What is a claim for unjust enrichment? Are these claims common in Florida business litigation or Florida probate law? In probate court, can a claim for unjust enrichment be based on an express contract?
Unjust Enrichment
- Unjust enrichment is a claim that is usually brought when a contract is breached.
- There are 3 elements of a claim for unjust enrichment.
- What are these elements?
- (1) the plaintiff has conferred a benefit on the defendant (2) the defendantvoluntarily accepted and retained that benefit; and (3) the circumstances are such that it would be inequitable for the defendants to retain it without paying the value therof” Virgilio v. Ryland Grp., Inc., 680 F. 3d 1329, 1337( 11th Cir. 2012).
- When can a Plaintiff in a Florida trust and estates dispute recover from a claim of unjust enrichment ?
Fulton, Fulton Insurance Agencency, Inc., and Fulton v. Brancato
- In this recent Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal(DCA) case, assets of an insurance agency were sold through an asset purchase agreement (APA)
- What does this mean?
- In this APA, the buyer’s agency agreed “to pay [seller’s agency] an amount equal to the one(1) times the actual amount of commission received by the renewals on the clients during the twelve(12) month period after the effective date of this agreement.”
- A lawsuit was filed when the seller never received the proper payments from the buyer or the buyers insurance agency.
- One of the claims was an unjust enrichment claim.
- The claim said that the buyer and the buyer’s agency were unjustly enriched when they received the assets from the seller’s agency without paying the rational value of those assets.
- The trial court denied the buyer’s motion for directed verdict on the seller’s claim for unjust enrichment.
- On appeal, the buyer and their agency argued that, because the jury established that there was an express agreement, “the seller cannot recover under the equitable theory of unjust enrichment.”
- When there is an express contract, a person can recover damages. Therefore, they can not also claim unjust enrichment.
- The Fourth DCA agreed.
Want to learn more?
Check out the entire case by clicking here.
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