FURTHER THOUGHTS ON ALVAREZ-MEJIA (Fla. 3d DCA 2016).

This article picks up and carries forward the article posted here on Sunday, July 15, 2018.

           On the record of the Alvarez-Mejia appeal, where the plaintiff homeowner put on evidence in the trial court but the defendant did not, it is almost an open question whether there would have been a different result if the plaintiff had been the one who filed the motion for summary judgment, all other things being equal.^[1]

          The Alvarez-Mejia case was seen in a significantly different way by the dissenting judge.  He expressed his own opinion on whether it was "economically feasible" to restore or repair Ms. Alvarez-Mejia's home, which was that "I believe it is not 'economically reasonable' or 'practicable' to do so."^[2]   To say again, the legal issue was whether the restoration or repair was "economically feasible" under the quoted mortgage provision; the words, "economically reasonable" or "practicable" reflect the interpretation that the dissenting judge substituted for that term.

          On the law of what is "economically feasible" as used in paragraph 5 of this standard mortgage, the dissenting judge honestly reported that "[e]lectronically assisted research of all federal and state case law discloses just one case where a court has attempted to define the phrase."  That was the case of Vongohren v. Citimortgage, Inc., an unreported decision by a federal judge in Maryland, also decided in 2016.^[3]  It has been cited by only one judge since then, and that is the dissenting judge in Alvarez-Mejia.^[4]

To be continued with further discussion and analysis of both decisions, Vongohren and Alvarez-Mejia.

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[1] But in this case "a genuine issue of material fact exists as to the cost of repairs to the property."  Alvarez-Mejia, 208 So. 3d at 799.

[2] Alvarez-Mejia, 208 So. 3d at 800 (Shepherd, J., dissenting).

[3] Vongohoren v. Citimortgage, Inc., No. JFM-14-3549, 2016 WL 739070 (D. Md. February 25, 2016).

[4] Alvarez-Mejia, 208 So. 3d at 800 (Shepherd, J., dissenting).