Jared Schnackenberg v. Toll Brothers Mortgage Company

Summary

The United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida granted Toll Brothers Mortgage Company’s renewed motion for summary judgment in Jared Schnackenberg’s remaining claim under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. The court held that Schnackenberg’s forfeited property deposits and claimed substitute housing and storage costs were not recoverable actual damages under FDUTPA, and that he failed to present evidence of actual damages. The court directed the Clerk to enter judgment for the defendant and close the case.

Holdings

1. Actual damages are a required element of a FDUTPA claim, and a plaintiff must proffer evidence of actual damages to survive summary judgment.
2. The deposits retained by the seller were not actual damages measured under FDUTPA; they were consequential damages arising from the separate property-purchase transaction and were not recoverable under FDUTPA.
3. Schnackenberg did not establish that the loan commitment was valueless because TBMC remained willing to provide financing under the terms of the commitment, which Schnackenberg declined to accept.
4. Schnackenberg abandoned any claim for substitute housing and storage expenses by failing to address those damages in his response to the renewed summary-judgment motion.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Schnackenberg presented evidence of actual damages recoverable under FDUTPA.
2. Whether the $67,344 in deposits retained by the seller constituted the purchase price of a valueless mortgage-loan commitment or instead constituted consequential damages.
3. Whether substitute housing and storage expenses were recoverable under FDUTPA, where the plaintiff did not address that category of damages in his summary-judgment response.

Disposition

other