Custom Homes by Triumph, LLC v. Sverdlow, Sverdlow

Summary

The Florida Second District Court of Appeal treated Custom Homes by Triumph, LLC's appeal as a petition for writ of certiorari and quashed an order discharging its construction lien. The court held that the twenty-day show-cause period under section 713.21(4), Florida Statutes, begins only when the clerk issues a summons, which had not occurred. The court also held that Custom Homes had already commenced an action to enforce the lien through its foreclosure claim.

Holdings

1. The order discharging the construction lien was not reviewable by direct appeal because it did not end the judicial labor in the case, was not reviewable as a partial final order, and was not among the nonfinal orders authorized for review under Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.130.
2. The court had certiorari jurisdiction to review the order discharging Custom Homes' construction lien because the order caused material injury that could not be corrected on postjudgment appeal.
3. Under section 713.21(4), Florida Statutes, the twenty-day period to show cause why a construction lien should not be enforced begins when the clerk issues the statutory show-cause summons, not when the property owner serves a show-cause complaint or counter-complaint.
4. A lienor may avoid discharge under section 713.21(4) by showing why the lien should be enforced by action or by commencing an action to enforce the lien; Custom Homes had already satisfied the latter alternative by pleading a lien-foreclosure cause of action.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial court's order discharging the construction lien and dismissing the lien-foreclosure claim was reviewable by direct appeal.
2. Whether the Second District had certiorari jurisdiction to review the nonfinal order discharging the construction lien.
3. Whether the trial court departed from the essential requirements of law by calculating the twenty-day period from service of the show-cause counter-complaint rather than issuance of a clerk's summons under section 713.21(4), Florida Statutes.
4. Whether a lienor that has already filed a lien-foreclosure action has satisfied one of the alternative methods for avoiding discharge under section 713.21(4).

Disposition

quashed