YVERN JONES v. IVY M. REID

• Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida
• Decided: April 12, 2023
• Docket: 22-2209
• Status: Published

Opinion

Third District Court of Appeal State of Florida

Opinion filed April 12, 2023.

________________

No. 3D22-2209 Lower Tribunal No. 22-32498 CC ________________

Yvern Jones, Appellant,

vs.

Ivy M. Reid, Appellee.

An Appeal from the County Court for Miami-Dade County, Gloria Gonzalez-Meyer, Judge.

Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc., and Jeffrey M. Hearne, Kathryn Mesa, and Alexander Weintraub, for appellant.

Ivy M. Reid, in proper person.

Before EMAS, SCALES and LINDSEY, JJ.

EMAS, J. Yvern Jones (“Tenant”) appeals from a Final Judgment for Removal of

Tenant following an eviction complaint filed by Ivy M. Reid (“Landlord”).

Upon our review of the record, and Landlord’s pleading (which we treat as a

confession of error), we reverse the final judgment and remand for further

proceedings.

In response to Landlord’s eviction complaint, Tenant timely filed an

answer and affirmative defenses as well as a motion for determination of

rent. The answer denied the material allegations of the complaint; the

affirmative defenses raised legal and equitable defenses, including a claim

of retaliatory eviction; and moved for a determination of rent, alleging that

Tenant was a “Section 8 voucher participant” and requesting the trial court

determine how much (if any) rent Tenant was required to deposit into the

registry of the court.

Landlord thereafter filed a motion requesting the court enter a default

final judgment, asserting as a basis that Tenant “has not vacated the

premises as requested in the complaint.” The timely answer and affirmative

defenses, and the motion to determine rent (as well as Landlord’s motion to

strike answer and enter default) all remained pending when the trial court,

without a hearing, entered an unelaborated Final Judgment for Removal of

Tenant. Tenant sought rehearing and moved to vacate the default final

2 judgment, which was denied, but the trial court stayed the writ of possession

during the pendency of this appeal.

Given the procedural posture of the case, the trial court’s entry of final

judgment was erroneous. See Crawford v. Grubb, 337 So. 3d 521 (Fla. 2d

DCA 2022) (reversing final judgment of eviction, where trial court

prematurely entered a default final judgment after tenant filed a timely

answer and affirmative defenses). See also Axen v. Poah Cutler Manor, LLC,

323 So. 3d 800, 801 (Fla. 3d DCA 2021) (reversing final judgment of eviction

because “the undisposed-of motion to determine rent precluded entry of final

judgment”); Prince v. MCR Apts. 1, LLC, 326 So. 3d 228 (Fla. 3d DCA 2021)

(reversing final judgment of eviction when motion to determine rent remained

pending and unresolved).

We therefore reverse and remand with directions to vacate the default

final judgment and for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.