Florida Power & Light Company v. Gilman
Cases that cite this one
20 later published cases cite this decision.
- Industrial Trucks of Florida v. Gonzalez (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1977)
- Yosima Marin-Igarza and Raul Rivas v. American Sales and Management Organization LLC, D/B/A Eulen America (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2025)
- OTR Tire, Inc. v. Florida Power & Light Co. (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2005)
- Hunt v. World Investments Corp. (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2005)
- CPI Mfg. Co. v. Industrias St. Jack's, SA (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2003)
- Morris v. NN Investors Life Ins. Co. (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1989)
- PUBLIC HEALTH TRUST OF DADE CTY. v. Diaz (Fla. 1988)
- Cohen v. Culligan Water Conditioning, Inc. (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1988)
- Public Health Trust of Dade County v. Diaz (Fla. 1988)
- Paedae v. Voltaggio (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1985)
- Fred McGilvray, Inc. v. Bovay Engineers, Inc. (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1984)
- Overseas Dev., Inc. v. AMERIFIRST FED. S & L ASS'N (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1983)
- Overseas Development, Inc. v. Amerifirst Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1983)
- Point Royale Realty, Inc. v. Armbruster (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1982)
- Carter v. DeCarion (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1981)
- Murphy White Dairy, Inc. v. Simmons (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1981)
- Latimore v. Matthews (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1976)
- Shanley v. Allen (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1976)
- St. Anne Airways Corp. v. Larotonda (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1975)
- Bakewell v. Shepard (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1975)
This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.
Opinion
FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT COMPANY, Appellant,
v.
Ruth Mirmelli GILMAN, Appellee.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.
*16 McCarthy, Steel, Hector & Davis, Miami, for appellant.
Louis Vernell, Miami, for appellee.
Before BARKDULL, C.J., and PEARSON and CHARLES CARROLL, JJ.
PEARSON, Judge.
The appellee's complaint asking damages for personal injury was filed in October, 1970. The appellant filed its motion to dismiss for lack of prosecution on February 23, 1973. There is no question but that the record reflects no activity for one year prior to February 23, 1973. The trial judge denied the defendant's motion upon the basis that the plaintiff showed "good cause" in a written response to the motion to dismiss. See Rule 1.420(e), RCP, 30 F.S.A. This interlocutory appeal is brought from the order denying the motion. The appellee has failed to file a brief.
The plaintiff's response to defendant's motion to dismiss stated that the plaintiff had changed attorneys and the new attorney had moved his office and misplaced her file. A change of attorneys, even when made necessary by misfortune, is not good cause for failure to prosecute for one year. Gulf Appliance Distributors, Inc. v. Long, Fla. 1951, 53 So.2d 706; Miller v. Hartley's, Inc., Fla.App. 1957, 97 So.2d 211. An office error by the plaintiff's attorney and that attorney's inadvertent failure to prosecute is not such good cause as is contemplated by the rule. See Conklin v. Boyd, Fla.App. 1966, 189 So.2d 401.
The order denying the plaintiff's motion to dismiss is reversed and the cause is remanded with directions to grant the motion.
Reversed and remanded.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.