TORNER v. IDEAL CREDIT UNION (2026)

Affirmed. See Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.140(b) (providing that the defense of insufficiency of process, insufficiency of service of process, or lack of jurisdiction over the person must be asserted either in the responsive pleading to a claim or by motion before the responsive pleading is filed); Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.140(h)(1) (providing that, subject to exceptions inapplicable here, a party “waives all defenses and objections that the party does not present either by motion under subdivision (b)․ or, if the party has made no motion, in a responsive pleading․”); Vulcan Equities, LLC v. Yarbrough, 332 So. 3d 544, 546 (Fla. 3d DCA 2021) (reversing the trial court's order dismissing action for lack of personal jurisdiction “because, by serving a responsive pleading without raising the defense of lack of service of process, [defendant] waived the defense and could not raise it in his subsequently filed motion to dismiss.”); Dolan v. Dolan, 81 So. 3d 558, 559 (Fla. 3d DCA 2012) (reversing trial court's order dismissing petition for improper service of process because respondent waived the defense when she failed to raise it in her motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim); Berne v. Beznos, 819 So. 2d 235, 238 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002) (holding that pleading to the merits without raising objection to service of process or lack of personal jurisdiction waives those defenses); Parra v. Raskin, 647 So. 2d 1010, 1011 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995) (noting that the failure to raise the defense of insufficient service of process at the inception of a case, in either a motion or responsive pleading, constitutes a waiver of that defense).

PER CURIAM.