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Reversal of Attorney’s Fees Award Arising Out of Denial of Requests for Admissions

Sharon Degnan, of the Orlando office, won an appeal in the Fifth District Court of Appeal wherein she obtained a reversal of an attorney’s fee award against her client and the client’s insurance carrier in Sentz v. Tracy, 266 So. 3d 1279 (Fla. 5th DCA 2019). The attorney’s fee award was originally entered as a sanction for the defendant’s failure to admit certain requests for admission. The appellate court held that an award of attorney’s fees pursuant to Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.380(c), which authorizes such an award against a party who fails to admit a request for admission, was inapplicable to the defendant’s denial of requests to admit that she was negligent and the legal cause of damage to the plaintiff, which issues were hotly disputed at trial. The appellate court agreed with Sharon’s argument that to allow a fee award in such a circumstance would improperly turn Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.380(c) into a prevailing party fee provision, which it is not intended to be.

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