ERORENTALS, LLC T/A TRUMP 2208,
v.
QOFA W. YU,

Fla. 3d DCA | 2019-06-12
No. 18-0054
275 So. 3d 746 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (2019) Positive Treatment

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.

Synopsis

Erorentals sued Qofa Yu in tort and the trial court awarded attorney's fees to the defendant. The appellate court reversed, holding that attorney's fees are not recoverable absent a statute or contract authorizing them, and none existed here.


Holding

The trial court's award of attorney's fees is reversed. Attorney's fees are not recoverable absent a statute or contract specifically authorizing their recovery, and here no such basis existed.


Headnotes

[1] Attorney's fees are not recoverable absent a statute or a contract that specifically authorizes their recovery.

[2] A contract with a unilateral fee provision, under which attorney's fees may be awarded, is inapplicable when no such contract exists between the parties.

Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“It is well-settled that attorney's fees are not recoverable absent a statute or a contract that specifically authorizes their recovery.”

Establishes the foundational legal principle governing recovery of attorney's fees in Florida.

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Erorentals, LLC sued Qofa Yu in tort. The record contains no contract between the parties and no contractual claim in the pleadings. Qofa did not seek…

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

Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

________________

No. 3D18-54 Lower Tribunal No. 14-29797 ________________

Erorentals, LLC T/A Trump 2208, Appellant,

vs.

Qofa W. Yu, Appellee.

An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Jose M. Rodriguez and William L. Thomas, Judges.

Shaked Law Firm, P.A., and Sagi Shaked, Joel Roth, Loretta Guevara and Javiera Aguilera, for appellant.

Garcia-Menocal & Perez, P.L., and Anthony J. Perez, for appellee.

Before SALTER and FERNANDEZ, JJ., and LEBAN, Senior Judge.

LEBAN, Senior Judge.

It is well-settled that attorney’s fees are not recoverable absent a statute or a contract that specifically authorizes their recovery. See Hampton v. Fairchild-Florida Constr. Co., 341 So. 2d 759 (Fla. 1976); see also Civix GC, LLC v. Sunrise Road Maint. Assn, Inc., 997 So. 2d 443 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009). Appellant herein, Erorentals, LLC T/A Trump 2208 (“Erorentals”), sued the appellee, Qofa Yu, in tort. The record is devoid of any contract between the parties and the pleadings include no such claim. The record reflects, and Qofa concedes, that he never sought attorney’s fees as a sanction1 under Section 57.105(1), Florida Statutes. There is similarly no proposal for settlement or offer of judgment of record. Lastly, and most importantly, Qofa presents no support for his argument that attorney’s fees are warranted under section 57.105 (7). Subpart (7) applies specifically to contracts with unilateral fee provisions. Because no such contract exists here, subpart (7) is inapplicable. Consistent with the above, we reverse the trial court’s order to the extent that it awards attorney’s fees.

Footnotes
1 Qofa likewise concedes that the trial court made no findings under Kozel v. Osetndorf, 629 So. 2d 818 (Fla. 1993), which outlines the six factors used to determine whether sanctions are warranted.

Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw