Florida/Georgia Personal Injury & Workers Compensation

...Rehearing Denied February 28, 1958. Clarence J. Stokes, Sr., Sarasota, for appellant. Williams, Parker, Harrison & Dietz, Sarasota, for appellee. DREW, Justice. The appellant Solomon, plaintiff in the court below, instituted a proceeding under *178 Section 222.10, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., to attack the homestead character of property owned by the appellee, Mary Davis, and claimed by her to be exempt from levy pursuant to Art....

...The statutes give him no authority to presume that the homestead claim is unfounded or to force the parties into court to sort things out after the sale. When the homestead claim affidavit is filed, the creditor has a means, clearly provided under § 222.10 [5] , to challenge the homestead claim, should he wish to do so....

...mobile home, or modular home claimed to be exempt and declaring that the same is the homestead of the party in whose behalf such claim shall be made. Such statement shall be signed by the person making the same and recorded in the circuit court. [5] Section 222.10, Fla....

...ngs and a subsequent order denying a stay of same. We affirm the orders appealed from based on the following briefly stated legal analysis. At the outset, we construe the instant proceedings below as constituting, in effect, a bill filed pursuant to Section 222.10, Florida Statutes (1985), by a judgment creditor to determine whether the property of a judgment debtor was homestead property....

...jurisdiction to determine the validity of his claimed homestead exemption. Sepulveda’s position below and on appeal is that the determination regarding his claimed homestead exemption lies exclusively within the circuit court’s jurisdiction based on section 222.10, Florida Statutes (2013).2 In response, Westport argued that: (1) section 222.10 was inapplicable because the 1997 judgment against Arana predated Sepulveda’s claimed homestead exemption; (2) Sepulveda’s Notice of Homestead, even if valid, was wholly irrelevant; and (3) even if section 222.10 applied, the county court had concurrent jurisdiction to determine homestead exemptions so long as the other jurisdictional requirements were met. Despite Sepulveda’s Notice of Homestead, the county court denied Sepulveda’s motion to dismiss and granted Westport’s motion to allow the pending levy sale, finding that “the lien of the Final Judgment on the subject [Polk County] Property, recorded on October 18, 2005, in the Public Records of Polk County, 2 Section 222.10 grants Florida’s circuit courts equity jurisdiction over homestead exemption disputes....

...denying the certiorari petition, we must consider Sepulveda’s challenge to the county court’s jurisdiction. Accordingly, we consider de novo: (1) whether the county court’s finding that Sepulveda’s Notice of Homestead was irrelevant to its determination of exemption under section 222.10 was in fact a determination of Sepulveda’s homestead exemption claim; and if so, (2) whether such a determination can be made by a county court, or rather, whether section 222.10 grants exclusive jurisdiction to the circuit courts of Florida to determine whether property shall be exempt from a forced sale once a Notice of Homestead is filed pursuant to section 222.01 or 222.02. I....

...1st DCA 1981) (allowing post-levy designation of homestead under section 222.02). Once a homeowner has claimed a homestead exemption, the sheriff cannot levy against the property unless the creditor prevails against the homeowner’s claimed homestead exemption. Section 222.10 provides that: “The circuit courts have equity jurisdiction ....

...to determine whether any property, real or personal, claimed to be exempt, is so exempt.” Westport, however, convinced the county court that it did not need to make a homestead exemption determination, thereby avoiding the necessity of applying section 222.10....

...Based on Westport’s arguments, both lower courts have framed the issue exclusively as a priority of liens contest, with the homestead exemption having only incidental impact, if any. Such an interpretation, however, would read a restriction into the statutory text that is not present. Section 222.10 is worded quite broadly....

...ermine whether any property . . . claimed to exemption may still be able to set aside a levy sale. Id. (citing Albritton v. Scott, 74 So. 975, 975 (Fla. 1917)). 8 be exempt, is so exempt . . . .” Thus, section 222.10 will apply in every case where a creditor is attempting to levy against property where a claim of homestead has been filed under section 222.01 or section 222.02.5 These prerequisites were clearly met on these facts....

...ng against the property, which is a clear determination “whether the property claimed to be exempt, is so exempt.” It matters not that the county court’s determination was based on the date of conveyance and the date of judgment. Therefore, section 222.10 applies to the matter at hand, and the county court erred when it concluded that it did not. The question we must now decide is whether the county court exceeded its jurisdiction by determining whether the property was exempt from levy under section 222.10. II. Whether Florida circuit courts have exclusive jurisdiction over homestead exemption claims The relevant jurisdictional provision, section 222.10, provides, in full: 5 Section 222.10 may even apply to homeowners who intend to protect their property, but do not properly claim the homestead exemption under sections 222.01 or 222.02....

...art as exempt property, real or personal, which is not exempt, and may annul all exemptions made and set apart by the sheriff or other officer. (emphasis added). Westport contends that the lack of mandatory or exclusive language in section 222.10 evinces a legislative intent to grant concurrent jurisdiction in the county and circuit courts over homestead exemption determinations....

...To resolve the confusion and potential conflict between section 26.012(2)(c) and section 34.01(4), the Florida Supreme Court held in Alexdex that “it is clear that in 1990 the legislature amended chapter 34 to grant limited equity jurisdiction to the county courts. Chapter 26, which vests circuit courts with 222.10 sounds in equity. § 222.10 (granting circuit courts “equity jurisdiction”); See also Grant, 402 So.2d at 489 n.5 (quoting section 222.10, Fla....

...specific grant of equitable jurisdiction to the circuit courts. § 34.01(4) (“Judges of county courts may hear all matters in equity involved in any case . . . except as otherwise restricted by the State Constitution or the laws of Florida.” (emphasis added)). And section 222.10 provides that, “The circuit courts have equity jurisdiction ....

...to determine whether any property, real or personal, claimed to be exempt [as homestead], is so exempt.” Because the circuit and county courts already have concurrent jurisdiction over equitable actions involving $15,000 or less, Alexdex, 641 So. 2d at 862, section 222.10 would be of no consequence if it 14 is not a grant of exclusive jurisdiction over homestead determinations to the circuit courts. Therefore, we find that the action below was a determination of homestead exemption under section 222.10, and that such determinations are within the exclusive province of the circuit courts of Florida....

...Parado, 462 So.2d 849, 854 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985); see also Goedmakers v. Goedmakers, 520 So.2d at 578; State Dep’t of Natural Resources v. Antioch Univ., 533 So.2d at 872 . Applying the law to the instant case, this court finds that the local action rule does not apply. Section 222.10, Florida Statutes, provides in pertinent part that “The circuit courts have equity jurisdiction upon ......

...of homestead status does not defeat prior liens, the lienor’s right prevails over the respondents’ homestead right.” Id. (citations omitted). We distinguish Sepulveda v. Westport Recovery Corp., 145 So. 3d 162 (Fla. 3d DCA 2014), which held that section 222.10, Florida Statutes, grants circuit courts exclusive jurisdiction to determine a claimed homestead exemption....

...However, Sepulveda did not involve an action to foreclose a lien for assessments. Sepulveda concerned an attempt to levy on claimed homestead property to enforce an unsatisfied judgment. Id. at 164. The trial court there was required to determine the validity of the debtor’s homestead claim under section 222.10, Florida Statutes....

...“Accordingly, the county court exceeded its subject matter jurisdiction by determining that Sepulveda’s Claim of Homestead did not exempt the property from levy.” Id. at 169. By contrast, the Association’s lien foreclosure action here did not involve a determination of homestead exemption under section 222.10. That is because the Association’s action to foreclose its assessment lien was not a “bill filed by a creditor or other person interested in enforcing any unsatisfied judgment or decree.” § 222.10, Fla....

...ebruary 1933. Redditt died intestate in 1937 and his estate was never administered. The instant suit was brought in September 1952 by the original judgment creditor against the grantees of the heirs of Red-ditt to foreclose the lien of the judgment. Section 222.10, Florida Statutes 1951, and F.S.A....