Friday, April 9, 2010

Court Sanctions Party & Counsel For Filing Rehearing Motion That Lacked Merit

In Unifirst Corporation v. City of Jacksonville, Tax Collectors Office (1D09-0820), the First District sanctioned a party and its counsel for filing a motion for rehearing when the appellant "knew or should have known that the motion lacks legal merit and violates the legal principles and rules of appellate procedure."  The court stated:
Section 57.105(4) provides that the party seeking sanctions must serve the opposing party with a copy of the motion, but may not file it with the court “unless, within 21 days after service of the motion, the challenged paper, claim, defense, contention, allegation, or denial is not withdrawn or appropriately corrected.” Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.330(a), however, allows a party only ten days to respond to motions for rehearing. Thus, as Appellee acknowledges, it was unable to comply with section 57.105(4) and also timely respond to Appellant’s motion for rehearing. Although Appellee’s motion for attorney’s fees and sanctions was improperly filed, for the reasons explained below, this court, on its own initiative, awards Appellee attorney’s fees. See § 57.105(1), Fla. Stat. (2009) (providing the court may award fees on its own initiative).
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Appellant filed a motion seeking rehearing or clarification and rehearing en banc. In it, Appellant addressed the merits of the lower court’s final judgment allowing certain documents into evidence and the general sufficiency of the evidence. These arguments were raised in Appellant’s Initial Brief and extensively addressed during oral argument; rearguing these points was improper.
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Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.330(1) has been interpreted to mean that “[a] motion for rehearing shall not reargue the merits of the court’s order.”...Appellant compounded its error by including in its motion new arguments related to an issue already addressed in its briefs and at oral argument. “[L]egal arguments . . . must be made between the parties before a judicial decision is rendered; not between one litigant and a tribunal which has already ruled.”...To illustrate the egregiousness of Appellant’s violation of this principle, Appellant dedicated less than one page of its Initial Brief to this issue, and cited no cases, either in its briefs or during oral argument; yet in its rehearing motion, Appellant devoted over five pages to the issue and, for the first time, cited and discussed several cases.
Both Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.330 and the cases we have cited existed at the time Appellant filed its motion; thus, Appellant’s attorney knew or should have known that the motion would not be supported by the application of the law to the material facts of this case. Consequently, a sanction of attorney’s fees pursuant to section 57.105(1)(b) is warranted. 
In its motion for rehearing, Appellant also requested a written opinion, arguing that this court’s per curiam affirmance conflicts with an opinion issued by the Third District Court of Appeal and that clarification “would provide a legitimate basis for Supreme Court review.” It is meritless to argue that an opinion which says nothing more than “Affirmed” conflicts with a written opinion issued by another district court.

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