CopyCited 5 times | Published | Florida 3rd District Court of Appeal | 2010 Fla. App. LEXIS 18006, 2010 WL 4740313
...e delinquent taxes paid ($4,487.43), the fees incurred ($792), and the amount paid in excess of the delinquent taxes and fees to acquire the property ($64,200.76). While the judgment also requires the former owner to pay interest *182 as required by section 197.602 of the Florida Statutes to Turnberry on the amounts it paid to satisfy the unpaid taxes, it refuses, on due process grounds, to apply this provision to require the former owner to pay interest on the $64,200.76 paid by Turnberry to acquire the tax deed. We reverse this portion of the final judgment because section 197.602 clearly and unambiguously mandates payment of interest on this amount and because we reject the delinquent tax payer's argument, adopted by the trial court, that his due process rights are impinged by such an application....
...Alter,
615 So.2d 661, 663 (Fla.1993) ("Words of common usage, when employed in a statute, should be construed in their plain and ordinary sense."); see also Moonlit Waters Apartments, Inc. v. Cauley,
666 So.2d 898, 900 (Fla.1996). In this case, the controlling provision, section
197.602, needs no interpretation, clearly and unambiguously stating that the purchaser of a tax deed determined to be invalid as of the date of issuance is to be made whole by reimbursement of (1) all expenses incurred to acquire the deed; (2...
...The amount of the expenses and the fair cash value of improvements shall be ascertained and found upon the trial of the action, and the tax deed holder or anyone holding thereunder shall have a prior lien upon the land for the payment of the sums. § 197.602, Fla....
...Under the clear terms of this provision, Turnberry was entitled to an interest *183 award not just on the amount it paid to satisfy the former owner's taxes, but also on the $64,200.76 it paid to acquire the tax deed. See Vill. of Doral Place Ass'n, Inc. v. RU4 Real, Inc.,
22 So.3d 627, 631 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009) (citing section
197.602, concluding "[a]s acknowledged by the Association, the Association must repay the Buyers the purchase price with interest.")....
...r notice of the tax deed sale, and the tax deed sale should be set aside." Neither side disputes this determination. What Streatfield argued below, and the position erroneously adopted by the trial court, was that application of the plain wording of section 197.602, i.e., making Streatfield responsible for the interest on "the amount paid for the tax deed," amounted to a violation of Streatfield's due process rights....
...emedy for erroneous deprivation, satisfies due process[,] . . . simply because they are the only remedies the State could be expected to provide.'" (quoting Zinermon v. Burch,
494 U.S. 113, 125-128,
110 S.Ct. 975,
108 L.Ed.2d 100(1990))). [7] But as section
197.602 and longstanding Supreme Court precedent confirm, such vindication does not, for good reason, come at the expense of the tax deed purchaser. Indeed, the very purpose of section
197.602, which has been on the books since at least 1927, is to facilitate the statutory scheme embodied in Chapter 197 to keep government running by assuring a steady flow of tax revenues, a goal accomplished in significant part by allowing governmental entities to collect delinquent taxes via *185 sales of tax certificates and then by sale of those certificates to non-governmental purchasers. To this end, section
197.602 was enacted to assure investors that if they purchased a tax deedthereby assuring both revenue flow and a limitation on government ownership of landthey would receive either title to land or be made whole by return of their money,...
...interest, as a consideration for becoming a purchaser. San Sebastian Dev. Corp. v. Couch,
103 Fla. 692,
138 So. 61, 64-65 (1931); see generally 52 Fla. Jur. 2d Taxation § 1862 (2010). In short, and as the Florida Supreme Court long ago recognized, section
197.602 is no more than a remedial measure adopted by this and many other states grounded "on the principle that he who seeks equity must do equity" to assure that both the delinquent property owner and the tax deed purchaser are treated equitably when a tax deed is invalidated....
...sue is reversed with this matter remanded for entry of an award of interest on the "the amount paid for the tax deed and all taxes paid upon the land, together with 12-percent interest thereon per year from the date of the issuance of the tax deed." § 197.602, Fla....
CopyCited 1 times | Published | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal | 2003 WL 1738499
...The order on appeal, Final Judgment on Plaintiff's Second Amended Complaint to Quiet Title and for Declaratory Judgment and Defendant's Counterclaim for Declaratory Judgment, rendered on December 18, 2002, declares a tax deed void, awards $75,000 spent on the tax deed, but reserves jurisdiction pursuant to section 197.602, Florida Statutes (2002), to determine and award the interest on the refund of taxes paid, legal expenses in obtaining the tax deed, and the fair cash value of improvements made to the property....
