SALINAS v. BANK TRUST (2019)

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

Alfredo A. SALINAS and Guadaloupe Salinas, Appellants, v. U.S. BANK TRUST, N.A., Appellee.

Case No. 2D17-4902

Decided: November 01, 2019

Mark P. Stopa of Stopa Law Firm, Tampa (withdrew after briefing), and Latasha Scott of Lord Scott, PLLC, Tampa (withdrew after briefing); Alfredo A. Salinas, pro se, and Guadaloupe Salinas, pro se. Matthew A. Ciccio and Wm. David Newman, Jr. (substituted as counsel of record) of Aldridge Pite, LLP, Delray Beach, for Appellee.

Alfredo and Guadaloupe Salinas appeal the final judgment of foreclosure entered in favor of U.S. Bank Trust, N.A. We affirm without comment on all issues other than the attorney's fee award, which we reverse.

The foreclosure judgment, entered after a nonjury trial, included an award of attorney's fees based solely on an objected-to affidavit by the attorney for U.S. Bank Trust. No other evidence was submitted in support of the claim for fees. An attorney's fee award must be supported by expert testimony from an attorney who is not involved in the underlying case. Raff v. Citimortgage, Inc., 272 So. 3d 859, 859 (Fla. 2d DCA 2019) (citing Sourcetrack LLC v. Ariba, Inc., 34 So. 3d 766, 768 (Fla. 2d DCA 2010)). Accordingly, we reverse the attorney's fee award and remand with instructions to reduce the amount of the final judgment by $14,341.60.

Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.

NORTHCUTT, Judge.

SILBERMAN and ATKINSON, JJ., Concur.

Was this helpful?

Easy to understand

Solved my problem

Other

Missing the information I need

Too complicated / too many steps

Out of date

Other

Welcome to FindLaw's Cases & Codes

A free source of state and federal court opinions, state laws, and the United States Code. For more information about the legal concepts addressed by these cases and statutes visit FindLaw's Learn About the Law.

Go to Learn About the Law