Legal Question in Criminal Law in Florida

A friend of mine in Florida was hired to do a job for a person who owned a rental property that was damaged by a storm. The rental property had a renter and the job had to be rushed, because he didn�t want to lose his tenant. My friend did all the paper work for his insurance company and the insurance company accepted my friends estimate. The insurance company sent the owner of the rental property the $7,000 check for the damage. My friend had owner of the rental property to sign a contract for the $7,000 job. After the job was finished, my friend sent this guy a couple of months later a bill for the $7,000. This guy later sent an e-mail to my friend stating that he sent the invoice to late and wasn�t detailed enough. My friend never responded back (because he had no legal knowledge on how to sue or what to do to this guy and now he is in real bad financial shape) for the last two years and now wants to sue in small claims court.

My first question can this be a criminal charge of any kind, such as fraud etc., since he has kept the insurance money for himself for over two years? It is obvious he wanted to keep the money all along, because he has never tried to contact my friend about giving him a partial or full payment. Also can this come under civil theft in civil lawsuit for a breach of contract? Thirdly, can the insurance company be liable for not protecting the contractor for payment by their insured? Example filing a lien for nonpayment of materials, the property holder in Florida will have to pay the material supplier even though he paid a contractor to do the work, but the contractor didn�t pay the supplier of the materials.


Asked on 9/23/11, 9:06 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Craig Epifanio Craig Epifanio, P.A.

You have too many things going on to be able to answer on this forum and you need to contact an attorney in person to get a more detailed response. I can answer some general questions though. It is possible that this might be criminal but it will be difficult for a prosecutor to pick up this case several years after the fact, even if it were considered criminal. They would probably say that this is a civil matter. Civil theft can not be claimed in a breach of contract claim, but that is something you should discuss with the attorney to be sure. As far as insurance goes it depends on the specific language of the policy. Again, call an attorney in your area to help you out.

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Answered on 9/24/11, 6:50 am


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