SUNNY SOUTH AIRCRAFT SERVICE, INC., A FLORIDA CORPORATION, APPELLANT,
v.
INVERSIONES, 1120 C.A., A VENEZUELAN CORPORATION, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 1983-12-14
No. 81-1061
DOWNEY and BERANEK, JJ., concur., WALDEN, J., dissents without opinion.
443 So. 2d 216 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1983)

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.


Holding

The court held that the trial judge did not abuse his discretion in denying the motion to vacate the default judgment.


Facts & Procedural History

The defendant failed to answer a complaint, leading to a clerk's default. The defendant later filed a motion to vacate the default judgment, which was…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

The defendant, Sunny South Aircraft, appeals a non-final order denying its motion to vacate a default judgment. Several points are raised on appeal and after careful consideration, we affirm the trial court’s order. The complaint in this case was filed on July 2, 1980. Service was made on the corporation on July 8, 1980, by delivering a copy to the defendant corporation’s vice president. The defendant failed to file an answer or any other paper and a clerk’s default was entered on September 18, 1980. On November 23,1980, a notice for trial on the issue of damages was issued. Almost two months later, on January 9, 1981, an unsworn motion to vacate the default judgment was filed by the defendant. It was not accompanied by any affidavits or meritorious defenses, and the excusable neglect was blamed on complex corporate turmoil.

After a series of delays, the hearing on the motion was held on June 2, 1981. At that hearing the defendant submitted an affidavit containing grounds for the excusable neglect and the meritorious defenses. Unlike the motion filed in January, 1981, the primary excuse given was the confusion caused by the death of their attorney. Said affidavit was signed by the president of the corporation on June 2,1981, the date of the hearing and almost six months after the initial motion was filed.

When all the facts of this case are considered, we cannot find that the trial judge abused his discretion in denying the motion to vacate judgment.

AFFIRMED.

DOWNEY and BERANEK, JJ., concur. WALDEN, J., dissents without opinion.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw