SOL FELL AND FRANCIS FELL, HIS WIFE, APPELLANTS,
v.
ROYAL FLAGG JONAS, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS TRUSTEE, APPELLEE
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Lessors who obtained cancellation of a 99-year lease in equity sought to maintain a subsequent action at law for damages for breach of the lease. The court reversed the trial court's dismissal, holding that the failure to seek damages in the equity suit did not bar a subsequent damages action.
The trial court's ruling that lessors could not maintain a damages action was error. Lessors are entitled to maintain an action for damages notwithstanding their prior equity suit for cancellation, because damages were not sought or dealt with in the equity decree.
“The determinative question is whether the lessors, having failed to seek damages in the equity suit in which they sought and obtained cancellation of the lease, are thereby precluded from maintaining a subsequent action at law for damages.”
Frames the central legal issue in the case regarding the effect of an equity suit on a subsequent damages action.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceIn 1958, Fell and Fell (lessors) entered into a 99-year lease with Jonas (lessee). The lessee assigned the lease, and the assignee constructed an apar…
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Appellants, who were the plaintiffs below, have appealed from an adverse judgment in an action brought by them, as the lessors under a 99-year lease, against the lessee for damages for breach of the lease.
Plaintiffs had entered into a 99-year lease of certain property to the defendant in 1958. Thereafter, lessee assigned the lease, and the assignee constructed an apartment house thereon. The lease provided that such improvements would become property of the lessors, and contained provision for termination or cancellation of the lease upon default by the lessee.
Prior to filing the present suit for damages, the lessors proceeded by suit in equity for cancellation of the lease for alleged defaults, and obtained a favorable decree can-celling the lease and restoring them to possession of the improved property, and terminating the rights therein of the lessee and those claiming under the lessee. Damages were not sought in the equity suit, and the decree did not deal with the matter of damages.
The determinative question is whether the lessors, having failed to seek damages in the equity suit in which they sought and obtained cancellation of the lease, are thereby precluded from maintaining a subsequent action at law for damages. The trial court held the lessors could not maintain an action for damages. We hold that ruling was error and reverse, on authority of Wise v. Quina, Fla.App.1965, 174 So.2d 590.
In the cited case certain parties sued for and obtained injunctive relief in equity upon establishing unlawful invasion of their property. Damages were not sought in the equity suit, nor did the decree deal with the subject of damages. An action at law for damages was dismissed on summary judgment on the grounds that the equity suit operated to bar the law action by estoppel by judgment; that the filing of an action for damages amounted to splitting a single cause of action; and because full relief, including damages, could have been sought in the equity court, which had jurisdiction to render complete relief. On appeal therefrom to the district court of appeal in the *736first district, the dismissal of the action for damages was reversed. In doing so the court of appeal pointed to the fact that damages were not sought in the equity suit or dealt with in the decree, and stated: “The nature of the relief prayed for in the equity suit is, of course, an important consideration in determining whether the final decree is res adjudicata as to the action at law.”
The basis on which the law action was dismissed in the instant case was substantially similar to that relied on by the trial court in Wise v. Quina, supra. We hold, as did the first district court of appeal in Wise v. Quina, that the plaintiff was entitled to maintain an action for damages in the circumstances presented.
The judgment appealed from is reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings.
Reversed and remanded.
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Accardi v. Hillsboro Shores Improvement Ass'n, Inc., 944 So. 2d 1008 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002)…d trespass claims raise the issue of whether HSIA’s actions interfered with [*1013] Accardi’s property rights so as to entitle him to monetary damages. These conclusions regarding res judicata and collateral estoppel are supported by Fell v. Jonas, 183 So. 2d 735 (Fla. 3d DCA 1966), in which lessors filed a suit in equity for cancellation of a lease, did not seek monetary damages in the suit, and obtained a decree canceling the lease. Id. at 735. The lessors subsequently filed a suit for breach of lease, see…
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Jonas v. Fell, 188 So. 2d 822 (Fla. 1966)…Certiorari denied without opinion. 183 So. 2d 735.…
Authorities Cited
- Wise v. Ignatius C. Quina and Bertha N. Quina, 174 So. 2d 590 (Fla. 1st DCA 1965)