Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida v. Miami-Dade County
The Third DCA reversed the trial court's denial of the Miccosukee Tribe's motion to file a first amended complaint, holding that the Tribe retained an absolute right to amend under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.190(a) because the County had filed only a motion to dismiss—not a responsive pleading—and the Tribe had not yet exercised its one-time amendment right. The court expressed no opinion on the merits of the underlying declaratory judgment action, which alleged that Miami-Dade County violated the County Code and Comprehensive Development Master Plan by passing resolutions funding a homeless services project without proper land-use approvals. Civil practitioners should note that this decision reaffirms that defendants cannot extinguish a plaintiff's absolute amendment right by moving to dismiss rather than filing an answer.
Key facts
- In 1989, the federal government conveyed a 115-acre parcel in unincorporated Miami-Dade County to the County subject to a deed restriction and reverter limiting use to correctional purposes; the County never operated the property for that purpose.
- In 2022 and 2023, the County Commission passed resolutions authorizing over $11 million in funding and approving a plan for the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust to develop a special-needs homeless services project on the property, which required the federal government to release the deed restriction and was located outside the County's Urban Development Boundary adjacent to Tribe-owned land.
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Holdings
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.190(a) grants a party an absolute right to amend once before a responsive pleading is served; the trial court has no discretion to deny such an amendment.
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