Recognition Act (“the Act”) to have the Venezuelan judgment recognized in Florida. See § 55.601, et. seq., Fla. Stat. (2006). Section 55.604, Florida Statutes (2006), outlines specific procedures for the “recognition and enforcement” of foreign judgments in Florida’s courts. § 55.604, Fla. Stat. (2006). The Olivareses did not follow these procedures to seek court recognition of the Venezuelan judgment because they mistakenly characterized the proceedings as “pending” for the purposes of affording comity, rather than “final” for the purposes of seeking to bar Garnac’s present action on the basis of res judicata and/or collateral estoppel, a view also adopted by the trial court in its order. Further, section 55.603, Florida Statutes (2006), which states that the Act “appl th DCA 1994) (<HOLDING>). Accordingly, we reverse and remand for
holding that affirmative defenses are waived if not pled recognizing that mes judicata and collateral estoppel are affirmative defenses that ordinarily must be pled in an answer or similar pleading holding that the defendant could not raise affirmative defenses initially in its dispositive motion but remanding the case to the trial court to determine if leave to amend answer to incorporate affirmative defenses was appropriate so that the defendant could then properly raise those defenses in its dispositive motion holding that the mere pleading of affirmative defenses are insufficient to repel summary judgment holding that qualified immunity is an affirmative defense that must be pled by the official who claims it