Last April, we provided an update on the Florida Third District Court of Appeal’s opinion in Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas v. Beauvais. In that decision, the Third District held a dismissal without prejudice does not serve to decelerate a previously accelerated mortgage, thereby potentially requiring mortgage lenders to affirmatively decelerate mortgages or face a time bar based on the earlier acceleration.

Earlier today, after additional briefing and a rare en banc oral argument, the court withdrew its earlier opinion and released a new, 6–4, en banc decision. The new decision holds that “dismissal of a foreclosure action accelerating payment on one default does not bar a subsequent foreclosure action on a later default.” Importantly, the court held that “the ‘with’ or ‘without prejudice’ dismissal is a distinction without a difference.”

Significantly, in another opinion released today, Collazo v. HSBC Bank USA, N.A., a panel comprised of the dissenting judges from Beauvais applied Beauvais in remanding a foreclosure case for recalculation of the amount included in a final judgment with instructions to include only amounts within the five-year statute of limitations.