Attorney Wins Summary Foreclosure Reversal in Madeira Beach Appeal

Our client, Overture Realty, LLC, obtained a piece of property in the City of Madeira Beach. When the City of Madeira filed a foreclosure suit to collect on liens for an alleged failure to maintain the property, the City requested a summary foreclosure proceeding. But summary foreclosure is available only when a defendant refuses to defend against a suit. Here, Overture put on a strong defense. So summary foreclosure simply wasn’t available to the city.

But the trial court granted summary foreclosure anyway, finding there were no disputes of fact and that the City’s allegations of hundreds of thousands of unpaid lien amounts required foreclosure

Alexander Appellate Law P.A. appealed on behalf of the client, arguing that (1) summary foreclosure was not available in a defended suit; (2) the requirements of a summary foreclosure complaint were not met; and (3) the City’s evidence of the liens amounts was not properly verified and the amounts were unsupported.

On appeal, the Second District Court of Appeal reversed, agreeing that summary foreclosure was unavailable to the City of Madeira, and agreeing that the complaint had issues. For example, it appeared the City had attempted to foreclose on another party’s lien, and the lien amounts the City asserted were backed by “minimal explanation.”

In its brief, our firm argued that this case was similar to MDTR LLC v. Deutsche Bank National Trust Co., 224 So. 3d 781 (Fla. 5th DCA 2017). On appeal, the appellate court agreed, reasoning that because it was faced with a “similar scenario,” the court was “compelled to” reverse.

The full opinion can be found here: Overture Realty, LLC v. City of Madeira Beach, 357 So. 3d 221 (Fla. 2d DCA 2023).