Kranias v. Tsiogas
Kranias v. Tsiogas
Opinion of the Court
This case involves a dispute about the management of several limited liability companies and the ownership of real properties variously located in Pinellas and Sarasota Counties. In July 2002, Steve and Tina Kranias filed a circuit court suit in Pinellas County against Jim Tsiogas and four limited liability companies, Pogoni Land Trust LLC, Pogoni Investments LLC, Pogoni Management LLC, and Epicurus LLC (collectively “Pogoni”). The Kraniases asserted numerous causes of action, most of which alleged mismanagement of the limited liability companies and
In order to explain our result, we must briefly discuss the procedural quagmire that led to two separate lawsuits in two different counties, which essentially involve the same issue, i.e., ownership of the properties. In November 2002 the Pinel-las court dismissed three of the Kraniases’ causes of action — to quiet title, for a declaratory judgment, and for a constructive trust — insofar as those counts related to real properties located in Sarasota County. But the Pinellas court continued to exercise its jurisdiction over the Sarasota properties and the accompanying claims to them asserted in the remainder of the Kraniases’ counts, including those seeking dissolution of the limited liability companies.
Even so, Tsiogas’s and Pogoni’s motion for the appointment of a receiver was grounded on management conflicts in the limited liability companies, and it asserted that a receivership was authorized under sections 608.449 and 608.4491, Florida Statutes (2002), which address the judicial dissolution of limited liability companies. Section 608.4491 authorizes a “court in a proceeding brought to dissolve a limited liability company” to “appoint a receiver” and to “take other action required to preserve the limited liability company’s assets wherever located, and carry on the business of the limited liability company until a full hearing can be held.” (Emphasis supplied.) Likewise, section 608.4492(1) authorizes a “court in a judicial proceeding brought to dissolve a limited liability company” to “appoint one or more receivers to wind up and liquidate, or one or more custodians to manage, the business and affairs of the limited Lability company.” Thus, in this dispute the authority to appoint a receiver lies in the Pinellas court, where the action to dissolve the limited liability companies is pending, not the Sarasota court, where dissolution has not been sought. And, as section 608.4492(1) makes clear, if the Pinellas court were to appoint a receiver, it would have “exclusive jurisdiction over the limited liability company and all of its property wherever located.” See, id. (emphasis supplied).
Moreover, our record reveals that the Sarasota court was concerned with its power to act in this case, given the pending Pinellas suit. The court was aware that when a single set of facts is in controversy, and suits are pending between the parties in two different judicial circuits,
The order appointing a receiver is reversed.
. Fla. R.App.P. 9.130(a)(3)(D).
. The court also left pending the Kraniases' causes of action for slander of^itle, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and rescission.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.