Kassier v. Kipnis
Kassier v. Kipnis
Opinion of the Court
This is an appeal by the defendant/third-party plaintiff Philip Kassier from: (1) final summary judgments entered in favor of (a) the plaintiff Alan G. Kipnis, as trustee, (b) the third-party defendant, Alan G. Kip-nis, individually, and (2) attorney’s fee awards entered for the plaintiff and third-party defendant on both the main action and the third-party complaint. The main action brought below was a suit on a promissory note; the defendant thereafter sought to implead the third-party defendant Kipnis, individually, for fraud. We affirm.
First, the trial court was correct in entering final summary judgment for the
Second, we conclude there was utterly no legal basis for holding the third-party defendant Kipnis personally liable for fraud on the third-party complaint. Kipnis, without dispute, made no misrepresentations to the plaintiff to induce the plaintiff to sign the note — and there was no colorable legal theory under which Kipnis had a duty to speak and correct or more fully disclose facts based on the representations of the above-mentioned third party. See Columbus Hotel Corp. v. Hotel Management Co., 116 Fla. 464, 156 So. 893 (1934); Glass v. Craig, 83 Fla. 408, 417, 91 So. 332, 335 (1922); cf. Morton v. Young, 311 So.2d 755, 756-57 (Fla. 3d DCA 1975); Franklin v. Brown, 159 So.2d 893, 898 (Fla. 1st DCA 1964). This being so, attorney’s fees on the third-party complaint were also fully justified under Section 57.-105, Florida Statutes (1989). See Castaway Lounge of Bay County, Inc. v. Reid, 411 So.2d 282 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982); P.J. Constructors, Inc. v. Carter Elec. Co., 410 So.2d 536 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982); Hernandez v. Leiva, 391 So.2d 292, 294-95 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980).
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.