Ayala Recovers $300,000 Worth of HVAC Equipment in Contentious Warehouse Lien Dispute 

Ayala is pleased to announce that, after nearly a year of litigation, we have recovered our client’s property, equipment worth approximately $300,000.

The case involved a warehouse in Doral, Florida, that stored our client’s property while in transit to its final destination in Guatemala. Our client, a Guatemalan company with over 30 years in the industry, purchased it from providers in Wisconsin and Tennessee. They then retained the services of a freight forwarder company, which, in turn, hired the defendant warehouse to store the items in Miami while in transit.

When the freight forwarder went out of business, the defendant warehouse tried to charge the entire debt of the freight forwarded to our client, illegally holding the equipment and alleging a lien, not for our client’s equipment’s storage fees, but for other services owed to the warehouse by the freight forwarder held there.

We filed a complaint for, among others,  the violation of the warehouse lien statute in section 667.20 of the Florida Statutes.

The statute contains strict notice requirements including:

(a) notifying all persons with a claim on the property.

(b) delivery of the notice in person or via registered or certified letter.

(c) an itemized statement of the claim and a description of the goods subject to the line.

In addition to the notice requirements, warehouses claiming a lien, that intend to enforce their lien via sale must:

(e) hold the sale in the nearest place to where the goods are sold,

(f) advertise the sale once a week for 2 weeks consecutively in a newspaper of general circulation.

Our complaint claimed violation of many of these requirements. Our complaint also presented counts for conversion and violation of consumer protection laws.

As stated by attorney Eduardo A. Ayala, “We are happy with this partial settlement where the defendant will finally return the goods held hostage for almost a year, artificially creating storage fees. We are happy that our client now gets the return of the property, and hopefully, delivers it to its intended purchaser.”

For more information about warehouse liens, contact an experienced lien attorney in Miami at 305-570-2208.

You can also contact trial attorney Eduardo A. Maura at eduardo@ayalalawpa.com.

Schedule a case evaluation here.