The heated real estate market that existed over the past few years brought numerous specific performance lawsuits to our litigation department. A suit for specific performance is one in which a party to a contract demands that the opposing party continue with the contract and asks the court to force…
Brokers Must Carefully Word Conditions of Contract or Risk Losing Commission
If a condition precedent to performance does not occur there is not a binding contract, therefore no commission is due the broker. The Fifth District affirmed the trial court’s decision in Grant Mitchell and Mitchell Realty, Inc. v. W. Frank DiMare and K.S. Toney, 31 Fla. L. Weekly D2238d, holding…
Second District Holds that “Time is of the Essence Really Means that Time is of the Essence”
The Second District Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision that held when a payment that was due 45 days after execution of the contract that payment had to be made regardless of the fact that the 45th day landed on a Saturday. In Metro Development Group, L.L.C. v….
Thanks for Thinking of Me, But No Thank you
Would anyone ever want to say, “No, thank you, I don’t want it,” to an inheritance? Actually, yes! There are many reasons that a beneficiary of an estate may not want to receive an inheritance. For example, a beneficiary may not need the money, a beneficiary may want the assets…
Businesses with Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Plans Must be Aware of Code Section 409A
The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 added section 409A to the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) to address abuses in the use of nonqualified deferred compensation plans revealed by the Enron hearings and the Joint Committee on Taxation’s concerns that many nonqualified deferred compensation plans “allowed improper deferral of…