KEY POINTS | FLORIDA APPELLATE COURT FINDS APPEAL UNTIMELY & BORROWER’S SUCCESSIVE POST-JUDGMENT MOTIONS IMPROPER
- Diaz | Anselmo
- Sep 24, 2024
- 1 min read
Updated: Mar 20
Diaz Anselmo & Associates celebrated another big win last month when Florida’s Second DCA affirmed US Bank’s final judgment of foreclosure as well as several lower court orders which denied the borrower’s (Ortiz) request for post-judgment relief. Ortiz v. U.S. Bank Tr. Nat’l Ass’n, No. 2D22-3281, 2024 WL 3837333 (Fla. 2d DCA Aug. 16, 2024).
US Bank obtained a judgment of foreclosure (Final Judgment) in June 2022. In July 2022 Ortiz filed his first post-judgment motion to vacate the Final Judgment asserting improper service of process, fraud, misrepresentation, and misconduct by US Bank. The court denied Ortiz’s motion to vacate finding it baseless “in law and fact” in August 2022. Instead of appealing that order, Ortiz moved to vacate the Final Judgment a second time, moved in the alternative for reconsideration, and filed a separate motion seeking to quash service of process.
The trial court denied all of Ortiz’s post-judgment motions and then Ortiz appealed the Final Judgment, the orders denying his first and second motions to vacate and the order which denied his motion to quash service of process. The Second DCA affirmed all the orders finding the appeal of the Final Judgment and order denying Ortiz’s first motion to vacate to be untimely. The Court also affirmed the other post-judgment orders noting the lack of a hearing transcript limited the Court’s review and finding Ortiz’s second motion to vacate and motion to quash were successive and an attempt to relitigate issues that were already raised and decided.