Dean and Dean, LLP Blog
March 1, 2020

Dear Clients and Friends,

I am writing this blog in order to help our current and future prospective clients and our friends learn a bit about what we do, how we do it and to share some of the stories and cases our clients bring to us. I have changed the names of the individuals involved and have not disclosed any confidential matters. I hope you find the stories and events I write about interesting and informative.

About two years ago, I wrote a blog entitled “When is a month a month?” As you may recall that was the lead in on a blog wherein, I told you about the claim that was filed in an estate we were probating. The only problem was the claim was filed one day past the three-month claim period that all creditors have to file their claims in estates. The statute, 732.702 provides that a known or unknown creditor has the longer of 30 days from the date they receive service of the Notice to Creditors( in the case of a known creditor) or three months from the date of first publication of the Notice to Creditors in the local newspaper (in the case of an unknown creditor).

In the earlier blog, I wrote in more detail about the facts of the case. Suffice it to say the pertinent facts are these: The decedent died and a Notice to Creditors was published in the newspaper on January 4th 2018. A known creditor was served notice on January 26, 2018, telling her that if she had a claim to file in the estate, she had to file it no later than 30 days from the date of service on her (February 26, 2018) or three months from the date of first publication, which was on January 4, 2018. Therefore, the last date for her to file a claim in the estate was on April 4, 2018. The claimant, through her attorney, filed her claim on April 5, 2018 – one day late. The date of first publication of the Notice begins a three-month time period within which any creditors must file a claim in the estate; the failing of which, their claim will be barred and their claim will not be paid. That is the law as written by the Legislature for the State of Florida. Now, you might think “What’s the big deal, its only one day late.” Well, the Legislature and for more than 30 years the appellate courts of this state have all thought that the cut-off time period of three months is absolute and will not be varied from, under any circumstances.

We believed and told our client that the claim was late, and therefore, barred by the statute that requires all claims be timely filed or they are dismissed and not allowed. Our client agreed with our assessment that the claim was filed too late, even though by only one day. So, we filed a Motion to Dismiss the Claim. Now, the judge, she felt that while the legislature said that claims must be filed within three months of the date of first publication of the Notice to Creditors, you didn’t start counting the three months until the day after the first date of publication, so the claim was actually filed on the last day possible (according to her calculations) and was a timely filed claim. The lawyer for the claimant adopted the same argument and logic that the trial judge did. Anyway, the case went up on appeal to the appellate court, where the appellate court determined, as we did, that if the first day of publication for a Creditor’s Claim period was on, for example, January 4th – the last day for a creditor to file a claim in the estate is on April 4th, not April 5th as the trial court determined.

So, we won the case, right? Well, “not so fast” as Lee Corso might say. Yes, we did win at the appellate level. The appellate court wrote a beautiful, well-reasoned opinion, adopting nearly all of our arguments, and, dismissed the claim of the claimant. Game over, right? Well, the claimant’s attorney, not willing to face reality, filed a motion for rehearing and when that was denied, he filed a request to the Florida Supreme Court, that they would consider his argument, further. More expense to our client, more delay and finally, nearly two years after it began, the Supreme Court said, “No, thanks. We believe the appellate court got it right.” Finally, it is over.

I want to give a shout out to our young associate, Ms. Sarah Rummel, who did a bang-up job on preparing the research and most of the writing on our appellate and Supreme Court briefs. Our victory was in large part due to the excellent, thoughtful, cogent writing and analysis of Sarah. Of course, having the law on your side helps, too.

That’s all I have time for on this our seventh blog. I hope you found it interesting and enjoyable reading. Please check back for additional blog messages. And, as always, I want to say thanks to our clients and friends. If any reader has a legal matter or question, please let us know by emailing us or giving us a call. If we can help, we will. If we can’t, perhaps we can refer you to someone who can. If neither, well, it never hurts to say “Hello”.

Yours truly,
Jonathan S. Dean
Dean and Dean, LLP