Britt v. City of Jacksonville

The trial court dismissed Valerie Britt’s complaint, finding that Britt failed to establish her standing. The trial court never reached the merits of this issue; instead, the court relied on the doctrine of res judicata raised by appellees in a motion to dismiss. The dismissal order is fatally defective because a defendant generally cannot raise the defense of res judicata for the first time in a motion to dismiss. See Byrd v. City of Niceville, 541 So.2d 696, 698 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989) (holding that “[t]he issue of res judicata is an affirmative defense, and affirmative defenses cannot be…