Harrell & Harrell, P.A. (Harrell & Harrell) and Daniel J. Glary seek review of a nonfinal order directing them to transfer funds to the receiver appointed to wind up Glary & Israel, P.A. (Glary & Israeli’s affairs. We have jurisdiction of the appeal. See Fla. R. App. P. 9.030(b)(1)(B); 9.130(a)(3)(C)(ii). We reverse the portions of the order appellants challenge,
Through the end of 2005, the now defunct law firm of Glary & Israel represented workers’ compensation claimants, many of whom had signed contracts of representation with another law firm, Harrell & Harrell. (In January or February of 2006, Glary & Israel signed superseding contracts of representation with many of the Harrell & Harrell clients.) In March of 2006, Mr. Glary denied Jonathan B. Israel, co-founder of the firm, access to Glary & Israel’s files and to the office Glary & Israel had occupied. (The relationship between Mr. Glary and Mr. Israel had begun to deteriorate near the end of 2005 in the wake of disclosures that a bookkeeper had been embezzling.)
Mr. Israel began the present proceeding by filing a complaint seeking dissolution of Glary & Israel, an accounting of the firm’s assets, and the appointment of a receiver. The complaint sought no relief from Harrell & Harrell, and did not name Harrell & Harrell as a party. On November 1, 2006, the trial court appointed a receiver and directed the receiver to marshal all assets of Glary & Israel, by filing appropriate civil actions on behalf of the firm, if necessary.
When the lawsuit was filed, Glary & Israel had resolved approximately 100 cases in which settlement funds (including attorney’s fees) had not been received. The firm was also involved in approximately 180 other pending cases. Most of the clients in the ongoing cases eventually elected to be represented either by Mr. Glary, who became a principal in a newly formed law firm, Glary & Sacks, in May 2006; or by Mr. Israel, who went to work for Harris, Guidi, Rosner, Dunlap, Rudolph & Catlin, P.A. (Harris Guidi).
On February 8, 2007, the receiver filed a motion requesting that the trial court enter an order compelling Mr. Glary, Mr. Israel, Harrell & Harrell, and Harris Guidi to transfer “any and all monies of Glary & Israel” to the receiver. Harrell & Harrell
On May 8, 2008, Mr. Israel filed a motion for partial summary judgment. The motion sought a determination of whether any or all of the fees awarded in cases in which Mr. Israel or Mr. Glary succeeded Glary & Israel could be claimed by the receiver as assets of Glary & Israel. He argued that the fees held by Harrell & Harrell were assets of Glary & Israel, and that, although Harrell & Harrell might have a claim to a portion of the fees it held, it should stand in no better position than any other creditor of Glary & Israel.
During a hearing held on December 22, 2009, the trial court stated its intention to enter an order dealing with all pending
But a receiver has no greater right to property than the entity has whose property the receiver was appointed to marshal. See SouthTrust Bank of S.W. Fla., N.A. v. Krause,
The trial court denied Harrell & Harrell procedural due process in ordering it to transfer funds it claimed belonged to it without requiring the receiver (or any other party to the action) to plead and prove that the funds were assets of Glary & Israel. Even assuming the validity of the trial court’s order making Harrell & Harrell a party,
The right to procedural due process includes the right to “a full hearing before a court having jurisdiction of the matter, the right to introduce evidence at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner, and judicial findings based upon that evidence.” Brinkley v. County of Flagler,
Ownership of the funds was clearly contested below. In directing that the funds at issue be transferred to the receiver, the trial court implicitly made findings based on disputed issues of fact, even if only as to the amount of certain fees. Both Harrell & Harrell and Mr. Glary placed the trial court on notice that there were factual issues — including the exact nature of the relationship between Glary & Israel and Harrell & Harrell, which clients actually signed contracts of representation with Glary & Israel, and when they did so
Accordingly, the portion of the trial court’s order requiring Harrell & Harrell and Mr. Glary to transfer disputed funds to the receiver is vacated.
Notes
. We do not disturb the order under review insofar as it establishes the priority of secured creditors’ liens.
. After Mr. Israel brought suit, it appears, Harrell & Harrell collected attorney's fees from cases which had been settled before March or April of 2006; Harris Guidi collected fees from cases in which clients elected to be represented by Mr. Israel; and both Harrell & Harrell and Harris Guidi retained the fees they collected from former Glary & Israel clients in trust accounts. Fees collected in cases in which former clients of Glary & Israel elected to be represented by Mr. Glary or Glary & Sacks were not apparently kept in a trust account or otherwise separate and apart.
.Judge Cole, the trial judge who initially presided over the case, agreed with this position, and counsel indicated an intention to make Harrell & Harrell a party. Neither the receiver nor Mr. Israel acted to bring Harrell & Harrell in as a party, however, perhaps in part because Harrell & Harrell filed its own declaratory action (only to take a dismissal on the eve of trial). On May 2, 2007, Harrell & Harrell filed an action seeking a declaratory judgment regarding ownership or entitlement to the funds it holds. It filed a notice of voluntary dismissal of the action on December 16, 2009.
Later, when the successor judge was reminded that Harrell & Harrell was not a party to the action, the court ruled Harrell & Harrell would be permitted to participate with regard to the claims procedure, because the firm had filed a claim against Glary & Israel, but did not have the right to participate as a party.
On June 7, 2010, however, in a separate order entered the same day as the order under review, the trial court granted the motion to intervene which Harrell & Harrell had filed on September 25, 2006, stating it was denying Harrell & Harrell's motion, filed October 26, 2006, to withdraw its motion to intervene. Harrell & Harrell actually filed a pleading on October 26, 2006, styled "Withdrawal of Motion to Intervene,” in which it gave "notice that it withdraws its Motion to Intervene.”
Harrell & Harrell does not, however, argue on this appeal that the trial court erred in entering the order treating its withdrawal of motion to intervene as a motion to withdraw its motion to intervene and denying the same.
. As to Glary & Sacks, Mr. Glary took the position that the trial court lacked jurisdiction over Glary & Sacks because no action had been filed against that firm. In the order under review, however, Glary & Sacks was not ordered to remit any funds to the receiver.
. On December 17, 2008, the trial court entered an order establishing a claims adjudication procedure, which required each creditor of Glary & Israel to file a proof of claim and to set forth the priority of their claims. Harrell & Harrell and Mr. Glary, who have not appealed the order, submitted proofs of claim under protest.
. Simultaneously with the directive to remit $274,549.20 to the receiver, the trial court purported to grant Harrell & Harrell’s motion to intervene, despite its withdrawal of the motion to intervene several years earlier. (Harrell & Harrell filed a motion to intervene on September 25, 2006, but withdrew the motion on October 26, 2006.) See Alger v. Peters,
. Mr. Glary also asserts on appeal that no pleading or lawsuit had ever been filed on behalf of Glary & Israel which sought the payment of any sum from him. But Mr. Glary was made a party to this action by the initial pleading, which sought an accounting of Glary & Israel’s assets. Mr. Israel asserted in the motion for partial summary judgment that Mr. Glary owed a continuing duty to protect the interests of former clients of Glary & Israel and that fees awarded in cases which were transferred to Mr. Glary should be transferred to the receiver. We reject Mr. Glaiy’s assertion that the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over controversies between him, Mr. Israel, and Glary & Israel. Mr. Glary, too, however, was within his rights to insist that the receiver put on evidence to show any entitlement to disputed funds he claimed.
. As the trial court recognized, this might require a case-by-case determination of the ownership of fees at issue.
. Harris Guidi has apparently already remitted to the receiver the funds it was ordered to turn over; both Harris Guidi and Mr. Israel elected to comply with the order intended to bring the case to — or near — an end, rather than appealing.
Because the order on appeal (although styled final order) is an interlocutory order, the trial judge may revisit any portion of the interlocutory order not challenged on appeal in the interest of justice. See AC Holdings 2006, Inc. v. McCarty,
