Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Divorce
In a recent appellate case, an interesting issue arose in which the former husband sold his interest in the marital home (which was in foreclosure at the time) to a company owned by his mother and then deposited the sale proceeds into the court registry in an attempt to redeem the property. On appeal was the court’s ruling that the sale proceeds were subject to distribution in the divorce, and the court denied the former husband’s mother’s company’s motion to intervene and stay disbursement of those funds. The case is Meruelo v. Meruelo, 3D23-0617 (Fla. 3d DCA December 18, 2024).
While the appeal was pending, a separate appeal was considered in the foreclosure case in which the former husband appealed the trial court’s finding that the former husband had sold the property to his mother’s company and could not redeem the property because the winning bidder had become the owner by the time of the supposed redemption. The trial court’s ruling in this matter was affirmed, and in the appeal pending in the divorce case, the appellate court asked the parties to prepare briefs discussing whether the ruling in the foreclosure appeal rendered the issue in the divorce case moot.
The appellate court noted “‘An issue is moot when the controversy has been so fully resolved that a judicial determination can have no actual effect,’ and ‘[a] case is ‘moot’ when it presents no actual controversy or when the issues have ceased to exist.” The court concluded '“We have reviewed the parties’ arguments on these appeals and the supplemental briefing and find the salient issues sufficiently resolved by our prior affirmance of the foreclosure order. As it pertains to the consolidated appeals addressed herein, the fact that this court affirmed the propriety of the foreclosure sale either renders the appeals here moot, or, alternatively, renders the decisions on appeal eminently reasonable considering such determination affirming the propriety of the foreclosure. [. . .] Accordingly, we dismiss any issue arising from the propriety of the foreclosure sale as moot and to the extent [the former husband] or [the former husband’s mother’s company] make any argument not directly mooted by the above-referenced affirmance in Meruelo, we affirm without further discussion.”
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