Date: 04-14-2015

Case Style: Robert Maggiano, D.O., P.A. v. Whiskey Creek Professional Center, LLC

Case Number: 2D14-2612

Judge: Altenbernd

Court: Florida Court of Appeal, Second District on appeal from the Circuit Court, Lee County

Plaintiff's Attorney: Alexander Brockmeyer, Brandon Perkins, and Brett Powell of The Powell
Law Firm, P.A., Fort Myers, for Appellants.

Defendant's Attorney: Tom Smoot, of J. Tom Smoot, III, P.A., Fort Myers, for Appellee.

Description: Dr. and Mrs. Maggiano, as well as Robert Maggiano, D.O., P.A., appeal a
judgment in favor of Whiskey Creek Professional Center, LLC. The judgment was
entered after a clerk's default. The trial court based its monetary award on the amount
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alleged in the complaint. We conclude that the damages were not liquidated by the
complaint. Accordingly, we reverse and remand for a new determination of damages.
Robert Maggiano, D.O., P.A. (the tenant) entered into a five-year lease of
professional space in April 2009. The lease payments were personally guaranteed by
Dr. Maggiano and his wife. The lease required the upfront payment of the first and last
months' rent, which totaled approximately $4300. A security deposit was due in two
installments of $1012 on the eleventh day of the fifth and sixth months. The amount of
the rent increased annually from $2024.16 per month in 2009 to $2278.63 per month in
2014. The lease was assigned to Whiskey Creek Professional Center, LLC, during the
term of the lease.
In January 2014, Whiskey Creek filed a complaint against the tenant and
Dr. and Mrs. Maggiano. The three-count complaint sought to evict the tenant, collect
unpaid rent from the tenant, and obtain a judgment on the guaranty from Dr. and Mrs.
Maggiano. The complaint does not allege when the tenant stopped paying rent. It
alleges only that the tenant had a written lease agreement to pay $2278.63 a month,
"sporadically made partial rent payments," and had "failed to pay rent due in the total
amount of $22,788.61."
There is no dispute that the tenant, Dr. Maggiano, and Mrs. Maggiano did
not respond to the suit after service. A clerk's default was entered as to all three
defendants in late January. An attorney appeared of record for them shortly thereafter.
He filed an answer for all three defendants. Whiskey Creek then filed a motion for
default judgment, seeking a judgment for liquidated damages in the amount of
$22,788.61. The next day, the defendants filed a motion to set aside the clerk's default.
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Whiskey Creek countered with a motion for summary judgment and an affidavit that
stated that the rent due was $24,738.04. The affidavit did not contain any accounting to
explain how this new amount was determined. Dr. Maggiano filed an affidavit in
opposition to the summary judgment, claiming that all rent due to Whiskey Creek had
been paid.
The record contains minutes of a hearing on April 28, 2014, but no
transcript of the hearing itself. Those minutes reflect that the trial court denied the
motion to set aside default and granted a summary judgment in the amount alleged in
the complaint, i.e., $22,788.61, plus $592.90 accrued interest. It then entered a final
summary judgment in favor of Whiskey Creek for the total amount of $23,381.51. The
written judgment contains a handwritten explanation by the trial court stating: "The court
concludes as a matter of law that the damages as alleged in the complaint were
liquidated by default being entered. Therefore the default established this amount was
due and owing."
The only issue raised in this appeal is whether the trial court appropriately
relied on the amount alleged in the complaint to establish the amount of the judgment.
As an initial matter, we conclude that the judgment is not actually a summary judgment.
Despite its title, it is obvious from the handwritten addition that the judgment is a default
judgment. The competing affidavits as to the amount due for unpaid rent would have
prevented the entry of a summary judgment. See, e.g., Volusia Cnty. v. Aberdeen at
Ormond Beach, L.P., 760 So. 2d 126 (Fla. 2000).
A default judgment can be entered on liquidated damages without further
proof of damages. See Paramo v. Floyd, 154 So. 3d 477, 478 (Fla. 2d DCA 2015). But
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a hearing is required on claims for unliquidated damages even where a party has been
defaulted. Medcom USA, Inc. v. Ryder Homes & Groves Co., 847 So. 2d 594, 596 (Fla.
2d DCA 2003). Whether the damages are liquidated by the complaint is a question of
law. Talbot v. Rosenbaum, 142 So. 3d 965, 967 (Fla. 4th DCA 2014).
This case is similar to Charlotte Harbor Properties Associates, Ltd. v. Huff,
632 So. 2d 229 (Fla. 2d DCA 1994), in which the complaint alleged a monetary amount
of damages without explaining how that amount was determined. This court held that
the amount was not liquidated because the amount was "not based upon an
arithmetically certain calculation or the application of definite rules of law." Id. at 229;
see also Medcom USA, 847 So. 2d at 596.
Our decision in Charlotte Harbor was based on Bowman v. Kingsland
Development, Inc., 432 So. 2d 660 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983). In Bowman, Judge Cowart,
writing for the majority, explained:
Damages are liquidated when the proper amount to be
awarded can be determined with exactness from the cause
of action as pleaded, i.e., from a pleaded agreement
between the parties, by an arithmetical calculation or by
application of definite rules of law. Since every negotiable
instrument must be "an unconditional promise or order to
pay a sum certain in money," actions for the sums directly
due on negotiable instruments are, by definition, actions for
liquidated damages. However, damages are not liquidated if
the ascertainment of their exact sum requires the taking of
testimony to ascertain facts upon which to base a value
judgment.
Id. at 662-63 (internal citations omitted).
In this case, the complaint alleges a specific amount of unpaid rent. But
the complaint admits that rent payments had been sporadic and it attaches the lease.
From the lease, it is clear that the accounting to determine the damages in this case is
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somewhat involved. We cannot tell whether the amount alleged in the complaint
accounted for the deposit, whether the amount stopped with rent in December 2013 or
continued to the end of the lease, or how the amount alleged dealt with the sporadic
nature of payment. In other words, testimony is required to establish facts on which to
base the exact amount of damages. Accordingly, we conclude that the conclusory
allegation of monetary damages in this case does not render the damages liquidated,
and we reverse and remand for a new determination of damages.

Outcome: Reversed and remanded.

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Defendant's Experts:

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