THESE ARE NOT ALL OF THE CASES RELEASED BY THE COURTS FOR THE WEEK.
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Civil rights -- Discrimination -- Discovery -- Emails -- Attorney-client privilege -- Work product -- Appeals -- Certiorari -- In discrimination action brought against state agency, trial court departed from essential requirements of the law by ordering the disclosure of all requested agency emails based on determination that none were protected by asserted attorney-client privilege or work product because the agency attorney who made or received the emails was acting as a de facto human resources officer -- Trial court's decision was improperly based on broad observation of attorney's role within the agency rather than individualized consideration of documents at issue and their context -- Trial court departed from essential requirements of the law by alternatively ruling that, even if emails qualified as work product, production was required because there was no way “information could be replicated” -- Nothing in record established that disclosure of agency's privileged communications was permissible under rule 1.280
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Insurance -- Homeowners -- Property loss -- Coverage -- Denial -- Noncompliance with residency requirement -- Waiver of defense -- Trial court erred in denying insurer's motion for directed verdict where undisputed evidence established that homeowner did not live at property as policy required -- Trial court erred in submitting to jury the homeowner's theory that insurer waived residency requirement by accepting premiums from homeowners after learning that homeowner did not live at property -- Coverage cannot be created by waiver
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Liens -- Construction -- Foreclosure -- Judicial sale -- Vacation -- Notice of sale -- Inadequate sale price -- Former owner's argument that it was deprived of opportunity to bid by its attorneys' failure to notify owner of judicial auction not basis for vacating sale -- Record conclusively established that co-counsel knew of auction and actually attended -- Finding that sale price was grossly inadequate not basis for vacating otherwise proper foreclosure sale
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Municipal corporations -- Boundaries -- Modification -- Appeals -- Certiorari -- Jurisdiction -- Second-tier review of circuit court order upholding city's decision to reject petition to contract city's boundaries -- Circuit court had no authority to review city commission's decision to leave city's boundaries unchanged because it was a legislative decision -- Section 171.081(1) did not authorize judicial review of city's resolution of contraction issue where no contraction ordinance was passed -- Because section 171.081 is the sole and exclusive procedure for challenging a municipal government's failure to comply with Chapter 171, circuit court lacked common law certiorari jurisdiction over the issue -- There is no right to review such matters outside section 171.081 because establishing and modifying municipal boundaries is exclusively a legislative power, and the courts' common law certiorari does not extend to legislative acts -- Court rejects parties' assertion that enacting or declining to enact a contraction ordinance under section 171.051(2) is a quasi-judicial function -- City's election to employ quasi-judicial procedure when considering petition for contraction did not morph its exercise of legislative power into a quasi-judicial decision -- Circuit court order quashed
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Real property -- Homestead -- Surviving spouse -- Waiver -- No error in denying petition to determine homestead status of real property -- Petitioner waived his homestead rights by executing warranty deed assigning his rights and interests to his deceased spouse prior to her death -- Language of warranty deed was sufficiently specific to waive homestead rights under section 732.702(1) -- Court rejects argument that waiver did not comply with section 732.7025 waiver requirements -- Section 732.7025 is not applicable where conveyances at issue were not testamentary dispositions of property by will or trust
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Replevin -- Indispensable party -- Dismissal -- Replevin action seeking return of taxi permit/decal plaintiff co-owned with another individual following expiration of contract which had allowed defendants to use the permit for two years -- Trial court erred by dismissing replevin count with prejudice based on finding that plaintiff was required to join co-owner as a co-plaintiff in replevin action against third parties, but failed to do so -- A replevin action does not always require that all owners of the subject property be joined as plaintiffs because the primary issue in a replevin action is the right to possession of the property, not ownership -- As a co-owner of the permit, plaintiff could sue for replevin against defendants without joining the other co-owner because plaintiff had the right to immediate possession of property that defendants held -- Furthermore, because defendants had already been defaulted, there was no replevin action for trial court to dismiss -- Attorney's fees -- Portion of order awarding co-owner attorney's fees under section 78.20 must be reversed where co-owner was never a defendant and complaint was erroneously dismissed
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Torts -- Automobile accident -- Punitive damages -- Intentional misconduct -- Trial court erred by granting plaintiff leave to amend her complaint to add claim for punitive damages based on affirmative finding of intentional misconduct -- Plaintiff failed to satisfy procedural requirements for raising claim for punitive damages where plaintiff improperly pled her punitive damages claim as a stand-alone count -- Defendant's admission that he operated forklift in the wrong lane of travel in violation of multiple statutes was not sufficient to demonstrate intentional misconduct that rose to level required by statute where defendant testified that he believed, given the traffic conditions of the area, that driving in that fashion would lower the probability of injury or damage -- While defendant's belief may have been mistaken, it did not demonstrate that defendant had actual knowledge of the wrongfulness of the conduct and the high probability that injury or damage to the claimant would result
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Trusts -- Contracts -- Arbitration -- Enforceability of arbitration clause -- Non-signatory -- Estoppel -- Action filed against bank where trust account was opened alleging that bank failed to recognize plaintiff's authority as co-trustee by freezing the account, refusing to honor checks drawn on account, and failing to send account statements -- Trial court erred by denying defendant's motion to compel arbitration under master account agreement based on determination that there were no documents evidencing plaintiff's interest in the relevant contract -- Although plaintiff was not a signatory to the agreement, plaintiff is equitably estopped from arguing that she is not bound by the agreement's arbitration clause while simultaneously claiming a benefit under the agreement -- Plaintiff's claim expressly seeks benefits of account agreement where she seeks authority over trust account equal to that of signatory and claims entitlement to account services that defendant is obligated to provide only by virtue of the account agreement
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Criminal Law Headnotes (Jump to Civil Law Headnotes)

THESE ARE NOT ALL OF THE CASES RELEASED BY THE COURTS FOR THE WEEK.
To see others not presented here, log in for more comprehensive weekly listings.

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