A Scriveners Error Shouldn't Get You Booted out of Court
Magnolia Manor, Inc. v Siegel, 866 So.2d 142 (Fla. 5th DCA Feb. 13, 2004) (TRIAL COURT REVERSED)
In a case that has been pending for years, and was already the subject of a previously published appellate opinion in which the trial court was reversed in part and directed to allow Magnolia Manor, Inc., a nursing home where the decedent's parents resided before their deaths and the sole beneficiary of the decedent's 1978 will, to offer the 1978 will for probate (see First Union Nat'l Bank of Fla., N.A. v. Estate of Byron B. Mizell, 807 So.2d 78 (Fla. 5th DCA Feb. 2001) ), Orange County Circuit Court Judge W. Rogers Turner apparently was losing his patience when he dismissed with prejudice the petition filed on behalf of Magnolia Manor for apparently minor drafting errors committed by its counsel. The trial court dismissed the petition because the attorney who had prepared the papers had named himself as the "petitioner," which was unfortunate for all concerned because the filing attorney was not himself an "interested party" under Section 731.201(21), thereby prompting the court to dismiss his petition with prejudice. The 5th DCA reversed the trial court noting that although the "papers filed by [petitioner's counsel] were not models of clarity," a "fair reading of the papers [counsel] filed demonstrates that [he] was proceeding not for his own personal interest, but as a representative of Magnolia Manor."
