Third District Court of Appeal
State of Florida
Opinion filed April 12, 2023.
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No. 3D22-2209
Lower Tribunal No. 22-32498 CC
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Yvern Jones,
Appellant,
vs.
Ivy M. Reid,
Appellee.
An Appeal from the County Court for Miami-Dade County, Gloria
Gonzalez-Meyer, Judge.
Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc., and Jeffrey M. Hearne, Kathryn
Mesa, and Alexander Weintraub, for appellant.
Ivy M. Reid, in proper person.
Before EMAS, SCALES and LINDSEY, JJ.
EMAS, J.
Yvern Jones (“Tenant”) appeals from a Final Judgment for Removal of
Tenant following an eviction complaint filed by Ivy M. Reid (“Landlord”).
Upon our review of the record, and Landlord’s pleading (which we treat as a
confession of error), we reverse the final judgment and remand for further
proceedings.
In response to Landlord’s eviction complaint, Tenant timely filed an
answer and affirmative defenses as well as a motion for determination of
rent. The answer denied the material allegations of the complaint; the
affirmative defenses raised legal and equitable defenses, including a claim
of retaliatory eviction; and moved for a determination of rent, alleging that
Tenant was a “Section 8 voucher participant” and requesting the trial court
determine how much (if any) rent Tenant was required to deposit into the
registry of the court.
Landlord thereafter filed a motion requesting the court enter a default
final judgment, asserting as a basis that Tenant “has not vacated the
premises as requested in the complaint.” The timely answer and affirmative
defenses, and the motion to determine rent (as well as Landlord’s motion to
strike answer and enter default) all remained pending when the trial court,
without a hearing, entered an unelaborated Final Judgment for Removal of
Tenant. Tenant sought rehearing and moved to vacate the default final
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judgment, which was denied, but the trial court stayed the writ of possession
during the pendency of this appeal.
Given the procedural posture of the case, the trial court’s entry of final
judgment was erroneous. See Crawford v. Grubb, 337 So. 3d 521 (Fla. 2d
DCA 2022) (reversing final judgment of eviction, where trial court
prematurely entered a default final judgment after tenant filed a timely
answer and affirmative defenses). See also Axen v. Poah Cutler Manor, LLC,
323 So. 3d 800, 801 (Fla. 3d DCA 2021) (reversing final judgment of eviction
because “the undisposed-of motion to determine rent precluded entry of final
judgment”); Prince v. MCR Apts. 1, LLC, 326 So. 3d 228 (Fla. 3d DCA 2021)
(reversing final judgment of eviction when motion to determine rent remained
pending and unresolved).
We therefore reverse and remand with directions to vacate the default
final judgment and for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
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