Appeals
We litigate cases at all levels from the trial court to the appellate courts. Attorney Harry Hackney has handled cases at every level of the state court system from small claims court to the Florida Supreme Court. Trial courts are not always correct and sometimes an appeal is appropriate. Other times the opposing party is unhappy with the result in the trial court and seeks to overturn the result in an appellate court. In either case, we can represent you on appeal.
Examples:
- Case 1: We successfully got the case dismissed in the trial court because the opposing party failed to prosecute their case in a timely fashion. The opposing party appealed the dismissal. We successfully defended the dismissal on appeal. The opposing party was unable to refile their case because the statute of limitations had run. See, Chase v. Lavender, 810 So. 2d 1044 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002).
- Case 2: We won the clients’ easement case in the trial court on all counts. Although the trial judge was reluctant to rule in our favor, but had no choice legally, the judge assessed costs against our clients when opposing counsel argued that despite losing on every court of our action that they had “prevailed on the significant issues.” We appealed the cost judgment. The appellate court ruled that the trial judge had abused his discretion and that our client “clearly prevailed on the significant issues.” See, Granoff v. Seidle, 915 So. 2d 674 (Fla. 5th DCA 2005)
- Case 3: A jury ruled against our clients in a case alleging misrepresentation even though the statute of limitations had run. We appealed the adverse judgment. The appellate court ruled that the statute of limitations had indeed run. It remanded the case to the trial court to enter judgment for our clients and to enter a cost judgment against the other party. See, Steinmetz v. G.D. Parker Sod, Inc., 673 So. 2d 968 (Fla. 5th DCA 1996).
