JARRET HONAHAN
v.
KAREN BURGESON
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The appellate court dismissed an appeal challenging an order that denied a motion to enforce a settlement agreement. The court found the order nonfinal and nonappealable because it lacked specific findings of fact or conclusions of law required to establish appellate jurisdiction.
No, an order denying a motion to enforce a settlement agreement without specific findings or conclusions does not definitively establish that the agreement is unenforceable as a matter of law, and therefore, it is not a final, appealable order.
[1] A trial court's bare denial of a motion to enforce a settlement agreement without findings of fact and conclusions of law does not constitute a final, appealable order un…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“Because the order does not determine "that, as a matter of law, [the] settlement agreement is unenforceable, is set aside, or never existed," we dismiss this appeal as from a nonfinal, nonappealable order.”
This quote establishes the primary reason for dismissing the appeal, linking the lack of specific findings to the nonfinal nature of the order.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceJarret Honahan appealed an order denying his motion to enforce a settlement agreement in a lawsuit between himself and Karen Burgeson. The order did n…
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BLACK, Judge.
Jarret Honahan challenges the order denying his motion to enforce the settlement agreement purportedly reached in the underlying lawsuit between Janet Burgeson and Mr. Honahan. The order states that the motion to enforce is denied, with no findings of fact or conclusions of law, and Mr. Honahan has not provided this court with a transcript of the hearing. Because the order does not determine "that, as a matter of law, [the] settlement agreement is unenforceable, is set aside, or never existed," we dismiss this appeal as from a nonfinal, nonappealable order. See Fla. R. App. P. 9.130(a)(3)(C)(ix); Powell v. Woodard, 300 So. 3d 784, 785 (Fla. 1st DCA 2020). Although Mr. Honahan asserts that the trial court "made an express determination that there was no settlement," that is simply not reflected in the order on appeal. And because a determination that no settlement agreement existed as a matter of law is only one of the legal grounds for jurisdiction provided in rule 9.130(a)(3)(C)(ix), we cannot conclude that a denial necessarily means that the trial court made such a determination. The denial of a motion to enforce a settlement agreement without findings could mean that the trial court determined (1) that a settlement
agreement exists but is unenforceable, (2) that a settlement agreement exists but is set aside, or (3) that a settlement agreement never existed. Any of these determinations would give this court jurisdiction, but they require different analyses. A fourth possibility, one which clearly would not give this court jurisdiction under the express terms of rule 9.130, is that the trial court denied the motion to enforce for lack of sufficient evidence. This court cannot presume that a determination giving us jurisdiction was made, much less presume jurisdiction and then guess upon what legal grounds the determination was made.
We note that our dismissal does not prevent Mr. Honahan from again seeking to enforce the settlement agreement or from otherwise obtaining an order from the trial court with sufficient, supported findings. See Powell, 300 So. 3d at 785 ("[W]e in no way suggest how the enforceability issue [should be] handled on remand."); cf. Guillen v. Rodriguez, 300 So. 3d 1233, 1233 (Fla. 3d DCA 2020) (affirming the order granting the motion to enforce a settlement agreement "in the absence of any error of law discernible on the face of the order reviewed").
Dismissed.
VILLANTI and LaROSE, JJ., Concur. Opinion subject to revision prior to official publication.