Hernandez v. Alonso
Hernandez v. Alonso
Opinion of the Court
Miriam Hernandez appeals the trial court’s entry of a final order granting a charging hen in the sum of $4,771.65 in favor of her former counsel, Dino Galardi. Ms. Hernandez challenges both the timeliness of and the entitlement to this hen where Mr. Galardi withdrew his representation against the wishes of Ms. Hernandez prior to the conclusion of the dissolution action below.
On or about July 27, 1994, Ms. Hernandez retained Mr. Galardi to represent her as an intervenor in the dissolution action below.
Initially, we reject Ms. Hernandez’s contention that Mr. Galardi’s motion for the imposition of the hen was untimely when it was filed prior to the trial court’s rendition of its final judgment. See Sinclair, Louis, Siegel, Heath, Nussbaum & Zavertnik, P.A v. Baucom, 428 So.2d 1383, 1385 (Fla. 1983). Next, we find that we are unable to review the issue of Mr. Galardi’s entitlement to the hen absent an evidentiary hearing and factual findings by the trial court as to whether Mr. Galardi was justified in withdrawing his representation of Ms. Hernandez prior to the conclusion of the proceeding below. See Faro v. Romani, 641 So.2d 69 (Fla. 1994). We therefore reverse the order imposing the charging hen and remand for such an eviden-tiary hearing and findings by the trial court.
Reversed and remanded with instructions.
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