Court Holds That Roofing Contractor Still Had Standing to Enforce Contract after Hiring Collection Agency to Recover Unpaid Balance
Florida Roof Masters, LLC v. Page arises from a payment dispute between a roofing contractor and a homeowner. The roofing contractor and homeowner entered into a contract whereby the roofing contractor was to replace the homeowner’s roof for $18,000.00. The homeowner paid the roofing contractor a $9,000.00 deposit, but refused to pay the balance upon completion. The roofing contractor ultimately engaged a collection company to collect the balance on behalf of it. If the collection company was successful, it would keep a portion of the recovery with the rest going to the roofing contractor. If it was unsuccessful, the roofing contractor would owe it nothing.
Eventually the roofing contractor sued the homeowner. The homeowner moved for summary judgment, arguing in part that the roofing contractor lacked standing to pursue her for the debt because it had assigned its collection rights to the collection company. The trial court agreed with the homeowner and entered judgment in favor of the homeowner. The roofing contractor appealed.
On appeal Florida’s First District Court of Appeal noted that while the contract with the collection company referred to an “assigned debt,” there was nothing in the contract that referred to the collection company purchasing the debt from the roofing contractor and no full and unconditional assignment of all of the roofing contractor’s interests in the roofing contract. Rather, the Court indicated, it simply gave the collection company the ability to sue on behalf of the roofing contractor, but did not take away the roofing contractor’s rights to do the same thing.
Based on this the appellate court reversed summary judgment in favor of the homeowner and remanded for further litigation.
About the Author:
Jason Lambert is a Florida Board Certified Construction Attorney and Partner in the Construction Industry Practice Group at Hill Ward Henderson, in Tampa, Florida. He is also the founder and chief contributor to the Hammer & Gavel construction law blog. Jason focuses his practice on representing contractors, subcontractors, and materials suppliers throughout the state of Florida. Before law school, Jason spent a decade working in the construction industry, primarily as a project manager and operations director for both new construction and remodeling. He can be reached at jason.lambert@hwhlaw.com or 813-227-8495.
