SOUTH POINTE FAMILY AND CHILDREN CENTER, INC., APPELLANT,
v.
THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF CHICAGO, AS TRUSTEE, APPELLEE
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South Pointe Family and Children Center challenged a trial court's award of attorney's fees and costs in a mortgage foreclosure action. The appellate court reversed, finding the trial court failed to make the specific findings required for awarding attorney's fees and failed to establish the necessity and reasonableness of claimed costs.
The trial court's award of attorney's fees was improper because it failed to set forth specific findings regarding hourly rate and hours reasonably expended, instead awarding a lump sum. The award of costs was improper because there was no showing of the necessity and reasonableness of the appraisal and environmental report expenses.
[1] A trial court must make specific findings regarding the hourly rate and the number of hours reasonably expended by an attorney before awarding attorney's fees.
[2] A party seeking attorney's fees must provide the trial court with a basis to allocate hours among different lawyers based on their respective hourly rates.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“before awarding fees, the trial court must set forth specific findings in determining the hourly rate and the number of hours reasonably expended by an attorney”
Establishes the mandatory requirements for awarding attorney's fees under Florida law
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceFirst National Bank of Chicago filed a commercial mortgage foreclosure action against South Pointe for non-payment of required installments. The trial…
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PER CURIAM.
South Pointe Family and Children Center, Inc., defendant below, challenges an award of attorney’s fees and costs. Because the trial court’s order does not make the findings necessary to an award of attorney’s fees and there was no showing as to necessity and reasonableness in the assessment of costs, we reverse.
The First National Bank of Chicago filed a commercial mortgage foreclosure action against South Pointe alleging default for non-payment of the required installments. The trial court entered an Agreed Order which set forth a time schedule to repay the arrearages and reserved jurisdiction to consider an award of attorney’s fees and costs. At the hearing on the Motion for Determination of Attorney’s Fees, the court entered an order awarding First National $31,517.00 for attorney’s fees, and an award of costs in the amount of $16,882.00.
Florida Patient’s Comp. Fund v. Rowe, 472 So. 2d 1145, 1150-51 (Fla.1985) makes clear that, before awarding fees, the trial court must set forth specific findings in determining the hourly rate and the number of hours reasonably expended by an attorney. Here, the trial court simply awarded a lump sum. South Pointe did not waive this issue by not submitting evidence contradicting First National’s affidavits. See Florida Patients Comp. Fund v. Johnson, 538 So. 2d 875, 876 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988) (“The burden of proof is upon the claimant and he must furnish the trial court with a basis to allocate the number of hours attributable to the different lawyers in view of their different rates per hour.”). Additionally, the trial court awarded costs for an appraisal of $5,500.00, Phase I Environmental Report of $3,716.00, and Phase II Environmental Report of $7,240.00. In Kendall Racquetball Invs., Ltd. v. Green Cos. of Fla., 657 So. 2d 1187, 1188 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995), we stated that “[t]he prevailing party’s burden at an evidentiary cost hearing to recover an expert witness fee is ‘to present testimony concerning the necessity and reasonableness of the fee.’ ” In this case, there was no showing of the necessity and reasonableness of the costs incurred as a result of the appraisal and environmental reports. The trial court should have denied these costs on First National’s failure to make such a showing.
For these reasons, we reverse and remand for the trial court to make the requisite findings in the award of attorney’s fees.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Norman v. Norman, 939 So. 2d 240 (Fla. 1st DCA 2006)…r. Moreover, the burden of proof is on the party seeking attorney's fees, and the opposing party does not waive the issue by not submitting evidence contradicting the movant. See S. Pointe Family & Children Ctr., Inc. v. First Nat’l Bank of Chicago, 783 So. 2d 327 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001).…
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Cohen v. World Omni Fin. Corp (15th Cir. Ct. App. Div. 2005)
Authorities Cited
- Fla. Patient's Comp. Fund v. Rowe, 472 So. 2d 1145 (Fla. 1985)
- Kendall Racquetball Invs., Ltd. v. The Green Cos., 657 So. 2d 1187 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995)
- Fla. Patients Comp. Fund & Moises Borten, M.D. v. Rolanda Johnson, 538 So. 2d 875 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988)