{"id":903298,"date":"2024-09-17T15:18:10","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T21:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=903298"},"modified":"2024-09-17T15:18:14","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T21:18:14","slug":"attorneys-fees-within-summary-judgment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/attorneys-fees-within-summary-judgment\/","title":{"rendered":"Defendant\u2019s Request for Attorney\u2019s Fees Within Its Summary Judgment Motion is Insufficient to Place Plaintiff on Notice That Defendants Are Claiming Attorney\u2019s Fees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/marshalldennehey.com\/attorneys\/carolin-pacheco\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Carolin Pacheco<\/a> | Marshall Dennehey<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Barnhardt Construction, LLC v. Steven C. Hildreth, et al., 31 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 600a (Fla. 5th Cir. Ct. 2024)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On February 6, 2024, the Fifth Circuit Court in Hernando County, Florida, rendered a decision regarding a prevailing defendant\u2019s request for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/attorney-fees-insurers-may-be-on-the-hook\/\">attorney\u2019s fees<\/a> within a motion for summary judgment. The court found that the defendant\u2019s request for attorney\u2019s fees within the summary judgment motion was insufficient to place the plaintiff on notice that the defendants were claiming attorney\u2019s fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notably, the defendant did not file an answer to the lawsuit filed by the plaintiffs, instead, opting to proceed directly to filing a motion for summary judgment with a request for attorney\u2019s fees. As there was no responsive pleading filed in the case, the summary judgment motion was the first instance where the defendant raised the issue of attorney\u2019s fees. The next day, the plaintiffs filed a notice of voluntary dismissal with prejudice and further released its construction lien that was the subject of the lawsuit. Subsequently, the defendants filed a motion to award attorney\u2019s fees pursuant to \u00a7 713.29, Florida Statutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The trial court recognized the precedent established in&nbsp;<em>Stockman v. Downs<\/em>, 573 So. 2d 835 (Fla. 1991), which found that a claim for attorney\u2019s fees, whether based on contract or statute, must be pled and failure to comply constitutes a waiver of the claim.&nbsp;<em>Id.<\/em>&nbsp;at 838. \u201cThe purpose of the pleading requirement is notice\u2014by pleading a claim to attorney\u2019s fees, a party notifies the opposing party of the claim and prevents unfair surprise.\u201d&nbsp;<em>Sardon Found v. New Horizons Serv. Dogs, Inc.<\/em>, 85 So. 2d 416 (Fla. 5th DCA 2003). Florida courts have specifically recognized that setting forth a claim for attorney\u2019s fees in a motion for summary judgement does not satisfy the requirements of Stockman. See,&nbsp;<em>Taylor v. T.R. Properties, Inc. of Winter Park<\/em>, 603 So. 2d 1380 (Fla. 5th DCA 1992).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this decision, the Fifth Circuit Court continues to uphold an often forgotten procedural requirement regarding notice. While the words \u201cpleading\u201d and \u201cmotion\u201d are habitually used interchangeably, a motion is not a pleading, and parties must carefully ensure that proper pleadings have been filed for the case to be at issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When one of your cases is in need of a construction expert, estimates, insurance appraisal or umpire services in defect or insurance disputes &#8211; please call Advise &amp; Consult, Inc. at 888.684.8305, or email <a href=\"mailto:experts@adviseandconsult.net\">experts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carolin Pacheco | Marshall Dennehey Barnhardt Construction, LLC v. Steven C. Hildreth, et al., 31 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 600a (Fla. 5th Cir. Ct. 2024) On February 6, 2024, the Fifth Circuit Court in Hernando County, Florida, rendered a decision regarding a prevailing defendant\u2019s request for attorney\u2019s fees within a motion for summary judgment. The&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/attorneys-fees-within-summary-judgment\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Defendant\u2019s Request for Attorney\u2019s Fees Within Its Summary Judgment Motion is Insufficient to Place Plaintiff on Notice That Defendants Are Claiming Attorney\u2019s Fees<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[172],"tags":[9895,142,27],"class_list":["post-903298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-law-2","tag-advise-consult","tag-attorneys-fees","tag-construction-law","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Defendant\u2019s Request for Attorney\u2019s Fees Within Its Summary Judgment Motion is Insufficient to Place Plaintiff on Notice That Defendants Are Claiming Attorney\u2019s Fees - Advise &amp; 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