26 results for 'judge:"Scales"'.
J. Scales finds the trial court did not follow proper procedures in entering an order of disposition that required the mother to undergo a mental health evaluation as part of a plan to regain custody of her daughter placed into foster care after being sexually assaulted by the father of the mother's other child. The relevant statutes and procedures required the trial court to give the mother proper notice and specify the time, manner and other details of the mental health evaluation, neither of which occurred. The mother's petition for writ of certiorari is construed as an appeal, and the portion of the court's order requiring the mental health evaluation is overturned without prejudice. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: May 1, 2024, Case #: 24-0404, Categories: Family Law
J. Scales finds the lower court properly convicted defendant of criminal conspiracy to tamper with evidence for attempting to arrange for the destruction of a cell phone that contained evidence pertaining to a first-degree murder charge for which he was jailed, and eventually acquitted. Evidence is sufficient to support his conviction for conspiracy to tamper with evidence and sentence of 300 days in the county jaile with four years of probation. Defendant’s arguments for acquittal are without merit and he is not entitled to relief. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: April 17, 2024, Case #: 2022-0134, Categories: Evidence, Conspiracy
J. Scales finds the trial court improperly denied the Brazilian airline's motion for attorney fees in a lawsuit from the aircraft leasing company over failed negotiations for the purchase of six Boeing 737 aircraft. The trial court was incorrect in deciding that the parties' joint settlement proposal was invalid in part because it did not properly apportion the settlement offer between the parties. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: March 20, 2024, Case #: 22-1736, Categories: Attorney Fees, Contract
J. Scales finds the trial court improperly denied the boat manufacturer's motion to intervene in its competitor's lawsuit alleging breaches of a former employee's non-confidentiality agreement once he was hired by the manufacturer. The manufacturer should have been allowed to intervene in the injunction proceeding on due process grounds, in part because it had an interest in the litigation because the employee was enjoined from working for it. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: March 20, 2024, Case #: 23-0882, Categories: Contract, Injunction
J. Scales finds the trial court must conduct further proceedings in the husband and wife's marriage dissolution to determine how much should be deducted from the wife's claim for $104,295 in attorney fees and costs, as well as whether gifts she received from her brother and boyfriend to pay her personal and business expenses and litigation costs will continue into the foreseeable future. The case is remanded for the trial court to make additional findings of fact in these areas. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: 22-1980, Categories: Family Law, Attorney Fees
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J. Scales finds the trial court properly denied the insureds' motion for attorney fees and granted the insurance company's motion for summary judgment in the insureds dispute over the appraisal process and ultimate coverage of damages their home suffered during Hurricane Irma in 2017. The trial court's order on attorney fees is affirmed without discussion, and the summary judgment order is upheld because, despite the insureds' arguments to the contrary, the trial court was allowed to consider evidence in the record from the hearing over attorney fees in making its summary judgment decision. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: 22-2137, Categories: Insurance, Contract
J. Scales finds the trial court properly entered final judgment that denied the man's motion to vacate an arbitration award in favor of the woman and confirmed that arbitration award. The man correctly concedes that his motion to vacate was legally insufficient because it lacked enough supporting facts, but he incorrectly argues that the trial court should have given him an opportunity to amend the motion. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: February 21, 2024, Case #: 22-2028, Categories: Arbitration
J. Scales finds the probate court properly denied the beneficiary's attempt to have a document she presented be accepted as a lost will, as the probate court correctly held that a previous appellate court ruling in the beneficiary's dispute with the estate precluded the successive attempt to probate the document. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: January 31, 2024, Case #: 23-0054, Categories: Wills / Probate
J. Scales finds the trial court improperly denied the shopping mall owner's motion for attorney fees in a citizen's slip and fall lawsuit. In part because the owner's joint proposal with the citizen regarding settlement funds was not ambiguous or invalid just for the fact that it did not have an explicit date for when the funds would be paid, and because the proposal satisfies all that needs to be satisfied under Florida statutes, the trial court was incorrect. On remand, the trial court is ordered to continue proceedings, including as to the citizen's claim that the owner's proposal was made in bad faith. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: January 17, 2024, Case #: 22-2237, Categories: Settlements, Tort, Attorney Fees
J. Scales finds the trial court properly granted summary judgment to the insurance company in a dispute with insureds claiming damages to their property caused by Hurricane Irma. The insureds breached the prompt notice provision of their policy by waiting nearly three years to bring their claim, and the presumption of prejudice to the insurance company upheld by appellate court precedent applies in this case because of the insureds' untimely claim. The trial court is affirmed, and a conflict is certified regarding another appellate court's decision which construed that, given similar circumstances in another case, the burden shifted to an insurance company to prove prejudice. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: January 3, 2024, Case #: 22-0722, Categories: Insurance, Contract
J. Scales finds the circuit court's appellate division properly dismissed the property owner's petitions for for writs of certiorari, mandamus and prohibition in his pro se lawsuit over the assessed value of his property. The property owner's second-tier certiorari petition is denied, as the circuit court properly dismissed his petitions for lack of jurisdiction to review the kinds of claims from the value adjustment board asserted in his lawsuit.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: December 13, 2023, Case #: 23-1165, Categories: Property, Tax
J. Scales finds the trial court properly entered summary judgment in favor of the university and doctors in the patient's medical malpractice lawsuit alleging negligence that caused her to suffer a stroke. The trial court did not abuse its discretion by striking the patient's causation expert as unreliable and lacking the requisite foundation, in part because the expert admitted he did not review the patient's medical records or ask her about her medical history of severe hypertension, which at least partially caused the stroke. The remainder of the patient's arguments are dismissed without discussion. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: December 13, 2023, Case #: 22-1055, Categories: Experts, Medical Malpractice
J. Scales finds the trial court properly dismissed the software company's third-party claims against a co-owner of the digital marketing firm seeking to pierce the corporate veil and alleging fraudulent inducement and negligent misrepresentation. There is insufficient evidence in the company's allegations to pierce the veil and hold the co-owner personally liable for the firm's alleged breach of contract, and the trial court made no error in dismissing the company's claims with prejudice and offering no leave to amend because the litigation had already been underway for six years. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: December 13, 2023, Case #: 22-2138, Categories: Fraud, Contract
J. Scales finds the trial court correctly granted summary judgment to the buyers in their lawsuit against the sellers over a disputed real estate transaction. The trial court correctly found the parties had a valid, enforceable contract without regarding an unexecuted addendum to the parties' agreement that had not been explicitly incorporated into the larger contract, which the trial court properly considered a separate issue. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: November 15, 2023, Case #: 23-0223, Categories: Real Estate, Contract
J. Scales denies personal representatives certiorari review of the order allowing substitution of plaintiffs in this personal injury complaint. However, personal representatives are given leave to file supplemental briefings providing additional information.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: September 13, 2023, Case #: 3D23-1186, Categories: Negligence
J. Scales finds the trial court lacked jurisdiction to enter an order setting off the former husband's monthly alimony payments against a debt the former wife owed but failed to pay to him, as there are precursor issues regarding modification of alimony payments from a previous lawsuit between the two that are still being appealed. Because of this, the trial court's order must be vacated.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: August 30, 2023, Case #: 22-2216, Categories: Family Law, Jurisdiction
J. Scales finds the trial court correctly denied defendant's motion for postconviction relief claiming his 40-year prison sentence handed down when he was 15 years old for crimes including armed burglary, kidnapping and armed sexual battery is unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. Defendant's appeal fails under Florida law and court precedent in part because his 40-year sentence does not rise to the life-sentence level of punishment to implicate the constitutional protections he claims. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: August 16, 2023, Case #: 22-2073, Categories: Burglary, Sentencing, Cruel And Unusual Punishment
J. Scales finds that the trial court ruled properly in this negligence dispute between neighbors related to water damage. There is no evidence the judge abused its discretion in denying the property owner’s motion to amend their complaint. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: August 2, 2023, Case #: 3D22-1102, Categories: Negligence
J. Scales finds partially in favor of the property appraiser in his and the homeowner's cross appeals of the trial court's judgment finding in part that the homeowner was not entitled to claim a homestead tax exemption for his Florida property in 2007 and upholding the appraiser's revocation of the exemption for the years 2008 through 2015. The trial court correctly determined both that the homeowner was not entitled to the exemption in 2007 because he was living in Hong Kong and his family was living in Cincinnati and that a 10% assessment limitation must be applied to the tax lien the appraiser is seeking to collect, but the portion of the court's order upholding revocation of the exemption for the years 2008 through 2015 is overturned, as the statutory scheme allows the homeowner to challenge revocation of the exemptions. The case is remanded for a new trial, where the homeowner has the burden to prove he was entitled to the exemption for any of the disputed tax years. Affirmed in part.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: June 28, 2023, Case #: 21-2432, Categories: Property, Tax
J. Scales finds the trial court improperly compelled the insurance company to engage in an appraisal process with the homeowners, who are challenging the amount they received for their claim over damages their home suffered from Hurricane Irma in 2017. The trial court violated the insurance company's due process rights by granting the homeowners' oral request for appraisal at a case management conference when no properly filed motion for appraisal was pending or noticed for hearing and the company was not prepared to argue the issue, so the portion of the trial court's order compelling appraisal is overturned. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: June 28, 2023, Case #: 22-1524, Categories: Insurance, Due Process, Contract
J. Scales finds the man's petition for a writ of prohibition quashing a trial court order denying his motion to dismiss a civil battery case brought by the woman must be denied on the merits due to "substantial, competent evidence" that he is not immune to the charge under Florida's Stand Your Ground Law based on the woman's testimony, even though two eyewitnesses support the man's argument that she was the aggressor and he was defending himself. A question of great public importance is certified to the Florida Supreme Court regarding whether prohibition is a remedy a civil defendant can use to challenge a non-final order denying a motion for Stand Your Ground immunity, and the matter is also referred to the Florida Bar's Appellate Rules Committee.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: June 21, 2023, Case #: 23-0315, Categories: Tort, Immunity
J. Scales finds the trial court did not err in denying the property management company a temporary injunction and the ejectment of homeowners in a property neighboring its own for allegedly unlawfully landscaping and maintaining a swale area in conjunction with a city development project. Because there is no apparent violation of the relevant plat's dedication, the lower court was correct to find against the company. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: May 31, 2023, Case #: 22-1006, Categories: Property, Tort, Contract
J. Scales finds the trial court improperly ruled in favor of the tenant in a lawsuit from the landlord claiming the tenant, who operates a gym, is obligated to pay rent for around two months when Covid-19 pandemic mandates temporarily closed gyms throughout the state. The tenant is still on the hook for the disputed rents under the terms of the underlying lease agreement's force majeure clause, in part because the Covid-19 pandemic, though it caused the gym to temporarily close, did not actually prevent the tenant from paying its rent, so it was still obligated to do so. The tenant's equitable doctrine defenses also fail, so the case is remanded to the trial court to grant summary judgment in the landlord's favor. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: May 17, 2023, Case #: 22-1273, Categories: Landlord Tenant, Covid-19, Contract
[Consolidated] J. Scales finds partially in favor of the estate representative in a probate dispute over who controls the assets of a bank account shared between the son and his now deceased father. The probate court properly ordered that the account's balance should be an estate asset whose funds are controlled by a constructive trust because it was a "convenience account," a decision supported by sound and substantial evidence. However, the probate court improperly found the son in civil contempt of court when he failed to promptly return $314,168 from the account to the estate, as the probate court judge delegating preparation of the contempt order to the estate's representative without making detailed factual findings creates the appearance that the judge did not exercise independent judgment. Affirmed in part.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Scales, Filed On: May 17, 2023, Case #: 21-2039, Categories: Contempt, Wills / Probate