Recent Case: Section 489.128, Florida Statutes

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MGM Construction Services Corp., vs. Travelers Casualty & Surety Co. of America, et al., Case No. 3D10-203, filed March 2, 2011: Summary judgment against an unlicensed subcontractor was reversed and remanded in order to allow the trial court to consider specified public policy factors, where only licensure requirement was pursuant to local county ordinance (Miami-Dade), which, unlike s. 489.128, F. S., did not contain any provision regarding contract non-enforceability. In rejecting the contractor’s argument that a contract entered into in violation of law (the ordinance) was void, the court noted that “in the absence of legislative direction, a hard and fast rule declaring contracts unenforceable is bound to result in inequitable or absurd outcomes in certain situation, and that some flexibility in the decision-making process is required.” Instead, the court noted that s. 489.128(1)(a) had been amended effective October 1, 2009, after the case had begun, to provide that a contractor would not be considered unlicensed if a state license was not required, and that this statutory change applied by its terms to “all actions pending when this act becomes law.”



Trenton H. Cotney
Board Certified in Construction Law
Trent Cotney, P.A.
1207 N Franklin St, Ste 222
Tampa, FL 33602
(813) 579-3278

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