## Facts

- A condominium association’s board imposed a $1,500 per-unit assessment to fund the purchase of adjacent real property.
- The purchase was later held invalid as beyond the board’s authority.
- Litigation over the invalid purchase produced (1) a substantial attorney’s-fee judgment for unit owners who successfully challenged the purchase and (2) refund judgments in favor of unit owners seeking return of the $1,500 assessment.
- To pay these obligations and avoid execution against condominium property, the association imposed a $500 special assessment on unit owners.
- The association’s declaration treated liens against the common elements as a common expense payable by the association.
- After the special assessment was imposed, the association received proceeds from insurance and rescission of the transaction, and those funds—together with special-assessment proceeds—were used to reimburse unit owners for the original $1,500 assessment.
- A class of unit owners filed a declaratory action challenging the $500 special assessment as unauthorized because it related to an unauthorized transaction.
- The trial court upheld the assessment; the district court reversed and certified a question of great public importance.

## Issues

1. Whether a condominium association may levy and enforce a special assessment to pay judgments, attorney’s fees, and costs arising from litigation over an unauthorized (ultra vires) board transaction.
2. Whether such litigation-related liabilities may be treated as “common expenses” when necessary to prevent execution or levy against common property.

## Decision

- The Florida Supreme Court quashed the district court’s decision and remanded with instructions to affirm the trial court’s judgment.
- The court answered the certified question “yes.”
- The court upheld the $500 special assessment as within the association’s authority to fund common expenses, including amounts needed to satisfy enforceable judgments and protect common elements from execution.

## Legal Principles

- A condominium association’s authority to levy assessments for “common expenses” may include amounts reasonably necessary to satisfy valid judgments, attorney’s fees, and costs enforceable against the association.
- The invalidity of a board’s underlying act does not eliminate the association’s separate power and obligation to address the financial consequences of enforceable judgments entered against it.
- When governing documents or applicable condominium law place responsibility on the association to pay liens or liabilities affecting common elements, the association may allocate those costs through assessments to preserve common property.
- Courts may uphold a special assessment where the association reasonably determines it is necessary to prevent execution and levy against condominium property.

## Conclusion

The court held that, despite the board’s unauthorized property purchase, the association could enforce a special assessment to pay resulting litigation judgments and attorney’s fees because those obligations were valid against the association and could be treated as common expenses required to protect the condominium’s common property.


Ocean Trail Unit Owners Ass’n, Inc. v. Mead, 650 So. 2d 4 (Fla. 1994)