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FLORIDA
Florida's Supreme Court Ruling is a Win for Servicers
e Florida Supreme Court recently ruled that servicers may file
new foreclosure actions against borrowers who won foreclosure cases
more than five years ago if the borrowers defaulted again within five
years of the first case's dismissal. e case, Lewis Brooke Bartram
v. U.S Bank National Association was decided in favor of the mort-
gage servicers as borrowers argued a five-year statute of limitations
should apply.
e court's ruling, authored by Justice Barbra Pariente, determined
that when foreclosure actions are dismissed, servicers and borrowers
return to their pre-foreclosure complaint status. is allows home-
owners to continue to pay back their loans in installments, rather than
all at once.
e ruling also gives back servicers' right to seek acceleration and
foreclosure based on the mortgagor's subsequent defaults saying, "Ac-
cordingly, the statute of limitations does not continue to run on the
amount due under the note and mortgage."
e decision affirms a Fifth District Court of Appeal ruling in the
case and is consistent with the Florida Supreme Court's 2004 opinion
in Singleton v. Greymar Associates.
In Singleton, the court ruled successive foreclosure actions based
on separate periods of default were not barred by res judicata, the prin-
ciple that a case that has already been adjudicated cannot be pursued
again by the same parties. e court ruled that two separate defaults
are considered two different breaches of the mortgage contract and can
be brought as two different actions.
Chief Justices Jorge Labarga and Justice Peggy Quince, Justice
Charles Canady, and Justice James Perry agreed with the decision and
Justice Ricky Polston and Justice Fred Lewis concurred in result.
Despite agreeing with the decision, Lewis stated that he was not
comfortable with the expansion of Singleton to "potentially any case
involving successive foreclosure actions."
"I fear [continued expansion] will come at the cost of established
Florida law and Floridians who may struggle with both the costs of
owning a home and uncertain behavior by lenders," said Lewis.
