MIAMI — The 3rd District Court of Appeal for the state of Florida ruled that a Miami golf resort was responsible for attorney’s fees following a lien judgment.
Paint Spot in Miami filed a claim of lien against golf resort Trump National Doral Miami, after the owner, Trump Endeavor 12 LLC, left an outstanding balance of $32,535.87 for the price of paint and other supplies. But Trump Endeavor said that Paint Spot didn’t put the correct contractor on the project, according to court documents. The resort argued that the claim wasn't reasonable because of the contractor issue and that Paint Spot didn’t follow the regulations in section 713.06(2)(a), which state, “errors and omissions do not prevent the enforcement of a claim against a person who has not been adversely affected by such omission or error."
The business relationship started when Trump Endeavor hired a contractor, Straticon LLC, to complete renovations for the lodge project to renovate the property's 10 lodges. Straticon subsequently hired M&P Reynolds Inc., which hired Paint Spot for needed paint supplies. Juan Carlos Enriquez, president of Paint Spot, went to the resort to get a copy of the notice of commencement (NOC), so he could in turn create a proper notice to owner (NTO), according to court documents.
The director of construction at Trump Endeavor accidentally gave Enriquez the paperwork for another hired contractor, T&G Constructors, which was hired for the clubhouse renovation project, according to court records. Enriquez allegedly didn’t recognize the change. Once Straticon was aware of the mistake, Enriquez was notified.
Enriquez said “it was taken care of,” but still “never prepared or served a corrected NTO on Straticon,” according to the opinion.
Paint Spot provided supplies to the lodge project until M&P Reynolds stopped working with the project because Straticon allegedly stopped paying. At that point, $32,535.87 worth of paint supplies were delivered to the lodge project but had not been paid for; this caused Paint Spot to file the claim of lien.
The trial court decided that Trump Endeavor and Straticon both knew about Paint Spot’s NTO error and that both knew that Paint Spot was the one supplying the paint materials for the Lodge Project. It also ruled that Trump Endeavor could not make Paint Spot’s NTO invalid because Trump Endeavor gave Paint Spot the incorrect NOC. The trial court also said that Paint Spot did adhere to the rules when filing the lien and rewarded Paint Spot attorney fees.
The district court sided with the trial court and said that Paint Spot was not only in line with the regulations in section 713.06(2)a), but that Trump Endeavor “failed to establish that it was adversely affected by the error contained in the NTO.”
The district court also upheld the attorney’s fees Paint Spot was rewarded.