Radio Communications Corp. v. Oki Electronics of America, Inc., 71--537
| Decision Date | 10 May 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. 71--537,71--537 |
| Citation | 277 So.2d 289 |
| Parties | RADIO COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION, a Florida corporation; Thomas J. Brennan, d/b/a Radio Communications Corporation and Thomas J. Brennan, jointly and Individually as Guarantor, Appellants, v. OKI ELECTRONICS OF AMERICA, INC., a Florida corporation, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Ralph P. Ezzo and Thomas J. Brennan, Miami, for appellants.
No appearance for appellee.
This is an appeal from an order by the trial court which was entered on 14 June 1971 striking the defendants' answer and counterclaim because of the failure on the part of defendants' attorneys to appear for a pre-trial conference on 25 May 1971.
The action was commenced by the filing of a complaint in the Circuit Court for Broward County, Florida. The complaint sought to recover for goods sold by the plaintiff to the defendants. The defendants' answer set up various defenses and a counterclaim for damages for breach of warranty. After a mass of pleadings and one interlocutory appeal, the trial court entered an order setting the cause for a pre-trial conference on 13 May 1971. The record before us indicates that no further orders were entered rescheduling the pre-trial conference, but plaintiff filed a motion to strike defendants' pleadings on the ground that defendants failed to appear at a pre-trial conference on 25 May 1971 at 10:30 a.m. The trial court found that the pre-trial conference was rescheduled for the date mentioned in the motion at the request of and to accommodate the defendants, whose attorneys failed to appear. As a result, the trial court granted the motion and struck the answer and counterclaim. This order is the subject of the present appeal.
From a procedural standpoint, it appears to us that the order striking defendants' pleadings is not a final judgment which will support a full appeal nor is it an order in a cause formerly cognizable in equity so as to support an interlocutory appeal. We may, however, within our statutory discretion (§ 59.45, F.S.1971, F.S.A.), treat the notice of appeal as a petition for a writ of certiorari and review the order on that basis.
The appellants do not contest the authority of the trial court to strike pleadings for failure of a party to appear at a pre-trial conference. The appellants' position is that the trial court abused its discretion because no order was entered rescheduling the pre-trial conference from 13 May to 25...
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