Court Stops Sale of Florida Homestead To Enforce Judgment
I always tell people that if a judge wants to "get you" they will usually find a way- especially the federal judges. One of my clients was sued in federal district court in another state up north. The client was already a resident of Florida. The judge ruled against him and gave the other party a money judgment. Knowing the client, now the judgment debtor, had recently purchased an expensive condominium in Florida as his main asset, the judge issued an injunction to stop the debtor from selling the condominium. The judge rejected imposition of a constructive trust over the condominium because, among other reasons, he probably did not have jurisdiction over Florida property and because he may have questioned the court's ability to impose a remedy over a Florida homestead protection. What the court did, however, is issue an injunction against the client/debtor personally to stop him from taking any action to sell or transfer the condominium
While the federal court in another state may not have jurisdiction over the homestead property, the court had acquired jurisdiction over the person who owned the homestead. If this were not a federal court the debtor may, as a practical matter, ignore the injunction by a judge in a state court outside of Florida. Selling the condominium would be an act of contempt. A court in a state outside of Florida may be unable to enforce its contempt order in Florida. Flouting a federal court's order is more risky and is not advisable even when the federal court is outside of Florida. While I am not knowledgeable about federal litigation I suspect a foreign federal court could more easily enforce contempt sanctions in other states including sanctions for violating contempt orders affected Florida homestead. In any event, I advised the client to comply with the injunction.
Although a court cannot force the sale of a Florida homestead the judicial system has other remedies to diminish ownership rights in homestead. This case shows that a court can fashion creative remedies to pressure Florida residents to pay civil judgments even when the debtor has sheltered most of his money in a Florida homestead.
posted by Jonathan Alper, asset protection and bankruptcy attorney, Orlando, Florida
