FRANCISCO CARNERO AND JUANA CARNERO, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS MOTHER AND NATURAL GUARDIAN OF GISELA CARNERO AND CLARITA CARNERO, MINORS, APPELLANTS,
v.
NATIONAL HOME MORTGAGE CORPORATION, AND RICARDO CARNERO, ET AL., APPELLEES
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Juana Carnero appealed the dismissal of her declaratory complaint challenging her stepson Ricardo Carnero's ownership of the family home, claiming her incapacitated husband retained legal title despite quit claim deeds. The court reversed and reinstated summary judgment in Ricardo Carnero's favor, finding that Juana's motion to set aside the prior summary judgment was procedurally defective because it was unsworn and lacked sworn evidence of excusable neglect.
The trial court abused its discretion in vacating the final summary judgment because the motion seeking relief under Rule 1.540(b) was unsworn as to the excusable neglect claim and therefore insufficient as a matter of law, and no sworn evidence of excusable neglect was introduced at the hearing. The summary judgment in Ricardo Carnero's favor must be reinstated.
[1] A motion seeking relief from a final judgment based on excusable neglect must be sworn, and the absence of sworn evidence supporting the claim of excusable neglect consti…
[2] A trial court abuses its discretion by vacating a final summary judgment when the motion seeking relief under Rule 1.540(b) is unsworn as to the claim of excusable neglec…
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“trial court abused its discretion when it set aside the final summary judgment in his favor. The motion was unsworn as it related to the excusable neglect claim and therefore was insufficient as a matter of law.”
Establishes the core holding that an unsworn motion to vacate under Rule 1.540(b) is legally insufficient.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceFrancisco Carnero, an incapacitated individual, was the original owner of the family home. Quit claim deeds were executed transferring the property to…
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PER CURIAM.
Juana Carnero, individually and on behalf of her daughters, appeals a final order dismissing her second amended declaratory complaint for lack of standing. The complaint had sought a declaration that the home in which she and her daughters currently reside legally still belongs to her incapacitated husband, Francisco Carnero, despite quit claim deeds which reflect that her stepson, Ricardo Carnero, is the owner of the property.
On a cross-appeal, Ricardo Carnero1 appeals the order vacating a prior summary judgment entered in his favor on the ownership issue. Ricardo Carnero asserts, and we agree, that the final summary judgment entered in his favor should not have been set aside pursuant to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.540(b) where the motion seeking relief under this rule was unsworn as to the claim of excusable neglect and there was no sworn evidence of excusable negligence otherwise adduced at the hearing below. Because we conclude that the issue raised on the cross-appeal is completely dispositive and renders the main appeal moot, we do not address the main appeal.
The trial court had entered a final summary judgment in favor of Ricardo Carne-ro on the issue of the subject property’s ownership. Juana Carnero never appealed this final judgment. Rather, she filed an emergency unsworn motion for the court to set aside the final summary judgment pursuant to Rule 1.540(b) on the grounds that the “legal issue raised in this motion was inadvertently not raised in the Complaint and memorandums of law filed by plaintiffs previous attorney or it was not raised due to excusable error.” The motion also sought leave to amend her pleadings. Moreover, no sworn evidence was introduced at the hearing below in support of the motion. The trial court granted the motion to set aside the final summary judgment and granted Juana Carnero leave to amend her pleadings.
We agree with Ricardo Carnero’s argument on cross-appeal that the trial court abused its discretion when it set aside the final summary judgment in his favor. The motion was unsworn as it related to the excusable neglect claim and therefore was insufficient as a matter of law. See Eden Park Mgmt., Inc. v. Zagorski, 821 So. 2d 1263 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002) (trial court abused its discretion in vacating dismissal where motion seeking relief was not sworn testimony offered to establish factual basis for alleged neglect).
We therefore reverse the trial court’s order setting aside the final summary judgment and remand with instruction that it be reinstated. Because the cross-appeal renders the appeal moot, we offer no opinion on the merits of Juana Carnero’s main appeal.
. The defendants in the underlying case, and appellees here, are Ricardo Carnero, National Home Mortgage Corporation, Miriam Ruiz, Victor J. Camero, and Gloria C. Morales. These parties will be collectively referred to as "Ricardo Camero” or "appellees.”
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Novastar Mortg., Inc. v. Vargas, 76 So. 3d 369 (Fla. 3d DCA 2011)…SHEPHERD, J. On the authority of Carnero v. National Home Mortgage Corp., 941 So. 2d 395, 395-96 (Fla. 3d DCA 2006), we reverse the nonfinal order granting the foreclosure defendants’ emergency motion to set aside summary judgment pursuant to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.540(b) because, as in Camero, “the motion seeking relief unde…
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- Eden Park Mgmt., Inc. v. Catherine Zagorski as the Personal Representative of the Estate of Catherine M. Dorman, 821 So. 2d 1263 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002)