Debra L. Feit and Stratford Law Firm, LLC v. Liliana Hernandez

DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA FOURTH DISTRICT

DEBRA L. FEIT, and STRATFORD LAW FIRM, LLC, a Florida Limited Liability Company, Appellants,

v.

LILIANA HERNANDEZ, Appellee.

Nos. 4D2024-1946 and 4D2024-2282

[April 30, 2025]

Consolidated appeals from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County; David A. Haimes, Judge; L.T. Case No. CACE21-009199.

Debra L. Feit of The Feit Law Firm, Boca Raton, for appellants.

Edward R. Curtis, Jeffrey M. Fauer, and Jennifer A. Bautista of Tripp Scott, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

In these consolidated cases, appellants appeal a nonfinal order denying leave to plead a punitive damages claim and a subsequent final judgment following the jury’s verdict in the underlying case.

We affirm the order denying leave to claim punitive damages, finding no reversible error has been shown in the court’s ruling.

As admitted by appellee, however, the trial court erred in entering the final judgment while the appeal from the nonfinal order was pending. See Fla. R. App. P. 9.130(f) (“In the absence of a stay, during the pendency of a review of a nonfinal order, the lower tribunal may proceed with all matters, including trial or final hearing, except that the lower tribunal may not render a final order disposing of the cause pending such review absent leave of the court.”). We did not grant leave for the trial court to enter the final judgment; thus it was a nullity and must be reversed. Publix Supermarkets, Inc. v. Conte, 169 So. 3d 1265, 1266 (Fla. 4th DCA 2015).

Accordingly, we affirm the nonfinal order denying leave to plead a punitive damages claim, and reverse the final judgment without prejudice to reinstatement. Id.

Affirmed in part; reversed in part. GERBER, LEVINE and FORST, JJ., concur.

• • * * Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.