In an opinion that could affect how contested foreclosure cases throughout the State are tried, Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach recently reversed a Final Judgment foreclosing a lien in favor of the Sebastian Lakes Condominium Association entered after a bench trial. In Yang v. Sebastian Lakes Condominium Association, the court ruled in a consolidated appeal that the testimony of the plaintiff-association management company’s records custodian was insufficient. Without that necessary testimony, the introduction of business records upon which the association relied to establish how much money it was owed was error requiring reversal.
This case arose from a condominium association’s attempt to collect past due assessments from unit owners and dealt with critical issues involving the admission of business records into evidence, as well as the testimony of a records custodian at trial. Given the similarities between lien foreclosure and mortgage foreclosure cases, it will likely have ramifications in both types of cases for years to come.
