Lindor v. Fla. E. Coast Ry., LLC
Lindor v. Fla. E. Coast Ry., LLC
Opinion of the Court
*491Plaintiffs Weedemarck Lindor and Bernite Lindor, personal representative of the Estate of Marie Claudia Gelin (decedent), appeal the trial court's order striking plaintiffs' complaint and dismissing the complaint without prejudice.
Inexplicably, very little happened in this case for the next two and a half years, until a motion for substitution of counsel was filed by plaintiffs' present counsel and the taking of depositions began. It was during such a deposition that defendant learned that the Lindors had never been appointed as personal representatives of the estate. This discovery precipitated a flurry of activity by plaintiffs' counsel to properly designate Bernite Lindor as personal representative of the estate. In the interim, however, defendant filed its motion to dismiss the complaint as a sham pleading, claiming that by filing a complaint alleging that the Lindors had been properly designated as the co-personal representatives of the estate, plaintiffs' counsel had filed a sham pleading because he and the Lindors were fully aware that no such designation had been made and they made that allegation knowing that the fact was false. Plaintiffs' counsel promptly notified the court of the efforts they were making to correct the deficiency, and on October 3, 2017, filed the probate court's order of October 2, 2017, appointing Bernite Lindor as personal representative of the estate of Marie Claudia Gelin. On October 4, 2017, the trial court entered its order granting the defendant's motion to strike the plaintiffs' complaint and dismissed the action without prejudice. This appeal followed.
In 1954, in a case remarkably similar to the case at bar, the Florida Supreme Court had occasion to consider the dismissal of a complaint filed by "Jesse Phillip Griffin, Sr., as Administrator of the Estate of Johnny Reece Griffin, deceased." Griffin v. Workman,
The Griffin court determined that "the circuit court committed reversible error in not allowing the cause to proceed after letters of administration had been issued in the probate proceedings, and in refusing to relate the issuance of the letters back to the time of the beginning of the suit."
The Florida Supreme Court reversed, holding the trial court committed error in dismissing the complaint and in not permitting the cause to proceed, either with the daughter as substituted administratrix, or with the father as original administrator once the letters of administration issued. The court determined that the substitution of the daughter for the father-and later the father for the daughter-related back to the date of the original filing of the complaint. The Court agreed with the proposition
that where a wrongful death action was instituted by a party "as administrator," his subsequent appointment as such validated the proceeding on the theory of relation back. .... [T]he institution of suit "was not a void performance, being an act done during the interim which was for the benefit of the estate. It could not be otherwise, for it was an attempt to enforce a claim which was the only asset of the estate. This rule is sustained by a large number of authorities, and * * * appears, also, to be just and equitable.
[T]he proceeding was not a nullity. It was, on the other hand, a cause pending in which, but the liberal principles of our Code, the party plaintiff, though lame in one particular, might be allowed to cure that defect and proceed to a determination of the merits.
Griffin concluded that the filing of an action for wrongful death by one who is purported to be (but has not yet been appointed) a personal representative is not a nullity. Rather, upon that individual being properly named as personal representative, his status (and therefore his capacity to sue) relates back to the date of the original filing of the complaint.
Eisen,
The Eisen Court identified four "principal factors to be considered in determining whether to permit an amendment to substitute a party-plaintiff and whether such a substitution should relate back:"
[1) ] [w]hether the timely-filed action gave the defendants fair notice of the legal claim and the underlying allegations; [2) ] [w]hether there is an identity of interest between the original and substituted plaintiff; [3) ] [w]hether the amendment caused any prejudice to the defendants; and [4) ] [w]hether the amendment to substitute plaintiffs would create a "new" cause of action.
Reversed and remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
The complaint was effectively dismissed with prejudice because the statute of limitations on the subject action had run.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.