Florida District Courts of Appeal, 1994

Hellmann v. City of Orlando

Florida District Courts of Appeal · Decided March 25, 1994 · Dauksch, Sharp, Thompson

634 So. 2d 245; 1994 Fla. App. LEXIS 2672; 1994 WL 94198 (Southern Reporter, Second Series)

Cases that cite this one

6 later published cases cite this decision. The 5 that cite it most often are listed here.

City of Live Oak v. Harris (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1997)
Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, P.A. v. State (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2015)
UCF Athletics Ass'n v. Plancher (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2013)
PINELLAS BD. OF COM'RS v. Bettis (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1995)
Pinellas County ex rel. Board of County Commissioners (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1995)

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 of the Court

DAUKSCH, Judge.

This is an appeal from an order awarding attorney’s fees in a case where an offer of judgment was made, rejected, and the statutory attorney’s fees became available. § 768.79, Fla.Stat.

When the appellant, plaintiff below, offered to settle his case he did so in accordance with the statute. When the defendant city rejected his offer it put itself in jeopardy of having to pay attorney fees if the ultimate judgment was at least 25% greater than the offer. That is what occurred here.

But the court did not give a full award of attorney’s fees, it limited the amount to 25% of the judgment because the sovereign immunity waiver statute says that is the limit. § 768.28(8), Fla.Stat.

Because the government controls absolutely how much it will pay in tort claim cases, we are bound by the statute limiting the award of attorney’s fees. Appellant’s remedy is in the legislature, not the courts.

AFFIRMED.

W. SHARP and THOMPSON, JJ., concur.

Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.