Wills and trust charters are complicated documents. West Palm Beach Courts are also very busy. Do you think it is possible that the Court would make a mistake in interpreting these long documents? I think it is. If you do not believe me check out this case out of the Fourth District Court of Appeal where a case was remanded back to the trial court because they misinterpreted the language.
West Palm Beach Appeals
- Usually you cannot appeal things that are non-final although some exceptions do exist.
- But what do you do when the judge misinterprets something?
- Clearly if you want to appeal this is a major issue for you in the case and odds are the other side is not going to concede it is error.
- How can you fix this?
- One set of litigants came up with a creative answer and chose to appeal based on a misinterpretation.
- Do you think this was a good idea?
- In the end they won a remand to the trial court for the interpretation to be reviewed and/or corrected.
- Check out what happened in this strange Fourth District Court of Appeals case.
Michael Anthony Company et. Al. v. Palm Springs Township
- This was a complicated appeal from the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in and for West Palm Beach county.
- The underlying case was one for breach of contract and indemnity.
- Indemnity is a party’s right to seek repayment for judgments that are really based on another’s fault.
- Look for indemnity clauses in contracts they tend not to exist otherwise.
- The appeals court ultimately found that the trial court had misread or misinterpreted the relevant paper work!
- So the court reversed and remanded for a new trial.
- Do you think this is fair?
- Is interpreting a contract the duty of an appellate court?
- Should they stick to just analyzing the laws of West Palm Beach?
Want to learn more?
Check out the entire case by clicking here.