Butler v. Watts

103 So. 2d 123, 1958 Fla. App. LEXIS 2877
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMay 20, 1958
DocketNo. 57-12
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 103 So. 2d 123 (Butler v. Watts) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Butler v. Watts, 103 So. 2d 123, 1958 Fla. App. LEXIS 2877 (Fla. Ct. App. 1958).

Opinion

CARROLL, CHAS., Chief Judge.

The appellant, Florida East Coast Railway Company, was defendant in an action for personal injuries brought by the ap-pellee William A. Watts under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, '45 U.S.C.A., § 51 et seq. The trial resulted in a jury verdict for the plaintiff for $80,000 on which judgment was entered for the plaintiff. A motion for new trial was denied, and this appeal was duly taken. The parties will be referred to from time to time as designated in the trial court.

The plaintiff was severely burned while working as a boilermaker in defendant’s yard in Miami, in the course of making welding repairs inside a water tank in a diesel engine.

Plaintiff alleged that the place provided for him to work and the tools and equipment furnished were not reasonably safe. The defendant denied negligence, and pleaded a general release.

On consideration of the briefs and the-record, and with the benefit of oral argument, . this court concludes that the nine points raised by appellant, and the assignments of error upon which they are based, are without merit, and that appellant has failed in its burden to demonstrate error. On only three of these points do we find a need for discussion and comment in this opinion.

Under its point number one appellant assails a charge given by the court on the issues relating to the validity of the release. The charge on the subject of the release covered four pages of the typewritten record. The part quoted and challenged by the appellant was less than half of the full charge on the subject. In determining the correctness of the charge we looked not only at the portion which the appellant isolated, but examined and considered the entire charge given by the court. See Police & Firemen’s Ins. Ass’n v. Hines, 134 Fla. 298, 183 So. 831, 833; Wharton v. Day, 151 Fla. 772, 10 So.2d 417, 418; Adams v. Royal Exchange Assur., Fla.1953, 62 So.2d 591, 595. On reading the complete charge on the subject it is found that the issues relating to the release were presented to the jury on proper and adequate charges by the court.

Appellant’s second question contended that error resulted when the court, in charging the jury, omitted a portion of defendant’s requested charge No. 20. That charge dealt with the comparative negligence rule as applicable under 45 U.S.C.A. § 53, which includes the provision, “but the damages shall be diminished by the jury in proportion to the amount of negligence attributable to such employee.”

The defendant’s counsel submitted a written request for a charge on comparative negligence, in order to obtain the benefit, in the event of recovery by the plaintiff, of reduction in damages in proportion to the amount of negligence which might be found on the part of the plaintiff employee. The record discloses that defendant’s requested charge No. 20 as presented to the court was as follows:

“In this case, what is known as the law of comparative negligence applies. Thus the fact that the plaintiff may have been guilty of contributory negligence, if you should find that he was, [125]*125will not prevent him from recovering if you also find that the defendant was guilty of negligence [proximately resulting in the injuries complained of.] However, you must reduce any award you may make by the amount that the negligence, if any, of the plaintiff contributed to his injury.”

The record shows the brackets inserted as above. They indicated an amendment to the charge as made by the defendant, eliminating the wording “proximately resulting in the injuries complained of.”

The record of the conference held pursuant to 31 F.S.A. rule 2.6(b) of 1954 Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, between the court and counsel with relation to the charges out of the presence of the jury, shows that the court overruled an objection of plaintiff’s counsel to defendant’s requested charge No. 20, and stated that the charge would be given as thus amended. On inspecting the charge given by the court as transcribed by the court reporter, it is seen that when the trial judge read this charge to the jury he stopped at the point where the brackets begin and he did not read the last sentence (evidently being under the impression, as he came to read it, that the brackets indicated elimination of the balance of the charge).

Thus, counsel for the parties were confronted with a situation where the court, after having ruled that a certain requested charge would be given, left out the last sentence in delivering that charge.

Appellant argues that the failure of the court to include the part of the charge which would have informed the jury that they should “reduce any award you may make by the amount that the negligence, if any, of the plaintiff contributed to his injury,” while charging them in effect that contributory negligence of the plaintiff, if they found such, would not prevent him from recovering, amounted to charging the jury that they should disregard any contributory negligence, and that therefore the verdict was not reduced as required because of plaintiff’s negligence. The appellee argues in response that the charge to the jury that comparative negligence was applicable, together with an explanation of the reduction feature as made by the appellant’s counsel in his argument to the jury, sufficiently acquainted the jury with the information enabling them to arrive at a proper verdict according to the law on the subject.

Appellant’s counsel answers that any benefit of such explanation to the jury by him was counterbalanced by the failure of the court to give such charge, after counsel had told the jury that the court would so instruct them on that feature.

Although the court had granted the request to give the charge, his failure to give a part of it amounted to a denial of the request for that part. It seems obvious that the failure of the court to read the last sentence of the charge was inadvertent, and such occurrence was understandable because the brackets and markings which had been inserted ahead of the last sentence of the requested charge, could lead one reading it to assume that the last part was excluded.

Under those circumstances it was the duty of counsel to call such omission to the attention of the court in a manner in which the court would be duly informed of what had occurred, and thus would have an opportunity to submit or resubmit his charge to the jury with the sentence which had been left out, and which he had intended to give. No objection was made to this “denial” or omission to give the charge or part of the charge at the time it occurred, nor was the fact of the omission called to the court’s attention at that time.

The record shows that after the giving of all charges was completed by the court, and after the jury had been sent by the court to the jury room, defendant’s counsel made certain comments to the court respecting this matter, but that counsel’s statements to the court were not sufficient to inform him adequately of what had hap[126]*126¡pened. The following transpired with reference to this matter at the conclusion of ithe court’s charge to the jury:

“The Court: You may retire, gentlemen, to consider your verdict. (At 10:25 a. m., the jury retired to consider their verdict.)
“The Court: Let the record show that the same thing that I said previously about the objections goes here.
“Mr. Sullivan: Your Honor, I have •one question on this Charge 20.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Howell v. Woods
489 So. 2d 154 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1986)
Railway Express Agency, Inc. v. Fulmer
227 So. 2d 870 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1969)
Park v. Belford Trucking Co.
165 So. 2d 819 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1964)
Guidry v. Jahncke Service, Inc.
158 So. 2d 65 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1963)
Florida East Coast Railway Company v. Lawler
151 So. 2d 852 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1963)
Owca v. Zemzicki
137 So. 2d 876 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1962)
Butler v. Watts
106 So. 2d 200 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1958)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
103 So. 2d 123, 1958 Fla. App. LEXIS 2877, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/butler-v-watts-fladistctapp-1958.