Opinion
No. 4D2022-2194
10-18-2023
GREEN TECH DEVELOPMENT, LLC, and Estate of Joan Saperstein, Appellants, v. KAHN & RESNIK, PL, Appellee.
Jay M. Levy of Jay M. Levy, P.A., Miami, for appellants. Marcy S. Resnik, Howard N. Kahn and Rachael G. Lederman of Kahn & Resnik, P.L., Fort Lauderdale, for appellee.
Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County; Jeffrey Levenson, Judge; L.T. Case No. CACE18011689.
Jay M. Levy of Jay M. Levy, P.A., Miami, for appellants.
Marcy S. Resnik, Howard N. Kahn and Rachael G. Lederman of Kahn & Resnik, P.L., Fort Lauderdale, for appellee.
Per Curiam.
[1] We affirm the final summary judgment on an account stated. Although appellants never objected to the invoices, in their affirmative defenses, they alleged fraud as to certain charges on the bill. Yet, appellee withdrew those contested charges early on in the litigation, and the court entered judgment only on the charges for which no objection was made.
[2, 3] "A debtor may overcome a prima facie case of an account stated by ‘meeting the burden of proving fraud, mistake[,] or error’ in the account." Farley v. Chase Bank, U.S.A., N.A., 37 So. 3d 936, 937 (Fla. 4th DCA 2010) (quoting Robert C. Malt & Co. v. Kelly Tractor Co., 518 So. 2d 991, 992 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988)). However, a party’s objection to only certain items on the bill implicitly admits the correctness of those items not challenged. See id. (citing Federated Dep’t Stores, Inc. v. Antigo Indus., Inc,, 297 So. 2d 591, 592–93 (Fla. 3d DCA 1974)). Here, the mistake or fraud did not vitiate the entire transaction and thus did not defeat the remaining unobjected-to charges. See, e.g., Home Health Servs. of Sarasota, Inc. v. McQuay-Garrett, Sullivan & Co., 462 So. 2d 605, 606 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985) (instructing that if the defendant proves mistakes, in an account stated, proper credit should be given in any judgment); In re Rockefeller Ctr. Props., 241 B.R. 804, 824 n.26 (Bkrtcy. S.D.N.Y. 1999) (internal citation omitted) ("[O]nce a failure to object gives rise to an account stated, the objecting party …. is limited to proving factual mistakes within the context of an accounting method it is no longer entitled to challenge. Even if the objecting party succeeds in showing that more restricted sort of error, its effect is to entitle it to an appropriate adjustment in the account stated; such errors do not operate to bar the entire account stated.").
We affirm on all other issues raised.
Affirmed.
Warner, May and Forst, JJ., concur.