TOWN OF DAVIE, APPELLANT,
v.
ALBERT H. SLOAN AND JOAN SLOAN, HIS WIFE, SLOAN PUMP COMPANY, INC., A FLORIDA CORPORATION, SOUTH FLORIDA WAREHOUSING II, A FLORIDA GENERAL PARTNERSHIP, AND HAMILTON C. FOREMAN AND CHARLES R. FOREMAN, APPELLEES

Fla. 4th DCA | 1990-09-19
No. 89-1929
GUNTHER and GARRETT, JJ., concur.
566 So. 2d 938 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1990) Positive Treatment
Cited by 15 cases

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

The Town of Davie appealed a trial court order reducing its attorney's fees award from $16,200 to $2,000 in a case where the Sloans obtained a temporary restraining order that was later dissolved. The court held that under Parker Tampa Two, Inc. v. Somerset Development Corp., the injunction bond amount acts as a ceiling on damages recoverable for wrongful issuance of an injunction.


Holding

The injunction bond amount of $2,000 acts as a ceiling on the damages obtainable for wrongful issuance of an injunction, including attorney's fees and costs. Therefore, the attorney's fees award must be reduced from $16,200 to $2,000, the amount of the posted bond.


Headnotes

[1] The amount of an injunction bond limits the recovery of damages for the wrongful issuance of an injunction, even if the injunction was issued before a controlling judicia…

[2] Attorney's fees and costs awarded for the wrongful issuance of an injunction are considered damages for the purpose of the injunction bond limit.

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Key Quotes

“Under Parker, the amount of the injunction bond acts as a ceiling as to the amount of damages obtainable, if it is later determined the injunction was wrongfully issued.”

Establishes the central holding that bond amount limits recoverable damages for wrongful injunction

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Facts & Procedural History

The Sloans obtained a temporary restraining order enjoining the Town of Davie from commencing construction on a road. The Sloans posted a $2,000 injun…

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Opinion of the Court
POLEN, Judge.

[*939] POLEN, Judge.

The Town of Davie appeals an order of the court upon a motion for rehearing, reducing its award of attorney’s fees from the $16,200 originally awarded to $2,000. The $2,000 figure represented the amount originally posted by appellees as an injunction bond pursuant to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.610(b). The appellees (Sloans) had obtained a temporary restraining order against appellant, enjoining it from commencing construction on a road located in the Town of Davie, Broward County, Florida.

At a subsequent hearing appellant made an ore tenus motion to increase the bond. There was discussion about the value of appellees’ land being $6 million, so as to imply that appellees would have assets from which an award could be satisfied, if it were later determined that the injunction were wrongfully issued, and damages awarded in an amount greater than the $2,000 bond.

The trial court, during the course of that discussion, made the statement, “I don’t think it’s urgent that we increase the bond to $20,000 or $30,000 or any large amount.” However, the trial court never made a specific ruling that the land would stand as a surety in lieu of increasing the bond. No order was ever entered increasing the bond from the original $2,000, nor did appellant appeal as to the sufficiency of the original $2,000 bond.

The injunction was dissolved at a final hearing in December 1986. The matter did not come on for appellant’s motion for award of attorney’s fees and costs until June 1989. The trial court awarded attorney’s fees and costs in the amount of $16,-200. However, the court had not been apprised of the supreme court’s just-issued opinion in Parker Tampa Two, Inc. v. Somerset Development Corp., 544 So. 2d 1018 (Fla.1989). On a motion for rehearing before the trial court, wherein appellees argued that Parker controlled and limited the amount of the award to the $2,000 bond, the trial court agreed and granted rehearing to that effect. This appeal ensued. We affirm.

We realize that neither Judges Fleet and Tedder, who presided over the initial injunction proceedings in 1986, nor Judge Cohen, who presided over the initial attorney’s fees and costs hearing in June of 1989, had the benefit of the Parker decision. We are further aware that our decision in this case may be a harsh result.

However, we hold that even though the injunction was issued some three years pri-or to the Parker decision, the decision is applicable and dispositive. Under Parker, the amount of the injunction bond acts as a ceiling as to the amount of damages obtainable, if it is later determined the injunction was wrongfully issued. Implicit in the trial court’s ruling is that this injunction was wrongfully issued, which thus gives rise to attorney’s fees and costs as the measure of damages. While in a given case, the damages incurred from the wrongful issuance of an injunction may be far more extensive than attorney’s fees and costs, this does not appear to be the case here. Further, while appellees’ counsel has cited cases to this court dealing with the entitlement issue, entitlement is not before us, as there was no cross appeal taken from the trial court’s order awarding attorney’s fees and costs.

AFFIRMED.

GUNTHER and GARRETT, JJ., concur.


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Cited By

  • S & T Builders v. Globe Props., Inc., 944 So. 2d 302 (Fla. 2006)
    …. 2d 1342, 1345 (Fla. 5th DCA 1991);4 see also Haisfield v. ACP Fla. Holdings, Inc., 629 So. 2d 963, 967 (Fla. 4th DCA 1993) (trial court properly awarded attorney’s fees incurred in removing lis pendens (citing Sa-porito )); Town of Davie v. Sloan, 566 So. 2d 938, 939 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990) (“Implicit in the trial court’s ruling [dissolving an injunction] is that this injunction was wrongfully issued, which thus gives rise to attorney’s fees and costs as ... damages.”). Although attorney’s fees in actions for…
  • …2d at 1021. Although Parker Tampa Two did not involve a municipality, nothing in that decision, in section 60.07, or in rule 1.610(b) suggests governmental agencies should be treated less favorably than private citizens. Cf. Town of Davie v. Sloan, 566 So. 2d 938 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990) (limiting damages against municipality to the bond amount). Under the holding in Parker Tampa Two, a defendant harmed by an injunction has two substantially different options for redress once the injunction has been dissolved. I…
  • Montville v. Mobile Med. Indus., Inc., 855 So. 2d 212 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003)
    …nt fund to cover the adverse party’s costs and damages if the injunction is wrongfully issued. Richard v. Behavorial Healthcare Options, Inc. 647 So. 2d 976 (Fla. 2d DCA 1994). Damages include attorney’s fees and court costs. Town of Davie v. Sloan, 566 So. 2d 938 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990). Since the damages recoverable for a wrongfully issued injunction are ordinarily limited to the bond, Parker Tampa Two, Inc. v. Somerset Dev. Corp., 544 So. 2d 1018 (Fla.1989), the bond initially set by the court constitutes the…

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