Cuba Aeropostal Agency, Inc. v. Kane, 61-862

• Decision Date: 23 October 1962
• Docket Number: No. 61-862,61-862
• Citation: 145 So.2d 764
• Parties: CUBA AEROPOSTAL AGENCY, INC., Appellant, v. Terry KANE, doing business as Agencio de Tractores y Equipos, S. A., and individually; Terry Kane, H. A. Kane and Louis Kane, as successors to the last Board of Directors of Agencio de Tractores y Equipos, S. A., and as holders of a majority of stock of said inoperative former corporation on behalf of all stockholders thereof, Appellees.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 764

145 So.2d 764

CUBA AEROPOSTAL AGENCY, INC., Appellant, v. Terry KANE, doing business as Agencio de Tractores y Equipos, S. A., and individually; Terry Kane, H. A. Kane and Louis Kane, as successors to the last Board of Directors of Agencio de Tractores y Equipos, S. A., and as holders of a majority of stock of said inoperative former corporation on behalf of all stockholders thereof, Appellees.

No. 61-862.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

Oct. 23, 1962.

Shutts, Bowen, Simmons, Prevatt & Boureau and Christopher C. Larimore, Miami, for appellant.

No appearance for appellees.

Before PEARSON, TILLMAN, C. J., and CARROLL and HENDRY, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

This is an appeal by Cuba Aeropostal Agency, Inc., a Florida corporation, one of the defendants in a law action commenced by attachment of certain of appellant's property. The final judgment reads, in pertinent part, as follows:

'CONSIDERED, ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that the attachment issued in the above styled cause be and the same is hereby declared to be good and valid, and the traverse of Cuba Aeropostal Agency, Inc. to said attachment is hereby denied. It is further

'CONSIDERED, ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that there being no property or assets in this cause other than the goods and chattels under attachment, nor there being no direct relationship between the Plaintiff and the defendant, Cuba Aeropostal Agency, Inc., a Florida corporation, other than by virtue of said attachment, it is therefore adjudged that there is no basis for the entry of a money judgment against the defendant, Cuba Aeropostal Agency, Inc., a Florida corporation, and they are forthwith discharged and dismissed in the above styled cause. It is further

'CONSIDERED, ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that the Sheriff of Dade County is hereby authorized and directed to forthwith proceed to sell that certain personalty, held under attachment by the Sheriff of Dade County in the above styled cause and subsequently stored in the Hadco Bonded Warehouse, at public sale pursuant to the Florida Statutes by publishing said notice of sale two weeks, and upon conducting said sale and deducting the proper and necessary costs related to said attachment and sale, to pay over the monies realized therefrom to the plaintiff, or their Attorneys, Richard G. Taylor or Richard B. Bergstresser, forthwith.'

From the record it appears that until October of 1960 plaintiff-appellees were operating a business in Cuba. At that time the corporate assets were confiscated by the Castro dictatorship. The agency used for the seizure of appellees' property was the National Institute of Agrarian Reform--an arm of the Castro regime. Appellant, Cuba Aeropostal Agency, Inc., had carried on business activities in Florida for some years before the advent of the Castro government. The dictatorship which took over the government of Cuba exercised a large degree of control over the assets and the affairs of the appellant, Florida corporation.

The plaintiff-appellees instituted an action in the courts of the State of Florida to recover for the expropriation of its assets. The...