Date: 05-15-2002

Case Style: J.T.A. Factors, Inc. v. Philcon Services, Inc.

Case Number: 3D00-3578

Judge: Green

Court: Florida Court of Appeals, Third Circuit

Plaintiff's Attorney: Vezina, Lawrence & Piscitelli, P.A., and Joseph W. Lawrence, II, and Mary Piccard Vance, for appellee.

Defendant's Attorney: Liebler, Gonzalez & Portuondo, P.A., and Juan A. Gonzalez, and William M. Richardson, Jr., for appellant.

Description: J.T.A. Factors, Inc. (“J.T.A”), defendant below, appeals the denial of its motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (“JNOV”) and for new trial after an adverse jury verdict on the issue of liability in a suit grounded on the filing of fraudulent liens, tortious interference with business relationships and conversion. We affirm.

Philcon Services, Inc. (“Philcon”) appellee, was a steel erector subcontractor on three major construction projects. Philcon employed Construction Personnel Corporation (“CPC”) to facilitate funding of its payroll services. Appellant, J.T.A., is a factoring company that provides accounts receivable financing for its customers. J.T.A. entered into a factoring agreement, security agreement and power of attorney with CPC. Pursuant to their agreement, CPC assigned its accounts receivables and invoices as security for financing provided by J.T.A. CPC would invoice Philcon for the services provided by a separate payroll company that paid the payroll taxes. Philcon would then send the payments to J.T.A. directly for services provided by CPC.

Philcon’s payments to J.T.A. designated the specific projects to which the payments should be applied. That designation was determined by the project from which the money was received. Eventually, Philcon learned that J.T.A. was routinely applying monies received from one job to invoices of another by crediting the oldest invoices first. Philcon protested the misapplication, as it made it difficult, if not impossible, to track where its payments were going. J.T.A. responded that it would be too difficult to change its crediting method.

In 1996, J.T.A. recorded claims of lien against real property associated with the three construction jobs Philcon was working on in the amounts of $618,371.20; $40,351.54; and $44,877.61. In its claims of liens, J.T.A. asserted that CPC had provided labor to Philcon and that Philcon had failed to pay the claimed amounts for the labor. Prior to trial, Philcon and CPC advised J.T.A. that CPC had not provided any labor and that therefore J.T.A. held no lien rights. They also advised J.T.A. that the amounts claimed were incorrect. At meetings and via telephone calls, Philcon made attempts to come to an agreement with J.T.A. so that the liens could be lifted and also notified J.T.A. of the negative impact the liens were having on its business and future contracts. J.T.A. maintained each of the liens against the three projects for several weeks. Ultimately, J.T.A. released the liens even though it never received any compensation for the amounts it claimed to be owed on the projects. Philcon filed suit.

At trial, in support of its claim for tortious interference with its business relationships, Philcon presented evidence that J.T.A. had filed the liens even though: (1) J.T.A. knew CPC had not provided labor for the improvements to the projects; (2) J.T.A. had no way of knowing whether, in fact, there had been any non-payment by Philcon for those projects because J.T.A. had refused to properly account for Philcon’s payments , and (3) J.T.A. knew that the liens were fraudulently filed.

J.T.A. moved for directed verdict at the close of Philcon’s case. The motion was denied. At the close of all the evidence, J.T.A. and Philcon submitted proposed jury instructions and verdict forms, but J.T.A. did not renew its motion for directed verdict. The trial court entered a partial summary judgment in favor of Philcon where it was undisputed that neither CPC or J.T.A. provided labor for the three liened projects. The jury rendered a verdict in favor of J.T.A. on the fraudulent lien count and entered its verdict in favor of Philcon on the tortious interference and conversion counts. J.T.A. moved for JNOV and for a new trial on the conversion and tortious interference counts. The motions were denied and trial was set for the damages portion of the case. This appeal followed.

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Based upon our careful review of the record evidence, we find no merit to J.T.A.’s arguments that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to meet the elements of tortious interference and therefore affirm without further discussion. See Katz v. Ghodsi, 682 So. 2d 586, 587 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996) (holding that plaintiff’s motion of a new trial should have been denied because it was solely for the jury to resolve the conflicts and consider the weight of

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Click the case caption above for the full text of the Court's opinion. disputed testimony.).

Outcome: Affirmed

Plaintiff's Experts: Unavailable

Defendant's Experts: Unavailable

Comments: None