Winbar, L.L.C. v. Rabia Ardan Morris
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
Date FiledMarch 4, 2021
Docket1D20-0972
StatusPublished
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Full Opinion
FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
STATE OF FLORIDA
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No. 1D20-972
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WINBAR, L.L.C.,
Appellant,
v.
RABIA ARDAN MORRIS,
Appellee.
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On appeal from the Circuit Court for Leon County.
John C. Cooper, Judge.
March 4, 2021
PER CURIAM.
Winbar, L.L.C., appeals the trial court’s order determining
Rabia Ardan Morris held a prescriptive easement appurtenant.
After reviewing the record, we find the order was not timely
appealed and dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.
This case initially came before the Court after a trial was held
and the factfinder determined Ms. Morris had proven she had a
prescriptive easement on Winbar’s property. This Court affirmed
the challenge to that determination in an unpublished decision.
Winbar LLC v. Morris, 242 So. 3d 337 (Fla. 1st DCA 2018) (table).
After this Court affirmed, Ms. Morris sought to enforce the
final judgment and argued that the prescriptive easement granted
was as an easement appurtenant. Winbar opposed the motion,
claiming that it had offered Ms. Morris personal access to the
property subject to the prescriptive easement and that the
easement was in gross rather than appurtenant. The trial court
denied Ms. Morris’s motion to enforce the final judgment after
determining it could not grant the motion without modifying the
final judgment. The trial court reasoned that the final judgment
could not be modified because it became the law of the case after it
had been affirmed on appeal. Ms. Morris appealed the denial of her
motion to enforce the final judgment, and this Court reversed the
trial court’s order, finding that the final judgment was ambiguous
and that during the initial appeal, this Court had not determined
whether the prescriptive easement was an easement appurtenant
or an easement in gross. Morris v. Winbar LLC, 273 So. 3d 176,
179 (Fla. 1st DCA 2019).
When this case was sent back to the trial court, the only
authorized post-judgment motion before the trial court was the
motion to enforce the final judgment. See Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.570(d).
In determining whether Ms. Morris could enforce her prescriptive
easement, the trial court found Ms. Morris had a prescriptive
easement appurtenant and reduced that finding to an order. It is
that order that Winbar has appealed. However, that order did not
determine the issue before the trial court—whether to enforce the
prescriptive easement in the final judgment. As a result, the order
did not end the judicial labor and was an interim order. See
Hoffman v. Hall, 817 So. 2d 1057, 1058−59 (Fla. 1st DCA 2002)
(dismissing appeal because order on review was not final and
explaining that for an order to be final, the order must dispose of
the issue before the trial court so that no additional judicial labor
is required).
The trial court rendered the interim order on December 13,
2019. To the extent the interim order was appealable based on the
theory it determined immediate possessory rights to the easement,
Winbar had thirty days to appeal from it as a nonfinal order. Cf.
Fla. R. App. P. 9.130(a)(3)(C)(ii), (b). A motion for rehearing
directed at an interim order is not authorized. Cf. Fla. R. Civ. P.
1.530; see Capone v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., 116 So. 3d 363, 372
(Fla. 2013) (“This rule has been consistently construed to authorize
rehearings of orders and judgments which are final in nature.”).
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As such, it does not toll the time for filing a notice of appeal. Cf.
Fla. R. App. P. 9.020(h)(1). Winbar did not file its notice of appeal
of the interim order until March 20, 2020, which was well beyond
thirty days from rendition of the order.
To the extent the trial court’s interim order either was not
appealable at all or was not timely appealed, it still would have
been subject to review on appeal from the final order disposing of
the motion to enforce the final judgment. At the latest, the final
order, which denied the motion for enforcement, was rendered on
June 23, 2020. * Since neither party appealed that order and the
time to file an appeal of that order expired a long time ago,
Winbar’s appeal here is untimely. This Court, in turn, is without
jurisdiction to review the order Winbar requests us to review.
Accordingly, we are required to dismiss this appeal.
DISMISSED.
ROBERTS, ROWE, and TANENBAUM, JJ., concur.
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Not final until disposition of any timely and
authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or
9.331.
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Edward Wood, Kimberly L. King, and Annalise R. Kapusta of
Wood & King, P.A., Tallahassee; Manuel Farach of Mrachek,
* The trial court initially granted the motion to enforce on
March 2, 2020. Winbar sought rehearing on March 15, 2020. The
final order denying the motion to enforce rescinded the March 2
order that had granted the motion. We base the June 23 rendition
date on an assumption (but without deciding) that the March 15
motion tolled the rendition date of the March 2 order granting
enforcement. Of course, if the motion for rehearing directed to the
March 2 order was not authorized, then the thirty days for
appealing that final order ran from March 2.
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Fitzgerald, Rose, Konopka, Thomas & Weiss, P.A., West Palm
Beach, for Appellant.
Susan S. Thompson and Andrew J. Power of Smith, Thompson,
Shaw, Minacci, Colon & Power, P.A., Tallahassee, for Appellee.
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