30 Fla. L. Weekly D1434a
Attorney’s fees — Appellate fees — Plaintiff entitled to appellate attorney’s fees reasonably expended in defending issue which raised question regarding entitlement of plaintiff to trial court attorney’s fees
MERCURY CASUALTY COMPANY, Appellant, vs. CLARA FLORES, Appellee. 3rd District. Case Nos. 3D04-2353 & 3D03-453. L.T. Case No. 01-0453. Opinion filed June 8, 2005. An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Lawrence A. Schwartz, Judge. Counsel: Cooney, Mattson, Lance, Blackburn, Richards & O’Connor and Warren B. Kwavnick, for appellant. Lopez & Best; Marc Goldman, for appellee.
(Before COPE, SUAREZ and CORTIÑAS, JJ.)On Motion for Rehearing[Original Opinion at 30 Fla. L. Weekly D793a]
(COPE, J.) By motion for rehearing the appellee plaintiff requests rehearing of that part of our opinion which denied her request for appellate attorney’s fees. She points out that issue III of the appeal raised a question regarding the entitlement of the plaintiff to trial court attorney’s fees for the time period after February 2001. While this was the precautionary issue mentioned in our original opinion and was the smallest of the issues on appeal, the plaintiff is nonetheless correct that as to that issue, the point raised on appeal was one of entitlement. That being so, the plaintiff is entitled to an award of that portion of her appellate attorney’s fees reasonably expended in defending point III of the appeal. See State Farm Fire & Cas. Co. v. Palma, 629 So. 2d 830, 833 (Fla. 1993). We remand to the trial court to determine the amount.
For the stated reasons, the motion for rehearing is granted as stated herein, appellate attorney’s fees are awarded for point III, and the cause is remanded to the trial court to set the amount.
