THESE ARE NOT ALL OF THE CASES RELEASED BY THE COURTS FOR THE WEEK.
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Civil procedure -- Discovery -- Attorney-client privilege -- Exceptions -- Common interest -- Joint ventures -- Action brought against defendants after they failed to formalize partnership agreement with plaintiff and allegedly co-opted project for their own personal benefit -- Trial court did not depart from essential requirements of law in finding that statutory “common interest” exception to attorney-client privilege applied to communications between defendants and attorney concerning parties' attempts to formalize a written partnership agreement after determining that attorney jointly represented plaintiff and defendants throughout formation of parties' joint venture and that the subject communications were relevant to a matter of the parties' common interest
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Civil procedure -- Intervention -- Post-judgment collection efforts -- Real property sale -- Trial court abused its discretion in denying motion to intervene in post-judgment execution proceedings involving sale of property where movant resided and which movant had declared as her homestead -- Movant demonstrated an interest in the property sufficient to warrant intervention by alleging that she had executed quitclaim deed to judgment debtor as collateral for funds the judgment debtor advanced to her to satisfy a second mortgage -- If allegations are true, movant retained legal title to property, and judgment debtor merely held security interest in the property -- Retention of ownership, considered in tandem with protections afforded to Florida homestead, sufficiently warranted intervention
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Contracts -- Liens -- Priority -- Commercial lease -- Option to purchase -- Property subject to purchase option transferred by contracting landlord to a developer who subsequently encumbered the property with a mortgage -- Trial court erred by determining that tenant's purchase option held priority over mortgage where plain language of lease's subordination clause unambiguously provides that entire lease agreement is subordinate to any and all future mortgages upon the premises by the landlord or its successors -- General law regarding lien priority cannot overwrite plain language of parties' specific agreement -- Lease renewal -- Trial court erred by considering parol evidence in determining that lease's ambiguous renewal provision provided for two renewal terms, and thus the separate lease executed by developer and another defendant at the end of tenant's first renewal term was invalid -- Where the language of a renewal provision does not clearly exhibit an intent to provide for more than one renewal, the number of renewals must be limited to the lowest number expressly called for by the language of the agreement -- Scope of agreement -- Trial court erred in determining that a specific lot was not part of the property purchased by tenant because it had a different street address -- Regardless of changing of street address, disputed lot was part of property that was subject to purchase option where defendants admitted lot was part of the disputed parcel at oral argument, their concession was amply supported by the record, and final judgment's express finding that tenant's purchase option covered the parcel was unchallenged
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Estates -- Real property -- Conveyance -- Validity -- Chain of title -- Evidence -- Trial court erred in determining that plaintiff was only a 50% owner of property at issue rather than a 75% owner based on finding that plaintiff had failed to show that former deceased owner's 25% interest in the property was validly transferred from decedent's estate to the two beneficiaries who eventually conveyed their interest to defendant -- Deeds -- Defects -- Although deed conveying property to decedent prior to her death lacked statutorily required subscribing witnesses, section 95.231(1) automatically cured that defect five years after deed was recorded -- Personal representative releases and certificates of distribution were sufficient to prove transfer of decedent's interest in the property to the two beneficiaries -- Presumption of correctness applied to releases -- Hearsay -- Exceptions -- Releases were recorded instruments purporting to affect an interest in real property and were admissible as proof of their contents and execution -- Court rejects argument that personal representative's assertion that he was in fact the personal representative was insufficient proof of that fact -- Proposition that an agent's authority cannot be proven solely by their own declaration is inapplicable because personal representatives derive their authority from a court appointment, not a self-declaration -- Releases' statement that title vested “by operation of law” is not expert testimony or improper legal opinion -- Section 733.613(1) did not require transfers by the personal representative to be ratified by court order because releases did not involve a “sale” of decedent's interest in the property -- Probate court was not required to ratify operation-of-law transfers of non-homestead property to beneficiaries or the releases themselves
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Liens -- Construction -- Entitlement -- Materialman -- Construction lien filed by plaintiff contractor after property owner failed to pay half of contract price upon completion of project drawings -- Trial court did not err in determining that plaintiff was a materialman where parties' contract required plaintiff to manufacture and deliver trusses to job site -- Trial court erred in determining that plaintiff was permitted to file a construction lien against property owner where trusses were never delivered and, thus, no permanent benefit to the property occurred
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Workers' compensation -- Compensable injuries -- Law enforcement officers -- Heart disease -- Claimant, a long-time law enforcement officer, presented sufficient evidence to invoke presumption that his disabling heart disease was compensable under section 112.18 -- Evidence presented by employer/carrier was not sufficient to prove that claimant's coronary artery disease, and the heart attack that followed, resulted solely from non-work factors, as required to rebut presumption -- Order denying compensability reversed
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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.
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Criminal law -- Sexual battery -- Lewd or lascivious battery -- Child victim -- Double jeopardy -- Defendant's convictions for two counts of sexual battery did not violate double jeopardy because facts alleged in information reflect that charges were based on separate, distinct acts -- Defendant's convictions for two counts of lewd and lascivious battery violate double jeopardy where information used identical language for each count and charged defendant with committing the same crime against the same victim during the same time frame -- Court rejects argument that supreme court's decision in Lee v. State, which held that the reviewing court should consider only the charging document when determining whether multiple convictions are based upon the same conduct for purposes of double jeopardy, does not apply when a defendant is convicted of committing the same act upon the same victim during the same time period in violation of the same criminal statute -- Conflict certified
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