USA Financial Services, Inc. v. Steward

588 So. 2d 299, 1991 Fla. App. LEXIS 10945, 1991 WL 224955
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedNovember 1, 1991
DocketNo. 91-452
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 588 So. 2d 299 (USA Financial Services, Inc. v. Steward) 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
USA Financial Services, Inc. v. Steward, 588 So. 2d 299, 1991 Fla. App. LEXIS 10945, 1991 WL 224955 (Fla. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

SMITH, Judge.

Appellant, USA Financial Services (USA), challenges a final judgment dismissing its complaint in a replevin action seeking possession of a mobile home. Following a judge trial, the lower court entered a final judgment in which it concluded that USA’s perfected security interest in the mobile home was inferior to the interest acquired by appellee Sherman Evans under a final judgment imposing a constructive trust and lien against the mobile home in favor of Evans. We reverse.

Appellant’s claim to the mobile home arose from a transaction in which it loaned money to appellee Charlotte Steward, who then executed a promissory note and a security agreement covering the mobile home.1 On June 27, 1989 appellant’s lien was recorded on Steward’s certificate of title to the mobile home pursuant to section 319.27, Florida Statutes.

Prior to appellant’s transaction with Steward, appellee Evans had loaned money to Steward for the purchase of a certain parcel of land.2 To secure the loan from Evans, Steward had agreed to execute a mortgage on the land after it was purchased; however, Steward failed to perform as agreed. Consequently, in January 1989, appellee Evans filed suit against Steward to impose a constructive trust on the land, and was successful in obtaining a final judgment dated September 22, 1989 awarding him a constructive trust and a mortgage lien on the land. Neither the complaint filed by Evans, the notice of lis pendens, or the September 22, 1989 final judgment mentioned the mobile home.

Subsequent to the conclusion of the Evans litigation, appellant USA filed suit to [301]*301recover possession of the mobile home, alleging default by Steward in her obligations under the promissory note and security agreement. Appellee Evans, also named as a party defendant, was alleged to be the party in possession of the mobile home. Evans answered USA’s complaint, alleging that on or before the time USA obtained its security interest, the mobile home was affixed to and had become a part of the real property upon which it was located, and that Evans had also filed his action for a constructive trust and a notice of lis pendens, prior to the date of USA’s security interest. After a trial before the court on USA’s replevin claim, the court entered a final judgment in favor of USA, but on rehearing, the judgment was set aside, and the final judgment on appeal in favor of Evans was entered.

In the final judgment, the trial court made comprehensive findings of fact before concluding that appellee Evans’ lien under the final judgment for constructive trust was superior to USA’s perfected security interest in the mobile home. The court found that although neither Evans’ complaint nor the Us pendens mentioned the mobile home, it was subsequently established that the mobile home was attached to the real property at the time of the sale to Steward, and that Evans had possession of the mobile home pursuant to a post-judgment writ of attachment subsequently entered for enforcement of the final judgment in his constructive trust action. The court also found that while USA loaned money to appellee Steward and perfected its security interest in the mobile home on June 27, 1989, the claim of Evans under his judgment was nevertheless superior to USA’s claim. On this issue the court concluded:

At all times material hereto, the subject mobile home was affixed and part of the real property. At the time the Defendant, Steward, executed the Note and Security Agreement, the Lis Pendens was filed and Plaintiffs were on actual or constructive notice of Defendant, Sherman Evans’ claim to said property. That the mortgage and lien placed on the real property by the Court’s Final Judgment of September 27,1989, also applied to the mobile home affixed and attached thereto. That the Lien created by the Final Judgment is superior to Plaintiff’s security interest ...

Accordingly, the trial court found that USA was entitled to no relief, and its complaint was dismissed.

On appeal, appellant does not take issue with the findings of fact made by the trial court. Instead, appellant contends that these findings do not support the trial court’s conclusion that USA’s perfected security interest in the mobile home is inferi- or to the claim of Evans under the constructive trust judgment. We agree with appellant’s position, and find that the trial court was in error in concluding that the law affords a basis for the conclusion that USA’s lien is inferior under the facts present here.

We think this case is governed by the plain language of the statute providing for the acquisition of liens on mobile homes. Section 319.27(2), Florida Statutes (1989), provides in part as follows:

(2) No lien for purchase money or as a security for a debt in the form of a security agreement, retain title contract, conditional bill of sale, chattel mortgage, or other similar instrument upon a motor vehicle or mobile home upon which a Florida certificate of title has been issued shall be enforceable in any of the courts of this state against creditors or subsequent purchasers for a valuable consideration and without notice, unless a sworn notice of such lien has been filed in the department and such lien has been noted upon the certificate of title of the motor vehicle or mobile home. Such notice shall be effective as constructive notice when filed. No interest of a statutory nonpossessory lienor; the interest of a nonpossessory execution, attachment, or equitable lienor; or the interest of a lien creditor as defined in s. 679.301(3), if nonpossessory, shall be enforceable against creditors or subsequent purchasers for a valuable consideration unless such interest becomes a possessory lien [302]*302or is noted upon the certificate of title for the subject motor vehicle or mobile home prior to the occurrence of the subsequent transaction....

It is undisputed that USA perfected its security interest in accordance with the statute, by filing its notice of lien with the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, and by having its lien noted on the certificate of title for the mobile home. This occurred on June 27, 1989.3

We find that the trial court was in error in concluding that appellee Evans’ suit for constructive trust and the accompanying lis pendens had the effect of conferring some right or interest in the mobile home upon Evans, or of preventing USA from subsequently becoming a first priority lienor by perfecting its security interest under the statute. Initially, we note that in the context of a dispute under the Uniform Commercial Code, the filing of a notice of lis pendens does not in itself create any interest in the property, nor does it create any superior rights for the litigant who filed the notice. National Bank of Sarasota v. Dugger, 335 So.2d 859, 860 (Fla.2d DCA 1976), cert. denied, 342 So.2d 1101 (Fla.1976). Moreover, the mere fact that the mobile home was affixed to the land sold by Evans to Steward — the land described in his complaint for constructive trust and the lis pendens — has no bearing upon USA’s ability to obtain a security interest in the mobile home from Steward. There is no contention that any person other than Steward was in possession of the mobile home at the time Steward executed the security agreement and USA perfected its security interest.

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588 So. 2d 299, 1991 Fla. App. LEXIS 10945, 1991 WL 224955, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/usa-financial-services-inc-v-steward-fladistctapp-1991.