Third District Court of Appeal
State of Florida
Opinion filed March 22, 2017.
Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
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No. 3D17-298
Lower Tribunal No. 16-6507
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Zenith Insurance Company,
Appellant,
vs.
Metrobank S.A., et al.,
Appellees.
An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Antonio Marin,
Judge.
Greenberg Traurig, P.A., and David O. Batista and Courtney M. Keller (Fort
Lauderdale) and Julissa Rodriguez and Stephanie L. Varela; Walters Levine &
Lozano, and Thomas C. Valentine (Sarasota), for appellant.
Capote Law, P.A., and Susan Capote, for appellees.
Before SUAREZ, C.J., and ROTHENBERG and SALTER, JJ.
SALTER, J.
Zenith Insurance Company (“Zenith”) appeals a final order denying Zenith’s
motion to intervene in a mortgage foreclosure case brought by the
appellee/plaintiff, Metrobank, S.A. (“Metrobank”), against a group of obligors
(collectively, “Welo”)1 regarding 17 properties in nine Florida counties. We
affirm the order denying intervention and vacate our temporary stay in this case for
the reasons which follow.
Zenith’s alleged claims against certain Welo entities (and 13 of the 17
properties subject to Metrobank’s mortgage liens) are based on a judgment lien
entered against those entities in December 2015 for approximately $1.8 million—
just before Metrobank’s mortgage lien was recorded, and three months before
Metrobank’s foreclosure action began—and a related but subsequent judgment lien
for attorney’s fees for some $973,000 obtained and recorded by Zenith in
December 2016.
When Metrobank commenced its foreclosure action, it joined Zenith as a
defendant based on the first and larger judgment recorded by Zenith. Zenith
moved to dismiss based on its alleged lien priority, and its counsel threatened
sanctions under section 57.105, Florida Statutes (2016), if Metrobank persisted in
its joinder of Zenith. Metrobank voluntarily dismissed Zenith from the action in
May 2016.
1 These entities were formerly known as companies within the “Farm Stores”
group.
2
Metrobank filed a motion for final summary judgment of foreclosure and
scheduled the motion for hearing on December 12, 2016. Zenith’s second final
judgment against Welo, for approximately $973,000 in attorney’s fees, was entered
December 1, 2016 (in Zenith’s separate lawsuit). After business hours on
December 11, 2016 (the day before the hearing on Metrobank’s motion for a final
summary judgment of foreclosure against Welo), Zenith moved to intervene in the
Metrobank foreclosure case. The court granted the final summary judgment of
foreclosure (for approximately $6.9 million) in favor of Metrobank but did not
enter an order on Zenith’s motion to intervene.
On February 9, 2017, the court heard Zenith’s supplemental motion to
intervene and denied it. This appeal by Zenith followed. The trial court reset the
foreclosure sale for March 28, 2017. Zenith moved to expedite this appeal; we
granted that motion and entered a temporary stay of the foreclosure sale pending
further order of this Court.
Analysis
The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying Zenith’s motion to
intervene—a motion filed only hours before the hearing scheduled on Metrobank’s
pending motion for a final summary judgment of foreclosure. See Fla. R. Civ. P.
1.230 (intervention to be in subordination to the main proceeding); Union Cent.
3
Life Ins. Co. v. Carlisle, 593 So. 2d 505 (Fla. 1992); Havanatur, S.A. v. 747 Travel
Agency, Inc., 463 So. 2d 404 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985).
In the present case, Zenith’s right to enforce the approximately $1.8 million
judgment lien against Welo is unaffected by Metrobank’s enforcement of its later-
recorded mortgage lien. Indeed, Zenith itself sought and obtained dismissal from
the action (in May 2016) based on that claim some seven months before it changed
position and sought to intervene.
As to Zenith’s post-mortgage judgment lien for approximately $973,000.00
in attorney’s fees, Zenith has sought collection of that judgment in other
proceedings,2 and its judgment lien for that amount post-dates the lis pendens filed
by Metrobank in the present case.3 Because Zenith was initially a defendant in
Metrobank’s foreclosure suit, it could have counterclaimed in mid-2016 to assert
that its remaining claim for attorney’s fees was entitled to priority over
Metrobank’s lien, and it could have sought to foreclose its own allegedly-superior
judgment liens against Welo and Metrobank in the case, but it did not. Zenith
remains free to pursue any of its claims against Metrobank in its separately-
2On December 23, 2016, Zenith filed a separate action, still pending, against
Metrobank and Welo.
3 Zenith’s judgment for its attorney’s fees against Welo was entered months after
the 30-day intervention deadline (following recordation of Metrobank’s lis
pendens) specified in section 48.23(1)(d), Florida Statutes (2016).
4
pending circuit court lawsuits, though we express no opinion regarding those
claims.
Affirmed.4
4 We have vacated our temporary stay of the foreclosure sale by separate order.
5