West Brook Isles Partner's 1, LLC v. Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company

163 So. 3d 635, 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 6027, 2015 WL 1874453
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedApril 24, 2015
Docket2D13-6165
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 163 So. 3d 635 (West Brook Isles Partner's 1, LLC v. Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company) 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
West Brook Isles Partner's 1, LLC v. Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company, 163 So. 3d 635, 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 6027, 2015 WL 1874453 (Fla. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

LaROSE, Judge.

West Brook Isles Partner’s 1, LLC (WBI), appeals the final summary judgments entered in favor of Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company, Navaretta & Navaretta, P.A., and Stephen Navaretta, Esquire. We have jurisdiction. See Fla. R. App. P. 9.030(b)(1)(A). WBI sued the appellees for a real estate transaction that allegedly went bad. After carefully reviewing the record and with the benefit of oral argument, we affirm. We write to explain why the applicable statute of limitations bars WBI’s claims.

In 2004, WBI purchased from TAJ Development, Inc., five parcels in an undeveloped condominium project, Westbrook Isles. Allegedly, WBI thought it was buying vacant, unencumbered raw land. WBI intended to build condominium units on the land; but, if that was not economically feasible, WBI would develop the land for other uses. Seemingly, TAJ also believed it was selling unencumbered raw land. However, by virtue of a 1995 Fourth Amendment to the Declarations of Condominium, the parcels rested in the condominium form of ownership. Indeed, Mr. Navaretta prepared and recorded the condominium documents when he counseled the original developer, a joint venture of WBI and TAJ. The joint venture was dissolved in 2003, and TAJ, the seller here, acquired the parcels. The parcels remained undeveloped.

When WBI bought the parcels in 2004 from TAJ, Mr. Navaretta represented WBI; he also served as Commonwealth’s title agent. His law firm, Navaretta & Navaretta, P.A., was the closing agent. Our record contains an August 25, 2004, title search report describing the property as phased condominium units. An executed title commitment, dated August 25, 2004, describes the property as twenty condominium units in phases 2, 7, 8, 9, and 10 of Westbrook Isles Condominium. It notes twenty 2003 real property tax payments for each unit.

The September 21, 2004, purchase and sale agreement refers to the property as “Phases 2, 7, 8, 9, and 10 Westbrook Isles Condominium.” The agreement provides that “Seller agrees to sell, and Buyer agrees to purchase the Land, together with all of Seller’s right, title and interest (if any) in and to all easements, develop *637 ments, rights and permits and other appurtenances incidental to the Land.” The agreement addresses condominium dues and assessments. On September 29, 2004, Mr. Navaretta sent the August 25 title commitment to Doug East, WBI’s agent who had signed the purchase and sale agreement. Mr. Navaretta also sent a copy of the title commitment to TAJ.

On September 22 and 23, 2004, Mr. Na-varetta sent Commonwealth the metes- and-bounds descriptions for each parcel, “relevant to [the] title search.” Our record contains an unexecuted title commitment package reflecting these metes-and-bounds descriptions.

The October 28, 2004, warranty deed, interestingly, notes that the property is “[s]ubject to condominium documentation, restrictions, reservations and easements of record.... ” Our record, includes the note of a TAJ representative observing that the warranty deed needed correction to properly identify the property. Although Mr. Navaretta testified that he was entitled to rely on the legal description that the Commonwealth title search provided, he later realized that “the recording data was not complete.” He claimed that the conveyed property was phases and undeveloped units'of a condominium project.

Mr. Navaretta rerecorded a second copy of the warranty deed on November 4, 2004. A notation states as follows: “Subject to condominium documentation, restrictions, reservations and easements of record, if any, and taxes subsequent to December 31, 2003.” The January 15, 2005, Commonwealth title insurance policy describes the property as condominiums by phase. A March 2006 mortgage on the property, involving WBI and one of its members, also described the property as twenty “units” within phases and buildings subject to a declaration of condominium. Our record seems clear that at closing, WBI purchased condominiums in a project yet to be developed.

WBI admits that it did not read the key transaction documents, claiming instead that it relied on Mr. Navaretta and his law firm. Mr. Navaretta, for his part, testified that WBI knew it was purchasing only phases in a condominium project.

After the October 2004, closing, WBI marketed the condominium units it planned to build. By August 2006, however, souring market conditions compelled WBI to abandon its sales efforts. When the 2006 mortgage was foreclosed in 2009, the complaint described the property as twenty condominium units. WBI claims that in late 2010 it finally realized it did not own unencumbered raw land. WBI demanded relief from Mr. Navaretta and Commonwealth.

In June 2011, Commonwealth sued WBI for declaratory relief. The complaint alleged (1) that Commonwealth issued a title policy to WBI; (2) that WBI submitted a claim alleging that the warranty deed’s legal description was incorrect and did not match the description in the policy; (3) that WBI claimed that Commonwealth was responsible for the alleged failings of Mr. Navaretta and his law firm; and that (4) Commonwealth procured a corrective warranty deed with the policy’s property description and offered to record it to exercise its right under the policy to correct the alleged title defect. Commonwealth asked the trial court to find that it had fully complied with its policy obligations.

WBI filed a counterclaim against Commonwealth on September 16, 2011, and joined Mr. Navaretta and his law firm as counterclaim defendants. WBI’s Third Amended Counterclaim included three counts against Commonwealth for breach of fiduciary duty and constructive fraud as closing agent and breach of contract for *638 the title commitment; three counts against Mr. Navaretta for legal malpractice, fraud, and constructive fraud in his capacity as WBI’s attorney; and two counts against the law firm for constructive fraud and breach of fiduciary duty in its role as closing agent. Mr. Navaretta, his law firm, and Commonwealth pleaded an affirmative defense that the statutes of limitations barred WBI’s claims.

Absent tolling of the statute of limitations, WBI had two years from the October 2004 closing to sue Mr. Navaretta. See § 95.11(4)(a), Fla. Stat. (2004) (two-year limitation for professional malpractice, whether based on contract or tort). For the constructive fraud and breach-of-fiduciary-duty claims against the law firm and Commonwealth, WBI should have sued by 2008. See §§ 95.11(3)(j),(o) (four-year limitations). For the breach-of-contract claim against Commonwealth, WBI should have sued by 2009. See § 95.11(2)(b) (five-year limitation). WBI waited too long; it filed its counterclaim in September 2011.

Mr. Navaretta, his law firm, and Commonwealth moved for summary judgment, asserting that WBI’s claims were time-barred. They argued that WBI knew or should have known by February 2005, when Mr. Navaretta sent WBI the closing documents, and certainly no later than March 2006, when WBI referred to the property in the mortgage as twenty “condominium units,” that it had not purchased unencumbered raw land. Even if WBI were deemed not to have known until March 2006, an outer limit of five years for Commonwealth’s alleged breach of contract would have been March 2011, months before WBI filed its counterclaim.

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Bluebook (online)
163 So. 3d 635, 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 6027, 2015 WL 1874453, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/west-brook-isles-partners-1-llc-v-commonwealth-land-title-insurance-fladistctapp-2015.