SALTER, J.
Chase Home Finance, LLC ("Chase"), appeals an order dismissing its mortgage foreclosure complaint without prejudice and an order denying rehearing following
The five-year procedural history of the case in the trial court is convoluted, but can be distilled to the following pertinent points. Ms. Autrey and others obtained a residential mortgage loan in 2006 for $368,000.00 from JPMorgan Chase Bank. The loan was secured by non-homestead property owned by Ms. Autrey in Monroe County. Following an alleged default in August 2009 and the transfer of the loan and security to Chase, Chase commenced an "in rem" foreclosure in April 2010.
Following an amendment to the complaint and other pretrial proceedings, the case was set for non-jury trial in January 2015. Chase presented two witnesses, and the note, mortgage, notice of default, and assignment of mortgage were introduced into evidence. The loan servicer (one of the witnesses presented by Chase, from Pennymac) authenticated a loan history for the mortgage loan going back to February 2012 (although the alleged default had commenced in 2009). Chase rested its case, as did defendants. The trial judge held that the evidence was sufficient to allow entry of a foreclosure judgment in favor of Chase, but expressed reservation regarding the incomplete payment history.
A week later, a defendant moved for involuntary dismissal, arguing that Chase's failure to introduce a complete payment history at trial warranted dismissal. The defendant also alleged that Chase had not provided the additional payment history as ordered. In early February 2015, a second judge (newly assigned to the case) granted the involuntary dismissal without a hearing. Chase timely moved for rehearing (noting that it had provided the additional payment history to the defendants promptly after receiving it), but the motion was denied in May 2015. This appeal followed.
On this record, involuntary dismissal of the case without a hearing was unwarranted. Dismissal was apparently entered as a sanction based on the second judge's view that Chase had failed to comply with the first judge's ruling.
Under these unusual circumstances, this was reversible error by the successor judge, denying Chase due process. Universal Ins. Co. of N. Am. v. Warfel, 82 So.3d 47 (Fla.2012); Coleman Co. v. Cargil Int'l Corp., 731 So.2d 2 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998).
Reversed and remanded for further proceedings (limited to the prior loan history and determination of the correct loan balance, should the first judge be reassigned to the case, or for the entire case to be heard as a trial de novo if that judge is not reassigned to the case).