12 results for 'judge:"Soud"'.
J. Soud finds defendant's habeas corpus petition to be released from his involuntary commitment subsequent to his being found guilty of first-degree homicide for the premeditated murder of his wife must be denied. Ample evidence in the record supports the conclusion that defendant's mental illness continues to make him a manifest danger to himself or others, so his petition will not be granted.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Soud, Filed On: May 3, 2024, Case #: 24-0663, Categories: Habeas, Murder, Commitment
J. Soud finds the trial court properly denied the citizen's motion to add a claim for punitive damages in her lawsuit against AMC over injuries she suffered when she fell and was stepped on by other patrons who were rushing out of a movie theater after an AMC employee announced that everyone had to evacuate because of a shooting in the parking lot. The citizen has not met the burden of proving AMC was grossly negligent in its training of employees and supposed failure to ensure policies that would not lead to the "panic and confusion" that caused her injuries, so there is no basis for a punitive damages claim. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Soud, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 22-2671, Categories: Civil Procedure, Negligence
J. Soud finds the trial court properly found defendant incompetent to stand trial due to mental illness and committed him to the state's care in his case involving charges of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer with a deadly weapon. Because defendant was previously found incompetent at least once before, and because a doctor's report portrayed him as "clucking like a chicken" and "barking and howling" and making sexually inappropriate comments during his evaluation he refused to comply with, there was substantial evidence to support the trial court's finding of incompetence and involuntary commitment to restore his competence. The state agency's motion for writ of certiorari is denied.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Soud, Filed On: February 29, 2024, Case #: 23-3716, Categories: Competence, Assault
J. Soud finds the trial court improperly denied the property owners' motion to enforce a mediated settlement agreement entered with their neighbors in a dispute over an easement across their properties. The terms of the settlement agreement, which in part requires the neighbors to grant the owners the disputed easement, are unambiguous and enforceable, so the case is remanded for the trial court to enforce the settlement agreement and set a time for the neighbors to sign it. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Soud, Filed On: February 2, 2024, Case #: 23-0594, Categories: Property, Settlements, Mediation
J. Soud finds the trial court properly entered final judgment against the doctor in his dispute with the clinic over terms of an employment agreement under which he would purchase "membership units" in the clinic. The trial court was within its discretion to determine the clinic prevailed on its claim that the doctor violated terms of his employment by failing to give 10 days' notice of breach of his agreement and 180 days' notice of his resignation, and it also correctly concluded the doctor still owed the more than $300,000 buy-in balance for the purchase of his membership units. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Soud, Filed On: February 2, 2024, Case #: 23-1402, Categories: Employment, Contract
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J. Soud finds the state gaming commission properly denied the citizen's application for a gaming license that would have allowed him to work as a horse jockey. The commission considered the citizen's prior felony convictions in 2018 and 2019 for grand theft and denied his application in part based on the convictions as it is permitted to do under statutes. The citizen did not meet his burden to prove he was rehabilitated and "of good moral character" such that he would be entitled to a waiver of his disqualification, and his argument that the commission deviated from prior agency practice fails. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Soud, Filed On: January 12, 2024, Case #: 23-1062, Categories: Licensing, Agency
J. Soud finds defendant's petition to prohibit her prosecution for a misdemeanor count of soliciting lewdness must be denied. The state's prosecution is not barred by the one-year statute of limitations defendant cites because the record shows she had no employment or known fixed address where the state could find her to serve a bench warrant, and because the state made reasonable attempts to locate her the statute of limitations is tolled until she was actually arrested on the bench warrant.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Soud, Filed On: December 21, 2023, Case #: 23-3126, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Sex Offender
J. Soud finds the trial court improperly denied the corporation's motion to dismiss a former employee's lawsuit claiming unpaid wages and breach of contract. The corporation correctly argues that the forum selection clause of the parties' employment agreement unambiguously requires the employee's lawsuit to be filed in Delaware, and the trial court incorrectly concluded the clause was "permissive" instead of mandatory, so the trial court's order is overturned and the case is remanded so it can be dismissed. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Soud, Filed On: November 13, 2023, Case #: 22-2341, Categories: Employment, Venue, Contract
J. Soud finds the trial court improperly convicted defendant of perjury based on statements he made to the state's attorney's office in the course of an investigation into his service on the Sumter County Commission. Taken as a whole and in full context, defendant's statements regarding phone conversations he had while in office do not rise to the level of perjury and do not support his conviction, which is vacated. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Soud, Filed On: November 9, 2023, Case #: 23-0846, Categories: Evidence, Perjury
J. Soud finds the trial court's order denying the hospital system and doctor's motions to dismiss the patient's medical malpractice lawsuit based on the allegedly untimely pre-suit filing by the patient of an expert affidavit cannot be reviewed via certiorari, so the system and doctor's petition for certiorari is dismissed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Soud, Filed On: October 6, 2023, Case #: 23-0780, Categories: Civil Procedure, Medical Malpractice
J. Soud finds the trial court properly convicted defendant of sexual battery and trespass and sentenced him to 10 years' imprisonment in a case in which he was alleged to have sneaked into the victim's residence in the middle of the night and sexually battered her while she believed she was having intercourse with her boyfriend. Although the trial court erred by excluding evidence of defendant's two prior consensual sexual encounters with the victim under Florida's rape shield law, the error was harmless because the trial record shows defendant's credibility with jurors "was severely diminished" under the weight of other evidence as compared to the credibility of the victim's account. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Soud, Filed On: September 29, 2023, Case #: 22-1890, Categories: Evidence, Sex Offender, Battery
J. Soud finds the trial court properly partitioned and distributed the proceeds from the judicial sale of a residential property previously co-owned by the daughter and the mother. The trial court's decision awarding attorney fees to the mother but not the daughter must be affirmed because it cannot be fully reviewed with the available record, in part because there is no transcript of the hearing on attorney fees to determine if the trial court abused its discretion by weighing the equities involved, including whether one of the parties brought frivolous arguments or defenses. The trial court's decision on attorney fees and its final accounting and distribution of the proceeds from the sale are upheld. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Soud, Filed On: July 7, 2023, Case #: 23-0010, Categories: Property, Attorney Fees, Contract