds on which a writ of attachment will issue[3] do not seem to fit into those "extraordinary circumstances" which justify postponement of an opportunity to be heard, though it might be noted that the Court referred to immediate danger that a debtor will destroy or conceal disputed goods as an unusual situation. Id at 93, 92 S.Ct. 1983. At any rate, the Court has handed down two post-Fuentes decisions which appear to initially recede from and then partially revive Fuentes: Mitchell v. W.T. Grant, 416 U.S. 600, 94 S.Ct. 1895, 40 L.Ed.2d 406 (1974) and North Georgia Finishing Inc. v. Di-Chem Inc., 419 U.S. 601, 95 S.Ct. 719, 42 L.Ed.2d 751 (1975). Their effect on "prior hearing" requirements is not crystal clear. Requirements of prior hearing aside, it is clear that an objectionable aspect of the Fuentes replevin statutes was that a private party could invoke the statute unilaterally, without any review by a state official and this objection to prejudgment lien statutes was voiced again by the Court in Mitchell.

In Mitchell

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Bluebook (online)
338 So. 2d 1067, 1976 Fla. LEXIS 4561, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/unique-caterers-inc-v-rudys-farm-co-fla-1976.