ESPAILLAT v. SECURITY FIRST INSURANCE COMPANY (2020)

Non-party appellant, Ana Espaillat (“non-party Appellant”), seeks review of a non-final order granting in part Defendant Security First Insurance Company's motion to dismiss Plaintiff Juan Espiallat's complaint, without prejudice, for failure to join her as an indispensable party.¹ In the alternative, non-party Appellant requests this Court treat her appeal as a petition for writ of certiorari. We dismiss the appeal as taken from a non-final, non-appealable order. See Euceda v. Se. Pers. Leasing, Inc., 33 So. 3d 115 (Fla. 1st DCA 2010); Croes v. Univ. Cmty. Hosp., 886 So. 2d 1040, 1041 n.2 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004); Mendez v. Shoma Dev. Corp., 899 So. 2d 510 (Fla. 1st DCA 2005). More to the point, non-party Appellant is not a named party to the litigation below, and has made no effort to intervene in the action or cooperate in complying with the trial court's order directed to Plaintiff Juan Espiallat. As such, non-party Appellant has no standing to appeal. See Edwards v. CIT Bank, N.A., 306 So.3d 217 (Fla. 3d DCA June 10, 2020); Hood v. Union Planters Bank, 941 So. 2d 1175, 1176 (Fla. 1st DCA 2006); Stas v. Posada, 760 So. 2d 954, 955 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999). Certiorari is not available as a remedy because the non-party Appellant has not yet been directly affected by the order below. See Ahlers v. Wilson, 867 So. 2d 524 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004).

Dismissed.

FOOTNOTES

1.   The trial court's order on Security First's motion to dismiss to allow Plaintiff Jose Espaillat to amend, or alternatively, allow him to move to join Ana Espaillat as a party plaintiff, provides, “Granted in part. Plaintiff has 20 days to either amend the Complaint to add Ana Espaillat as a Plaintiff or produce a release of all claims as to Ana Espaillat. Defendant has 20 days following receipt of the aforementioned to file a response.” The Plaintiff did neither. Instead, non-party Appellant filed this appeal.

PER CURIAM.