Christina Aileen and Lionel Samuels v. Universal Property and Casualty Insurance Company

• Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida
• Decided: November 15, 2023
• Docket: 2022-2256
• Status: Published

Opinion

DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA FOURTH DISTRICT

CHRISTINA AILEEN and LIONEL SAMUELS, Appellants,

v.

UNIVERSAL PROPERTY AND CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellee.

No. 4D2022-2256

[November 15, 2023]

Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, Palm Beach County; John S. Kastrenakes, Judge; L.T. Case No. 50-2020-CA- 011936-XXXX-MB.

Randall Shochet of Shochet Law Group, Trenton, for appellants.

Kara Rockenbach Link and David A. Noel of Link & Rockenbach, PA, West Palm Beach, for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Appellants challenge a final judgment after a jury trial, contending that the verdict form submitted to the jury was improper. After the trial court rejected appellants’ verdict form as too confusing, the trial court proposed its own form at the charge conference. Appellants did not object and suggested minor changes. After a verdict and judgment in appellee’s favor, appellants challenged the verdict form as incomplete. However, by consenting or failing to object, appellants waived any challenge to the form. See Bachman v. Oliveros, 293 So. 3d 555, 559 (Fla. 5th DCA 2020) (“The fault should not be laid upon the trial judge; rather, it must be placed upon the [appellant’s] trial attorney who led the court into error by approving, or failing to object to, the form of the verdict before it was submitted to the jury.”) (alteration in original) (quoting Keller Indus., Inc. v. Morgart, 412 So. 2d 950, 951 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982)).

Affirmed.

WARNER, GROSS and DAMOORGIAN, JJ., concur. * * *

Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.