CFLB Mgmt., LLC v. Diamond Blue Int'l, Inc.

• Decision Date: 10 February 2021
• Docket Number: No. 3D20-1034,3D20-1034
• Citation: 318 So.3d 589
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals
• Parties: CFLB MANAGEMENT, LLC, Appellant, v. DIAMOND BLUE INTERNATIONAL, INC., et al., Appellees.

318 So.3d 589

CFLB MANAGEMENT, LLC, Appellant,

v.DIAMOND BLUE INTERNATIONAL, INC., et al., Appellees.

No. 3D20-1034

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

Opinion filed February 10, 2021.

Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton, and Corali Lopez-Castro, Dwayne A. Robinson and Michael R. Lorigas, for appellant.

Ava J. Borrasso, P.A., and Ava J. Borrasso, for appellees.

Before SCALES, HENDON and GORDO, JJ.

SCALES, J.

CFLB Management, LLC, a co-defendant below, appeals a June 24, 2020 final order denying its Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.540(b)(5) motion.CFLB Management's motion sought to vacate a June 20, 2019 post-judgment order ("Attorney's Fees Judgment") awarding prevailing party attorney's fees to the appelleesDiamond Blue International, Inc. and Fundacion Lemar, the plaintiffs in the lower proceeding.The trial court concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to adjudicate CFLB Management's rule 1.540(b)(5) motion because: (1)this Court affirmed the entry of final summary judgment as to CFLB Management in Conrad FLB Management, LLC v. Diamond Blue International, Inc., 300 So. 3d 716(Fla. 3d DCA2019)(appellate case number 3D18-2540); and (2) CFLB Management did not timely appeal the Attorney's Fees Judgment while appellate case number 3D18-2540 was pending.Because we conclude, as a matter of law, that the trial court had jurisdiction to adjudicate appellant's rule 1.540(b)(5) motion, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.

I.FACTS

In October 2016, the appellees brought the instant action for breach of two promissory notes against CFLB Management, as borrower, and two other co-defendants who were alleged to also be liable on the unpaid notes.On December 17, 2018, the trial court entered an amended final summary judgment finding all named defendants jointly and severally liable on both unpaid notes, concluding that "[the appellees] may collect this judgment against any one or more Defendants in this action but there shall be no double recovery."The amended final summary judgment further determined that the appellees were entitled to recover prevailing party attorney's fees and costs from the defendants, reserving jurisdiction to assess the amount of attorney's fees and costs at a later date.CFLB Management and the two co-defendants appealed the December 17, 2018 amended final summary judgment to this Court(3D18-2540).

While the appeal was pending, on June 12, 2019, the trial court held an evidentiary hearing to set the amount of prevailing party attorney's fees and costs.Consistent with the fee provisions found in the notes, the trial court entered a June 20, 2019 Attorney's Fees Judgment that awarded the appellees nearly $200,000 in attorney's fees and costs, plus interest, "against all Defendants" and provided that "[the appellees] may collect this judgment against any one or more Defendants in this action but there shall be no double recovery."Neither CFLB Management, nor either of its co-defendants, appealed the Attorney's Fees Judgment.

Nearly five-and-a-half months later, this Court affirmed the entry of the amended final summary judgment as to CFLB Management, but reversed the entry of judgment as to the two co-defendants and remanded for further proceedings.SeeConrad FLB Mgmt., LLC, 300 So. 3d at 721.With the judgment against them reversed, the two co-defendants then filed a rule 1.540(b)(5)¹motion to vacate the derivative Attorney's Fees Judgment.The trial court granted the co-defendants’ motion and vacated the Attorney's Fees Judgment against them.

Sixty-six days after the trial court vacated the Attorney's Fees Judgment as to its co-defendants, CFLB Management then filed its own rule 1.540(b)(5)motion seeking to vacate the Attorney's Fees Judgment against it.Therein, CFLB Management argued that because the Attorney's Fees Judgment "imposed joint and several liability against [all defendants] for all attorney's fees incurred by [the appellees]" and "includes fees that are based on time [the appellees] spent prosecuting their now unsuccessful claims against [the two co-defendants]," the Attorney's Fees Judgment should be vacated and a new evidentiary hearing held "to establish ... what portion of the attorney's fees awarded previously are attributable to time spent establishing the liability of [CFLB] Management under the notes."

On June 17, 2020, the trial court conducted a hearing on CFLB Management's rule 1.540(b)(5) motion.The transcript of that hearing reveals that the trial court was concerned that CFLB Management's motion was not cognizable under the rule because this Court had affirmed, rather than reversed, the trial court's entry of final summary judgment as to CFLB Management.Thus, according to the trial court, prevailing party attorney's fees were properly awarded against CFLB Management and, if CFLB Management had any objection with respect to the Attorney's Fees Judgment, CFLB Management should have appealed the judgment.

Ultimately, the trial court entered the challenged June 24, 2020 order denying CFLB Management's rule 1.540(b)(5) motion, the operative portion of which reads as follows:

ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that the Motion is DENIED .Defendant did not appeal the June 20, 2019 Attorney's Fees Judgment.The Court further finds that it lacks jurisdiction to consider the Motion.SeePenalba v. Penalba, 616 So. 2d 165(Fla. 3d DCA1993).²

CFLB Management timely appeals this order.

II.ANALYSIS³

"[W]hen a merits judgment is reversed or vacated, a judgment for attorneys’ fees flowing from that judgment should be reversed, too, and the mechanism for relief is rule 1.540(b)(5)."Harrington, 187 So. 3d at 885.Thus, the issue presented here is whether the Attorney's Fees Judgment is "based" upon a "prior judgment" that has been "reversed or otherwise vacated."Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.540(b)(5).If it is, then rule 1.540(b)(5) provides the trial court jurisdiction, "upon such terms as are just," to "relieve" CFLB Management of that judgment.Id.

The Attorney's Fees Judgment is plainly based on the December 17, 2018 amended final summary judgment.It awards the appellees all of the fees that they incurred in pursuing their claims against all three defendants in the lower proceeding.Because the Attorney's Fees Judgment also found that all three defendants were jointly and severally liable for the fee award, the judgment did not differentiate, as to each defendant, the fees incurred by the appellees in pursuing their claims.As we reversed the final summary judgment as to CFLB Management's two co-defendants, and because the Attorney's Fee Judgment was plainly "based" on the summary judgment that we reversed, rule 1.540(b)(5) provides the trial court with express jurisdiction to revisit the Attorney's Fee...