Wise v. Quina

174 So. 2d 590
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedApril 20, 1965
DocketE-306, F-95
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 174 So. 2d 590 (Wise v. Quina) 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
Wise v. Quina, 174 So. 2d 590 (Fla. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

174 So.2d 590 (1965)

R.H. WISE et al., Appellants,
v.
Ignatius C. QUINA and Bertha N. Quina, and Jack M. Merritt, and Dorothea L. Merritt, Appellees.
R.J. BROWN, Appellant,
v.
Ignatius C. QUINA, and Bertha N. Quina, husband and wife, Appellees.

Nos. E-306, F-95.

District Court of Appeal of Florida. First District.

April 20, 1965.
Rehearing Denied May 20, 1965.

*591 Coe & Coe, Pensacola, for appellants.

Robinson & Roark, Beggs, Lane, Daniel, Gaines & Davis, and James E. Hertz, of Fisher & Hepner, Pensacola, for appellees.

CARROLL, DONALD K., Judge.

In two companion cases involving recreational rights appurtenant to a real estate subdivision, the plaintiffs have appealed from a final decree and a summary final judgment entered by the Circuit Court for Escambia County.

The first of these companion cases is a suit in equity which was filed by R.H. Wise, R.J. Brown, and 13 other purchasers of lots in the said subdivision, seeking a declaration that they are entitled to the said recreational rights, and seeking injunctive and other equitable relief. The *592 second case is an action at law, originally filed by 13 of the said 15 plaintiffs (but later all but one of them, R.J. Brown, withdrew as parties plaintiff), demanding damages for their loss of such rights.

These two cases arose out of the same factual background. They have been consolidated for purposes of oral argument on this appeal and will be treated together in this opinion. This common factual background, as reflected in the record and in the chancellor's findings of fact in his final decree in the equity case, is essentially as follows:

In 1949 Ignatius C. Quina and his wife, Bertha N. Quina, who were defendants in both cases and who will hereinafter be referred to as the Quinas, filed in the public records of Escambia County a plat of a subdivision known as "Quinavista," which plat was approved by the Board of Commissioners of the said county. One of the lots delineated on the plat was an area described therein as "Beach Block 7," which area lies between the residential lots and a navigable body of water known as Big Lagoon, being immediately contiguous to the said body of water.

After filing their plat the Quinas sold to various persons the residential lots also delineated on the plat. Among such purchasers were the persons who later filed the two actions involved in this appeal. In making these sales Ignatius Quina represented to the said purchasers that Beach Block 7 was to be devoted in perpetuity to the use of the purchasers and owners of the residential lots in the subdivision as a beach area, a recreation ground, and as an access to the waters of Big Lagoon. In the words of the chancellor in his final decree, the "said representations were a substantial factor in inducing plaintiffs and other prospective purchasers to buy lots in said subdivision. * * *"

Despite the said representations, the Quinas on August 3, 1962, conveyed approximately half of Beach Block 7 to Jack M. Merritt and his wife, Dorothea L. Merritt, who were defendants in the equity suit but not in the law action and who will hereinafter be referred to as the Merritts. The Merritts proposed to construct upon the land so purchased a large marina and other large commercial and industrial facilities.

By virtue of the foregoing facts as found by the chancellor from the evidence before him, he held in his final decree that the plaintiffs had "acquired by implied covenant a private easement in said Beach Block 7 as appurtenant to the premises granted and conveyed to them in their several conveyances," and that the Quinas thus became bound to the grantees not to use the said Beach Block 7 other than for the purposes stated in the said representations and "are now estopped to deny said easement * * *."

With respect to the land purchased by the Merritts, however, the chancellor concluded in the final decree that the evidence established that at the time of the said purchase the Merritts "were innocent purchasers for value and that their conveyance is unencumbered by said easement heretofore declared to exist in the plaintiffs herein." The chancellor then concluded that the plaintiffs' prayers for injunctive relief against the Merrits and for the avoidance of the conveyance to the Merritts should be denied and that the suit be dismissed as to the Merritts.

These conclusions of the chancellor concerning the Merritts give rise to the first question raised by the appellants in their appeal from the said final decree. In their brief they express this first question as follows:

"Where a vendor in breach of faith to those to whom he has made binding representations as to the use of a tract, so as to be estopped to divert it from their use, conveys to a third person who is not clearly chargeable with knowledge of the fraud, but who learns thereof when only some $8,000.00, of the purchase price of $34,000.00 has *593 been paid, and while securities given for the remainder are still held by the vendor who is before the court, is he entitled to protection as a bona fide purchaser for value without notice as to the whole of the tract, or only to the extent of his payment?"

With respect to this first question on appeal in the equity case, the plaintiffs-appellants point out that the record shows that the Merritts, shortly before the equity suit was filed and prior to the establishment by any recordable writing evidencing the plaintiffs' rights created by the Quinas' "quasi-dedication, purchased the major portion of Beach Block 7 from the Quinas, but had paid to the Quinas only some $8,000 of the $34,000 purchase price; that the balance of the purchase price was covered by their mortgage and mortgage note payable to the Quinas, in monthly installments; and that, therefore, the Merritts could not be good faith purchasers because, when they received notice of the plaintiffs' claim, they still owed the major portion of the said purchase price. The appellants appropriately concede that, although the evidence was conflicting, there was sufficient evidence from which the chancellor, as the trier of the facts, could lawfully conclude that the Merritts had no notice of the plaintiffs' claim at the time the Merritts purchased the property.

Nevertheless, the appellants contend that the Merritts were not bona fide purchasers for value without notice because of the general rule that, in order to enjoy the rights of bona fide purchasers, the purchase price must be paid before the notice is received. In support of this proposition the appellants cite and rely upon the statements of this rule in 55 Am.Jur., Vendor and Purchaser, Sec. 747, and 92 C.J.S. Vendor and Purchaser § 323d(2), and they also quote from two decisions of the Supreme Court of Florida — Johns v. Seeley, 94 Fla. 851, 114 So. 452 (1927), and Myers v. Van Buskirk, 96 Fla. 704, 119 So. 123 (1928). They quote the following language from the opinion in the latter case, which seems to be the latest expression of a Florida appellate court concerning the rule in question:

"If, however, a purchaser has notice, actual or constructive, of prior adverse rights in the land, before he has paid the purchase price or has become irrevocably bound for its payment, he is not protected as a bona fide purchaser, even though he may have received a deed purporting to convey to him the whole title, both legal and equitable."

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174 So. 2d 590, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wise-v-quina-fladistctapp-1965.