Tucker v. Prevatt Builders, Inc.
| Decision Date | 15 December 1959 |
| Docket Number | No. A-481,A-481 |
| Citation | 116 So.2d 437 |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
| Parties | Luther TUCKER, dba Tucker & Alligood, Appellant, v. PREVATT BUILDERS, INC., a Florida corporation, Scales Investment Corporation, a Florida corporation, Joe H. Scales, Helen P. Scales, Kenneth Curtis and J. B. Hodges, Appellees. |
Horne & Rhodes, Tallahassee, for appellant.
A. K. Black, Lake City, and John H. McCormick, White Springs, for appellees.
Appellant, by an amended complaint filed in chancery, sought to establish an equitable lien against certain described real property formerly owned by one of the defendants and in which the remaining defendants now have or claim some unknown and undisclosed interest. From an order dismissing the amended complaint with prejudice this appeal has been taken.
The sole question presented for our determination is whether the amended complaint states a cause for equitable relief. In resolving this question all allegations contained in the complaint, and all reasonable inference which may be drawn therefrom, are taken as true.
From an analysis of the complaint the following facts clearly appear. Plaintiff as contractor entered into a written agreement with defendant Prevatt Builders, Inc., for the paving of streets and the construction dof curbs in a subdivision known as Spring Lake Heights. Plaintiff performed all the terms and provisions of his contract to the complete satisfaction of the owner, whereby there became due and owing to plaintiff the agreed sum called for in the contract. By the time the contract was completed, the owner was experiencing financial difficulties as a result of which extensive negotiations were carried on between the contractor and owner with regard to the matter of payment. While these negotiations were in progress, and before the owner had paid any sum to the contractor on account of the contract price, the owner became insolvent ceased operation and its assets were placed in the hands of a committee of creditors. Other than the subdivision property improved by the contractor under the terms of the contract abovementioned, the owner had no assets out of which the amount due the contractor could be satisfied.
Throughout the period of negotiations between the contractor and the owner regarding payment, the contractor insisted that he had and was claiming a lien against the improved property for the contract amount due him for labor and materials furnished and services performed in connection with the improvements made. The remaining parties joined as defendants were associated in some manner with the owner in the acquisition and development of the subdivision in question, had full knowledge of plaintiff's contract and the rights accruing to him thereunder, including the fact that no part of the contract price had been paid and that he was claiming a lien on the land as security for the amount due. Notwithstanding all this, the remaining defendants procured from the owner certain written instruments purporting to vest in them title to or other undisclosed interests in certain described portions of the subdivision which were improved by plaintiff under the terms of his construction contract. The complaint prays that the court decree an equitable lien in favor of plaintiff as against those portions of the subdivision improved by him under his contract and specifically described in the complaint; that the lands be sold and so much of the proceeds arising therefrom as may be necessary be applied to the indebtedness owed. The complaint further prays that defendants be decreed to hold whatever right, title or interest they may have acquired from the former owner in trust for payment of the amount due plaintiff under the equitable lien which he claims against the property in question. The complaint further prays for a decree declaring the rights and liabilities of the parties pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 87, Florida Statutes, F.S.A.
All defendants named in the complaint except the former owner Prevatt Builders Inc., filed a motion to...
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General Coffee Corp., In re
...or encumbrance upon it, so that the very thing itself may be proceeded against in an equitable action.... Tucker v. Prevatt Builders, Inc., 116 So.2d 437, 439-40 (Fla.1959); see also Hullum v. Bre-Lew Corp., 93 So.2d 727, 730 (Fla.1957). A constructive trust, on the other hand, is a trust r......
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Golden v. Woodward, 1D08-3324.
...liens become necessary on account of the absence of similar remedies at law." Jones, 106 So. at 128-29; see Tucker v. Prevatt Builders, Inc., 116 So.2d 437, 439 (Fla. 1st DCA 1959). A "vendor's lien," also known as a "grantor's lien," is "a creature of equity, a lien implied to belong to a ......
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Crane Co. v. Fine, 37748
...in direct conflict with Palmer v Edwards, Fla.1951, 51 So.2d 495; Green v. Putnam, Fla.1957, 93 So.2d 378; Tucker v. Prevatt Buildings, Inc., Fla.App.1st 1959, 116 So.2d 437, 438; and Dewing v. Davis, Fla.App.2d 1960, 117 So.2d 747. See also Wood v. Wilson, Fla.1955, 84 So.2d 32, in which w......
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Carman v. Gunn
...v. Carpenter, 1925, 90 Fla. 407, 106 So. 127, 43 A.L.R. 1409; Phelps v. Higgins, Fla.App.1960, 120 So.2d 633; Tucker v. Prevatt Builders, Inc., Fla.App.1959, 116 So.2d 437, and Atlantic Federal Savings and Loan Association v. Kitimat Corporation, Fla.App.1962, 143 So.2d 719, are all authori......