Checker Cab Operators, Inc. v. Castleberry

68 So. 2d 353, 1953 Fla. LEXIS 1738
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedOctober 30, 1953
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 68 So. 2d 353 (Checker Cab Operators, Inc. v. Castleberry) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Checker Cab Operators, Inc. v. Castleberry, 68 So. 2d 353, 1953 Fla. LEXIS 1738 (Fla. 1953).

Opinion

MATHEWS, Justice.

This is an appeal in a personal injury case.

The primary question to be answered is as follows: Is the owner of a taxicab liable to a drunken passenger for injuries received by the passenger under the circumstances and evidence shown to exist in this case?

It is unnecessary to discuss the voluminous pleadings as the case was tried before a jury on the pleadings as finally framed. At the conclusion of appellee’s case the appellant made a motion for directed verdict which was refused. This motion was renewed at the conclusion of all- of the testimony and was denied. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff-appellee in the sum of '$20,000. ' Th'e appellant then filed a motion' for a judgment notwithstánd-[354]*354ing the verdict, or in the alternative a motion for new trial, both of which. were denied.

The appellee claims in the first count of the complaint that the company was liable because of a breach of duty which was negligence; that the plaintiff-appellee was intoxicated to such a degree that he was physically and mentally irresponsible and engaged the taxicab to take him to his home on 18th Street but instead the taxicab took him to a house on 18th Terrace, which was about a block from his residenceand, that the negligence consisted of the following: (1) in parking the taxicab on the left-hand or wrong side of the street; (2) permitting or instructing the plaintiff to alight from the cab on a sharp, jagged, perilous roadway, whereas the area in front of his residence was smooth and soft; (3) refusing to take plaintiff to his requested destination; and (4) failing or refusing to take plaintiff to the front door of his residence, driving away and leaving him a block from his residence when plaintiff-appellee was unable to stand.

The second count of the complaint contained all of the allegations of the first count and in addition alleged that the plaintiff-appellee was leaning against the taxicab for support and the driver wilfully or negligently drove away which caused him to fall.

The answer contained a denial of all of the plaintiff’s allegations except those not material here and also a plea of contributory negligence.

An undisputed fact is that appellee, Castleberry, had been drinking for two and one-half days and nights. Castleberry testified that he had a vague recollection of going from one bar to another but that his mind was a complete blank as to the circumstances of the accident ; he did remember going to a 7th Avenue bar but had no recollection of what occurred after that. It is undisputed that the cab driver reluctantly accepted Castleberry as a passenger at the 7th Avenue bar. Two young men, who were friends of Castleberry, asked the cab driver if he would take Castleberry home because a policeman had cautioned them that he would run Castleberry in. The friends went to the back of a bar and brought Castleberry out. He walked with them without assistance. He didn’t want to go home and argued with his friends to let him stay. The friends gave the cab driver an address on NW 18th Street. The cab driver drove down 7th Avenue and when in the vicinity of 18th Street, Castleberry motioned with his arm to turn West on that street, which was 18th Terrace instead of 18th Street. After the cab driver turned in on 18th Terrace, the passenger pointed out the first house and the cab driver stopped the cab, parking on the left-hand side of the street, in front of the house pointed out to him. The cab driver testified that he got out, opened the door on the right-hand side and said, “Come on, son, let’s go in the house now and get to bed.” Castleberry got out of the cab but refused to go in the house. Some argument ensued between Castleberry and the driver while they were standing near the right-hand front door of the cab. The driver attempted to persuade Castleberry to go in the house but he refused to do so and insisted that the cab driver take him to the “Village Barn” where he could do some more drinking.

While this argument was going on four neighbors heard the loud talking. Two witnesses testified they heard Castleberry say that he didn’t live there and pointed toward 18th Street, and that the cab driver then left Castleberry standing in the street. They testified that the cab driver got in the cab on the driver’s side and pulled away, and as this happened Castleberry collapsed, breaking the fall with his hands. All four witnesses agreed that plaintiff was not hurt when he fell the first time. Castleberry attempted to stand up and as he did so, he fell the second time, hurting his left ear. There is no evidence from any witness that Castleberry was leaning against the cab for support or that the movement of the cab caused him to fall. The driver of the cab testified, and it is uncontradicted, that Castleberry was standing on the street by the right front door of the cab and was clear of the cab as the driver pulled away.

[355]*355The appellee contends that appellant is liable not only because he (appellee) was obviously and apparently drunk, but because he was “physically and mentally irresponsible and incapable * * * unable to walk or stand without assistance and helpless to exercise ordinary measures for his own protection;” that the appellee was delivered by friends to the driver with specific instructions to transport him to a specified address and that the driver ignored such instructions and delivered him to the wrong address; that he (the cab driver) parked on the wrong side of the thoroughfare, instructed appellee to disembark into the middle of a sharp, jagged, perilous coral rock street; that appellee begged the driver to take him to his home and the driver refused to do so or to make any provision for the plaintiff’s protection, and in lieu thereof, drove off, leaving ap-pellee to collapse in the middle of the street.

There can be no question that appellee had imbibed a large quantity of intoxicating liquors for two and one-half days and nights. The uncontradicted testimony is that appellee was able to walk to the taxicab ; that on the way to his home he pointed to a street where he wished to turn; that he pointed to a particular house as being his home; that when the taxicab driver stopped, he alighted therefrom under his own power; that he stood in the street, sometimes with his hand on the door of the cab, for 8 or 10 minutes while he argued with the taxi driver; that he insisted that the taxicab driver take him to the “Village Barn”; he knew where the “Village Barn” was and knew it was a place where he could get more intoxicating liquor. We do not find any evidence in the record that he begged the. cab driver to take him to his home while they were arguing in the street, as the appellee now contends. If he knew where his home was and begged the cab driver to take him home, he would not have been mentally incapable. The fact that he insisted on going to a drinking place called the “Village Barn” where he c.ould get more liquor showed that he was not mentally incapable.

In the case of Swilley v. Economy Cab Co. of Jacksonville, Fla., 46 So.2d 173, 177, this Court held that partial intoxication does not excuse want of ordinary care and prudence on the part of the passenger and that the carrier need exercise no higher degree of care toward a person partially intoxicated than is required in the case of persons not intoxicated.

Appellee further insists, in the case at bar, that the carrier was negligent in delivering the passenger to a place other than that given in the directions and instructions • of the two friends. The cab driver was asked on cross examination.

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Bluebook (online)
68 So. 2d 353, 1953 Fla. LEXIS 1738, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/checker-cab-operators-inc-v-castleberry-fla-1953.