Opinion
No. 92-1606.
October 12, 1993. Rehearing Denied November 23, 1993.
Appeal from the Circuit Court of Dade County, Maria M. Korvick, J.
Perse Ginsberg and Arnold Ginsberg, Goldberg Vova, Miami, for appellants.
Mark I. Blumstein, Hollywood, and Gary Silberman, North Miami Beach, for appellees.
Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and HUBBART and COPE, JJ.
Because the plaintiff homeowners [Lorenzo and Rosary Lorenzo] (a) agreed to both a bifurcation of the legal and equitable claims in this action as well as a non-jury trial of the equitable claims first, and (b) interjected legal issues, over objection, by way of defense in the trial of the equitable claims brought by the defendant/counterclaimant contractors [Associated Trade Investments, Inc., Matt Birson, Fontanills Enterprises, Inc., and Phillip Fontanills] in that the plaintiffs offered evidence at trial raising such defenses, we conclude that the plaintiffs tried the legal issues by consent in the non-jury equitable action. Accordingly, the trial court did not commit error, as urged, in resolving the legal issues raised by the plaintiffs at the non-jury trial of the equitable claims, in entering judgment for the defendants on their equitable claim, and in later entering a summary judgment for the defendants on the plaintiffs' legal claims based on the collateral estoppel effect of the trial court's factual findings in the non-jury trial on the equitable claims. Moreover, we find no stipulation in the record that there was to be no collateral estoppel effect to the trial court's factual findings on the equitable claims at the non-jury trial. R.D.J. Enters., Inc. v. Mega Bank, 600 So.2d 1229 (Fla. 3d DCA), rev. denied, 609 So.2d 40 (Fla. 1992).
Affirmed.