Florida Supreme Court Adopts Federal Summary Judgment
Standard
On December 31, 2020, the Florida Supreme Court decided to scrap
the established state law standard for summary judgment in favor of
adopting the more lenient federal standard articulated by the
United States Supreme Court in the trilogy of cases of Celotex
Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317 (1986), Anderson v. Liberty
Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242 (1986), and Matsushita
Electrical Industrial Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574
(1986).
Since the 1966 decision in Holl v Talcott, 191 So. 2d
40 (Fla. 1966), Florida courts have taken an expansive view of what
constitutes a "genuine issue of material fact" sufficient
to defeat summary judgment. A moving party is required to
conclusively disprove the nonmoving party's theory of the case
in order to eliminate any issue of fact. Accordingly, the existence
of any competent evidence creating an
issue of fact, however credible or incredible, substantial
