Dania Jai-Alai Palace, Inc. v. Sykes

• Decision Date: 08 October 1986
• Docket Number: No. 85-1059,JAI-ALAI,85-1059
• Citation: 11 Fla. L. Weekly 2134,495 So.2d 859
• Parties: 11 Fla. L. Weekly 2134 DANIAPALACE, INC., Carrousel Concessions, Inc., and Saturday Corporation, Appellants, v. Gladys SYKES, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 859

495 So.2d 859

11 Fla. L. Weekly 2134

DANIA JAI-ALAI PALACE, INC., Carrousel Concessions, Inc., and Saturday Corporation, Appellants, v. Gladys SYKES, Appellee.

No. 85-1059.

District Court of Appeal of Florida,

Fourth District.

Oct. 8, 1986.

Mercedes C. Busto of Bailey & Dawes, Miami, for appellants.

Gilbert A. Haddad and Gary Gerrard of Haddad, Josephs & Jack, Coral Gables, for appellee.

GLICKSTEIN, Judge.

This is an appeal from a final judgment in favor of plaintiff/appellee. We affirm.

Plaintiff/appellee Gladys Sykes had obtained a judgment in the amount of $775,000 against Dania Jai-Alai Palace, Inc. (Dania), Carrousel Concessions, Inc. (Carrousel), and Saturday Corporation (Saturday). This judgment was reversed and a new trial was ordered by the Florida Supreme Court, 450 So.2d 1114. The court also held as a matter of fact and law that Saturday was not liable to Sykes.

Because of the reversal, appellants moved the trial court for restitution of $600,000 paid to Sykes by appellants' insurers. They sought, also, interest on that money and taxation of appellate costs to Sykes. While these motions were pending, counsel for the appellants and Sykes' counsel discussed possible settlement of their clients' claims against each other.

Appellants were also in process of suing their primary and excess insurers for breach of duty. These insurers had refused to post the supersedeas bond for the appeal, which appellants therefore paid for themselves, or to pay appellate attorneys' fees. The insurers had also each paid the plaintiff $300,000 without the permission or knowledge of the appellants. There had thus been a balance of $175,000 plus interest and costs on the judgment prior to reversal.

According to the evidentiary hearing held January 25, 1985, the attorneys agreed, in an August 15, 1984, conversation, that the parties would settle for $6,000 if there was an exchange of mutual releases that did not objectively prejudice either party. Gilbert A. Haddad, plaintiff/appellee Sykes' attorney, undertook to prepare a mutual general release, and sent a draft copy to defendants/appellants' counsel, William R. Dawes, for editing. Haddad's letter to Dawes of August 15, 1984, purports to confirm the settlement of all claims by or against Mrs. Sykes to be paid by defendants/appellants, and informs Dawes that Haddad has asked a lawyer in his firm, Mr. Gerrard, to prepare a mutual general release that will objectively protect the interests of both sides and send Dawes a draft.

The release that Haddad's office prepared referred to a settlement in the amount of $606,000, and contained a provision under which the defendants would defend and indemnify Mrs. Sykes should the insurance companies seek return to them of the money they had paid her. Appellants opposed an acknowledgment of the payments by the insurers, because it might prejudice their case against the insurers by being construed as a ratification. They also opposed the indemnification provision.

Dawes and Haddad met October 5, 1984. According to Dawes' testimony, he told Haddad at that meeting that the settlement was off. According to Haddad's letter of October 9, he had agreed at the October 5 meeting to delete the indemnity provision; and Dawes had agreed there had been a meeting of the minds regarding the $6000 settlement. Haddad sent a copy of the proposed release, signed by Mrs. Sykes, with Haddad's notation about deletion of the indemnity provision, and said the original release would be delivered in exchange for the $6,000 check and appellants' release to Mrs. Sykes. Haddad's letter authorized Dawes to amend the release to be signed by the appellants. Haddad also wrote that if the check and the release were not received by October 18, 1984, Sykes would move the court to enforce the settlement.

Haddad had apprised the court of a settlement by letter of August 15, 1985. Appellants' counsel Guy B. Bailey, Jr., wrote the court on October 10, 1984, to say that while the attorneys had thought there would be a settlement at the time of Haddad's letter, there had subsequently arisen disagreements that precluded agreement; and there was no settlement.

On October 17, 1984, Mrs. Sykes filed a motion to enforce settlement. The parties submitted briefs and an evidentiary hearing was held. Testimony was received from both Haddad and Dawes, and a deposition by Dawes was also put in evidence, together with various documents and letters.

The trial court entered an order on February 28, 1985, granting plaintiff's motion to enforce settlement. On March 13, 1985, the court entered a final judgment against Dania and Carrousel and in favor of Mrs. Sykes, for $6,000 plus interest, and dismissed the action as to all claims. The appellants moved for rehearing or clarification but the motion was denied. This appeal followed.

The issue is whether the trial court erred in enforcing a settlement, because there had not been a meeting of the minds between the parties as to every essential element, and appellee proposed material variations from the original understandings which constituted a counteroffer and which appellants rejected. We conclude that the court did not err.

The essence of appellants' argument seems to be that there had been only tentative agreement, or agreement only in principle, to a settlement; that the flesh appellee's counsel tried to put on the barebones of the tentative agreement was exceedingly unappetizing to appellants and they could not accept it, and that the court should not have enforced a settlement that had not been reached by the parties. According to appellants, the nature of the differences between what was tentatively agreed to and what appellee tried to insert into the settlement is as follows: the preliminary agreement was that appellants would give appellee $6,000 in satisfaction of her $200,000 or so worth of claims, and there would be a mutual general release; but Sykes then tried to work into the release (1) the $600,000 the appellants' insurers had paid...