50 Fla. L. Weekly D2614a MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Appellant, v. MICHELLE MARTIN, Appellee. 3rd District. Case No. 3D24-2079. L.T. Case No. 20-14464-CA-01. December 10, 2025. An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Barbara Areces, Judge. Counsel: Geraldine Bonzon-Keenan, Miami-Dade County Attorney, and Richard Schevis, Assistant County Attorney, for appellant. William C. Robinson, for appellee. Read More »
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Civil procedure — Complaint — Amendment — Denial — Trial court erred by denying plaintiff’s motion for leave to file third amended complaint and dismissing plaintiff’s second amended complaint with prejudice — Plaintiff should have been granted another opportunity to amend where no trial had been set, neither party had engaged in any discovery, and defendant did not allege that she would be prejudiced by the amendment, that the privilege to amend had been abused, or that amendment would be futile — Attorneys — Sanctions — Misquoting caselaw — Fictitious citations — Defendant’s appellate counsel fundamentally abdicated her duty to the court and her client when she submitted a filing without verifying that the cases cited in her brief said what counsel claimed they said, or that they existed at all — Ethical requirements are not excused simply because a computer program generated a faulty or misleading analysis — Matter referred to Florida Bar
50 Fla. L. Weekly D2609a VIOLA RUSSELL, Appellant, v. LINDA BURNELL MELLS, Appellee. 2nd District. Case No. 2D2024-1560. December 10, 2025. Appeal from the Circuit Court for Pinellas County; Cynthia J. Newton, Judge. Counsel: Viola Russell, pro se. Sara Evelyn McLane, Largo, for Appellee. (LUCAS, Chief Judge.) This opinion addresses two issues. The first, a Read More »
Torts — Premises liability — Leased premises — Third-party criminal misconduct — Duty to warn — Foreseeability — Action filed by tenant who was shot by a third party alleging that landlord failed to warn tenant that a dangerous condition existed when it knew or reasonably should have known that the leased premises constituted a high crime area — Trial court did not err by denying landlord’s motion for a directed verdict on question of duty — While a landowner does not generally owe a duty to protect against unforeseeable criminal misconduct on its property, landowner does owe a duty to protect an invitee from criminal acts of a third party where the invitee proves that the landowner had actual or constructive knowledge of prior, similar criminal acts committed upon invitees — Given “special relationship” between a landlord and tenant, the landlord has a duty to protect a tenant from reasonably foreseeable criminal conduct by warning tenants about those foreseeable acts — No error in denying motion for directed verdict on foreseeability issue as it relates to landlord’s duty where, even ignoring evidence of crimes that took place on landlord’s other properties which landlord admittedly knew about, there was evidence that many similar crimes had occurred in the neighborhood in the several years prior to the attack on plaintiff — Jurors — Misconduct — Trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying motion for new trial asserting juror misconduct based on multiple jurors sharing notes about landlord’s damages expert — Although passing notes between jurors was improper and prejudice is presumed, presumption of prejudice was sufficiently rebutted by trial court’s questioning of jurors and explicit instructions given by the trial court thereafter
50 Fla. L. Weekly D2585b DAMA HOLDING LLC, Appellant, v. JUAN GUELMES, Appellee. 3rd District. Case No. 3D24-0684. L.T. Case No. 15-19010-CA-01. December 3, 2025. An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Charles Kenneth Johnson, Judge. Counsel: GrayRobinson, P.A., and Jack R. Reiter; GrayRobinson, P.A., and Kristie Hatcher-Bolin (Lakeland), for appellant. The Reyes Read More »
Insurance — Homeowners — Bad faith — Civil remedy notice — Deficient notice — Extracontractual damages — Waiver — Trial court erred by entering summary judgment in favor of insurer based on finding that CRN was deficient because it asked for extra-contractual damages in form of attorney’s fees and costs — Discussion of supreme court’s decision in Talat Enterprise, Inc. v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. — Insurer waived argument that CRN was deficient for demanding extracontractual damages where insurer failed to raise issue in its response to CRN or any other time before arguing its motion for summary judgment four years later
50 Fla. L. Weekly D2563a CHAD FRISCO and MONIQUE FRISCO, Appellants, v. STATE FARM FLORIDA INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellee. 2nd District. Case No. 2D2024-0464. December 3, 2025. Appeal from the Circuit Court for Pasco County; Declan P. Mansfield, Judge. Counsel: Blair M. Fazzio and Jeffrey D. Groover of Kanner & Pintaluga, P.A., Boca Raton, for Appellants. Read More »
Attorney’s fees — Proposal for settlement — Under 2018 statute applicable to instant case, proposal for settlement that requested a release was not enforceable where proposal did not attach or summarize terms of release
50 Fla. L. Weekly D2575a JARED SCHMELZER, Appellant, v. DEAN FRANKEL, Appellee. 3rd District. Case Nos. 3D24-1363 & 3D25-0139. L.T. Case No. 17-25652-CA-01. December 3, 2025. Appeals from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Valerie R. Manno Schurr, Judge. Counsel: Lawson Huck Gonzalez, PLLC, and Jason B. Gonzalez, Mathew D. Gutierrez and Carlos Haag (Tallahassee), Read More »