14 results for 'judge:"Jay"'.
J. Jay finds the trial court improperly denied the property owner's motion for attorney fees stemming from the contractor's attorney knowingly making legally unsupported arguments at trial. The property owner's knowledge that the contractor was unlicensed at the time it was hired for a remodeling project is irrelevant to the substance of the contractor's attorney's breach of contract complaint, which it filed despite knowing such a claim was untenable because the contractor was unlicensed. The case is remanded for the trial court to determine the appropriate amount of fees to award to the property owner. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Jay, Filed On: May 17, 2024, Case #: 23-1393, Categories: Attorney Fees, Contract
J. Jay finds the trial court did not err at defendant's second trial on murder and sexual battery charges from 2007 by allowing testimony from two witnesses to a previous sexual battery defendant committed in 1986 that led to him pleading guilty and serving a 13-year prison sentence. Defendant unsuccessfully argues the testimony should have been blocked because of the time lapse between crimes he claims were dissimilar, as there are multiple similarities between the crimes and the time separation between them is at least in part due to the fact that he was in prison for much of that time. The trial court did not abuse its discretion, there was no unfair prejudice against defendant, and his guilty convictions and sentences stand. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Jay, Filed On: April 5, 2024, Case #: 23-1169, Categories: Murder, Sex Offender
J. Jay finds the trial court properly decided Dollar General was not entitled to a directed verdict in the consumer's slip-and-fall case, as a reasonable jury could have reached the conclusion that Dollar General employees knew about the wet floor that caused the consumer to fall. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Jay, Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: 22-2906, Categories: Premises Liability
J. Jay finds the trial court improperly ordered arbitration for only two claims in the land owner's lawsuit against the construction company alleging littering, trespassing, fraud, negligence, breach of contract and unjust enrichment related to a road construction project in Jacksonville. The terms of the parties' contract calls for arbitration of all of the land owner's claims, not just the breach of contract and unjust enrichment claims as ordered by the trial court, in part because the land owner "anchored its complaint to the contract." The case is remanded for the trial court to order arbitration on all the land owner's claims. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Jay, Filed On: February 2, 2024, Case #: 23-1784, Categories: Arbitration, Contract
J. Jay finds State Farm must be denied a re-hearing in its pursuit of a new trial in a dispute with its insured stemming from permanent injuries the insured alleged from a car accident. The insured's lawyer's closing remarks about the insured's medical providers having "no dog in this fight" one day after the insured waived his claim for past medical expenses were not prejudicial or misleading enough to require a new trial, and State Farm's claim that these remarks upended its entire bias and credibility argument is "baseless." Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Jay, Filed On: January 19, 2024, Case #: 22-1190, Categories: Insurance, Contract
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J. Jay finds the husband's petition for certiorari review of a contempt finding against him in his and the wife's divorce proceeding must be dismissed. There is no irreparable harm to the husband in the trial court's contempt finding, which was related to the husband canceling a credit card shared by him and the wife in connection with a business they co-own. The husband's petition additionally fails because it focuses on harm to the business, not the husband, and the business is not a party to the divorce proceeding, meaning there is no jurisdiction to decide his petition.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Jay, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 23-2257, Categories: Contempt, Family Law
J. Jay finds the trial court properly denied State Farm's motion for a new trial in a lawsuit over uninsured motorist coverage for an insured. The statements made by defense counsel during rebuttal closing argument State Farm references in its motion regarding the insured's withdrawal of a claim for past medical expenses may have been misleading, but they do not rise to the level of prejudice necessitating a new trial. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Jay, Filed On: November 9, 2023, Case #: 22-1190, Categories: Insurance, Contract
J. Jay finds the trial court's dating violence injunction entered against the fiance must be overturned, as he was only given notice of an evidentiary hearing regarding his fiancee's injunction petition the day before the hearing instead of getting the statutorily required two-day minimum notice. The final judgment awarding the injunction is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Jay, Filed On: October 20, 2023, Case #: 22-2695, Categories: Domestic Violence, Due Process
J. Jay finds that the trial court partially erred in some aspects of a marriage dissolution. The trial court failed to make a finding on whether the wife's counsel's hourly rate was reasonable when awarding her $5,700 in attorney fees, and it made an error by basing the husband's monthly child support payments on his gross income instead of his net income. The husband incorrectly argues that there was insufficient evidence to modify the parties' dissolution judgment, in part because of the circumstances of a past stipulation finding modification was warranted for the child's best interest, so that part of his appeal fails. Affirmed in part.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Jay, Filed On: August 18, 2023, Case #: 22-2607, Categories: Family Law, Attorney Fees
J. Jay finds the trial court properly denied the citizen a new trial in her personal injury case, which she motioned for in part based on an expert radiologist’s testimony claiming his privacy rights under Florida law were violated when the citizen’s lawyer asked how much money he made per year testifying in court as an expert. There is nothing to rebut the presumption that the jury followed the trial court’s instruction for them to disregard the expert’s statements about the alleged violation of his privacy rights, and the trial court correctly concluded that the statements did not warrant calling a mistrial as the citizen's lawyer requested. All of the citizen’s other grounds for a mistrial also fail. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Jay, Filed On: August 11, 2023, Case #: 23-283, Categories: Jury, Tort, Experts
J. Jay finds the trial court improperly granted summary judgment to the motorist in her lawsuit against the city over a car accident with a city police officer, which she claims was caused by the officer's negligence. The trial court was wrong that the officer, who was off duty and driving home from work along his normal route in a take-home patrol car while wearing his uniform, was acting within the scope of his employment at the time of the accident, and because he was not and no reasonable jury could find otherwise, the city is entitled to sovereign immunity from the motorist's claims as a matter of law. The trial court's order is overturned, and the case is remanded so it can grant the city's renewed motion for summary judgment. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Jay, Filed On: June 30, 2023, Case #: 22-1757, Categories: Vehicle, Immunity, Negligence
J. Jay finds the trial court did not err in granting the father 13 days of compensatory time-sharing with his and the mother's son after he filed a contempt motion when the mother violated their court-ordered time-sharing plan multiple times. The 13 overnights the court awarded the father were in keeping with what he asked for, that is the time he missed because of the mother's actions, so the trial court did not break due process by awarding the father relief he did not request, and the mother having failed in her dispute of the motion does not make the remedy unlawful. The court rejects the mother's three other challenges to the circuit court without discussion. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Jay, Filed On: June 16, 2023, Case #: 22-2732, Categories: Family Law, Due Process
J. Jay finds the trial court properly denied defendant's motion to suppress statements he made to detectives after he was arrested a day after he fired multiple shots at an occupied car. In part because the detectives told defendant during his interview that he was not yet under arrest and the interview could end if he wanted to wait until a lawyer was present, then twice confirmed with him that he wanted to continue the interview despite not having a lawyer, his argument to suppress based on a violation of his right to counsel fails. Defendant's other argument that the SWAT officer who arrested him under a warrant violated Florida law by not telling him specifically why he was under arrest also fails, as the officer substantially complied with the law despite not informing defendant right away of the cause of his arrest. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Jay, Filed On: June 16, 2023, Case #: 23-0011, Categories: Evidence, Firearms, Murder
J. Jay finds the trial court improperly found in favor of the insurance company in a breach of contract dispute from an insured seeking coverage for hurricane damages to her property. Even though the insured assigned all her benefits to a contractor that was going to do work on her property, the scope of the assignment is limited to the work performed, and the contractor never performed any work. Therefore, the insured still has standing to bring her claims against the insurance company despite the trial court's summary judgment ruling to the contrary in favor of the company. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Jay, Filed On: June 2, 2023, Case #: 22-0345, Categories: Insurance, Contract