Landlords have many statutory and/or common law obligations and duties under Florida law governing their relationships with their tenants, including with regard to the inspection and maintenance of the premises. The landlord will often want and need a written lease, signed by the tenant, to clearly delineate both the terms of this relationship and, for example, to provide the landlord the ability to sue the tenant to enforce the tenant’s payment obligation and to recover possession of the premises if the tenant fails to pay rent or breaches the lease. In that situation, landlords will often prefer to have their case heard by the court, with the judge usually being an appointed or elected attorney who should leave their own biases and prejudices aside once they reach the bench in favor of determining judgment based upon objectively-decided facts, versus having their case heard by a jury, made up of 6 individuals, untrained in the law, who bring their own subjective experiences, opinions and (potentially) prejudices into the fact-finding and judgment process.
The Florida Constitution guarantees a party a fundamental right to have a civil dispute heard by a jury in many circumstances, including landlord-tenant disputes. See Article 1, Section 22, Florida Constitution. That constitutional right can be waived, however, therefore, a landlord can and should include a provision in the lease agreement that both the landlord and tenant agree, in writing, to waive any right to a jury trial in regards to any dispute, lawsuit, and/or claim arising from or under or relating to the lease and/or the tenancy. Florida law holds that “[w]aivers of the right to jury trial by contract are enforceable and will be upheld [such that a] trial court commits reversible error when it chooses to ignore the parties’ contractual waiver of a jury trial and orders a common law jury trial.” See Vista Ctr. Venture v. Unlike Anything, Inc., 603 So. 2d 576, 578 (Fla. 5th DCA 1992). The jury trial waiver must be clear, complete, and unambiguous, such that the court would not need to interpret or construe the waiver in any other manner, and should enforce that waiver. See State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Menendez, 70 So.3d 566 (Fla. 2011); GEICO Indem. Co. v. Walker, 319 So. 3d 661, 665 (Fla. 4th DCA 2021) (finding “[i]t is a fundamental rule of contract interpretation that a contract which is clear, complete, and unambiguous does not require judicial construction”).
Typically, cases address upholding a jury trial waiver can be seen for eviction, as those courts easily determined that a rental dispute is a ‘contract’ claim arising out of the written lease, which creates the landlord-tenant relationship. A less obvious situation arises when a tenant brings an action against their landlord where the tenant allegedly sustains injury caused by a landlord’s breach of some obligation, such as to inspect or maintain the premises. The tenant plaintiff’s attorney will typically demand trial by a jury, and will argue their tort claims do not arise under or concern the lease, but instead arise under a landlord’s common law or statutory duties pertaining to safely maintaining the premises and/or warning of unknown dangers.
However, depending upon the language of the provision, the jury trial waiver can apply to both ‘contract’ claims between the landlord and tenant, as well as ‘tort’ claims. For example, in Bergeron Env’t & Recycling, LLC v. LGL Recycling, LLC, 398 So. 3d 988, 991 (Fla. 4th DCA 2024), reh’g denied (Jan. 2, 2025) (“Bergeron”), corporations A and B entered into a joint venture agreement to provide waste management services. The agreement included a waiver providing A and B ‘knowingly waived the right [either of them may have had] to a trial by jury in respect of any litigation based hereon or arising out of under or in connection with this agreement”. Subsequent thereto, the parent company of A sold A’s assets to a third party, with the parent company fulfilling some of A’s obligations, although the sale did not include A’s interest in the joint venture. Thereafter, B sued A and its parent company, raising numerous tort claims and demanding trial by jury.
A and its parent company moved to enforce the jury trial waiver, with plaintiff B essentially arguing the waiver did not apply to such tort claims. The trial court granted the motion, and B appealed the issue to the Fourth District Court of Appeal. The appellate court, citing several Florida federal district court decisions, held “non-contract claims fall within the scope of a jury waiver clause for claims ‘arising out of’ or ‘concerning’ a contract where the allegations in the claims relate to the contract”. The appellate court also reasoned “a claim ‘relates to’ a contract when ‘the dispute occurs as a fairly direct result of the performance of contractual duties.” Finally, the appellate court found it made sense to apply a ‘significant relationship’ test applied by the Florida Supreme Court in Seifert v. U.S. Home Corp., 750 So.2d 633 (Fla. 1999) where that court explained such a ‘significant relationship’ exists where the tort claim is inextricably intertwined with both the circumstances surrounding the transaction from which the contract originated and the contract itself and resolution of the tort claim and resolution of the tort claim requires construction and consideration of duties arising under the contract. The appellate court ultimately upheld enforcement of the jury waiver clause, holding B’s tort claims were both connected to the joint venture agreement, were premises in part upon duties and obligations imposed upon A and B from that agreement, and the dispute between A and B was a ‘fairly direct result’ of A and B’s relationship created by the agreement.
Although the dispute in Bergeron involved rather complex tort claims connected to a commercial corporate dispute, the same principles can and do apply in the context of whether jury trial waiver applies to a personal injury suit filed by a tenant against its landlord. In Baumgartner v. Mid-America Apt. Comm., Inc., 28 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 33b (Duval Cty. Ct. Feb. 21, 2020), the plaintiff was renting a residential apartment from the defendant landlord/owner, and had executed a lease which included the following waiver:
To minimize legal expenses and, to the extent allowed by law, you and we agree that a trial of any lawsuit based on statute, common law, and/or related to this Lease Contract shall be by a judge and not a party.
Plaintiff subsequently brought a premises liability-based personal injury action against the defendant, alleging she was a lawful invitee upon the premises by virtue of her lease, and was injured when she slipped and fell upon paper or refuse that the landlord negligently allowed to accumulate around the complex’s mailboxes. The tenant alleged a dangerous condition was created by the defendant’s failure to use reasonable care in maintaining the property in a safe condition and failure to warn invitees of such a latent or concealed dangerous condition. The plaintiff demanded a jury trial.
The defendant moved to strike the jury trial demand in favor of a bench trial under the waiver. The tenant argued this waiver did not apply to her negligence claim, where she was suing to enforce a general common law duty defendant owed to any public invitee, rather than pursuant to a specific duty arising under the lease. In contrast, the defendant argued, since plaintiff relied on her alleged status as an invitee on the premises, and that same was created by virtue of plaintiff’s status as a tenant under the lease, plaintiff’s negligence tort claim was “related to” the lease and thus subject to the lease’s jury trial waiver.
The Court held, under Florida law, that parties to a contract may waive the right to a jury trial for tort claims arising out of or related to the lease contract. The court cited Vista Centre Venture v. Unlike Anything, Inc., 603 So. 2d 576 (Fla. 5th DCA 1992), which reversed that lower’s court order setting a jury trial on damages where the damages claims arose out of a contract because a trial court commits reversible error when it chooses to ignore the contracting parties’ contractual waiver of a jury trial and orders a common law jury trial. The trial court determined that the tenant’s plaintiff’s negligence claim relied in part on her status as a tenant, which status was created and arose under the lease, such that the plaintiff’s claim was “related to” and governed by the waiver of jury trial provision in their lease. Accordingly, the court granted the landlord-owner’s motion and struck the plaintiff’s jury trial demand.
In short, a landlord should consider whether they want to try any dispute with their tenant coming under the lease before a jury or the court, and if so, they need to include a clear and unambiguous jury trial waiver in their lease. The landlord also needs to consider the scope of such a waiver, in terms of whether it will apply solely to ‘contractual’ claims, or to tort claims as well. Finally, if moving to strike a jury trial waiver in a personal injury action filed by a tenant plaintiff, counsel for the landlord will need to establish the causal nexus between the claims asserted by the tenant with how or why such claims arise out of or relate to the terms of the lease and the relationship and duties involved by and between the tenant and landlord. Of course, the specific language of the waiver provision is important, and it is recommended that a landlord consult counsel with any questions about the scope or enforcement of any such provision.