John Deere Co. v. Thomas

522 So. 2d 926, 13 Fla. L. Weekly 694, 1988 Fla. App. LEXIS 984, 1988 WL 20056
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMarch 9, 1988
DocketNos. 87-748, 87-780 and 87-902
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 522 So. 2d 926 (John Deere Co. v. Thomas) 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
John Deere Co. v. Thomas, 522 So. 2d 926, 13 Fla. L. Weekly 694, 1988 Fla. App. LEXIS 984, 1988 WL 20056 (Fla. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

FRANK, Judge.

The appellants attack the order granting the appellee’s motion for a new trial. The trial court found two of the four grounds urged by the appellee in support of a new trial meritorious. In spite of the generally followed view that “[f]ew decisions of a lower court are granted greater deference in our judicial system than a trial court’s order granting a new trial,” McNair v. Davis, 518 So.2d 416 (Fla. 2d DCA 1988), we reverse based upon our assessment of the record and the factors relied upon by the trial court for its action.

During the voir dire examination of the prospective jurors in this third party action originating in an industrial accident, counsel for the appellant Highland City Glass Co., Inc., asked, “Have any of you ever [927]*927been injured on the job and brought a worker’s compensation claim?” There was no response to that question and it was then asked, “What about family members?” The appellee’s attorney immediately sought but was denied a mistrial; the trial court advised Highland’s attorney not to “go into it anymore.” The record discloses that the admonition was heeded. We find two defects in that aspect of the trial court’s order granting a new trial because of the reference to a “worker’s compensation claim.”

I.

First, the trial court’s dispositive reliance upon Eichel v. New York Central Railroad Co., 375 U.S. 253, 84 S.Ct. 316, 11 L.Ed.2d 307 (1963); Kreitz v. Thomas, 422 So.2d 1051 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982); and Cook v. Eney, 277 So.2d 848 (Fla. 3d DCA), cert. denied, 285 So.2d 414 (Fla.1973), is misplaced. In each of those cases, in contrast to the one at hand, there was evidence adduced at trial disclosing to the jury that the plaintiff/claimant had received benefits from various sources thus generating the risk that the jury could perceive the plaintiff/claimant as having been compensated for the injury he sustained. The evidence in Eichel revealed that the plaintiff was receiving disability pension benefits pursuant to the Railroad Retirement Act. The trial court in Kreitz permitted the introduction of statements evidencing the payment of worker’s compensation benefits. In Cook, the evidence found prejudicial stemmed from the cross-examination of the plaintiff indicating that he had received worker’s compensation and social security benefits. In short, we find a vastly significant difference between the single comment in the voir dire to “workers compensation claims” and the tendering of evidence showing the payment or receipt of benefits. In granting the motion for new trial, the trial court ascribed a higher degree of impact or effect to the question than can reasonably be said to have occurred. Even assuming that the jurors treated the question as suggesting that the appellee had filed a worker’s compensation claim, there was nothing said to indicate that the appellee had been compensated for the injuries he experienced.

The further consideration persuading us to reverse the trial court, even when we accord it the outer limits of discretion in determining to grant a new trial, derives from the following portion of its order:

Given that the issues in this cause were close and given the circumstances surrounding the trial, verdict and the lengthy (approximately five (5) hours) and unduly heated nature of the jury deliberations (necessitating an instruction by the Court as to the loudness, after three (3) hours, of same), this Court finds and concludes that Defendant’s remark to the jury concerning workmen’s compensation benefits may have very likely influenced the jury against the Plaintiff at the very start of the trial. As such, the remark and subsequent denial of Plaintiff’s Motion for Mistrial constituted in and of itself prejudicial error necessitating a new trial.

The isolated event, attributing to it all of the evil asserted by the appellee, occurred at the very onset of the trial proceedings and not at a point proximate to the jury’s deliberations. Cf. Tampa Sand and Material Company, Inc. v. Johnson, 103 So.2d 250 (Fla. 2d DCA 1958) (trial court’s response to a juror’s question during the jury charge included reference to workmen’s compensation insurance). Thus, we have serious difficulty with and reject the trial court’s conjecture that the voir dire “concerning worker’s compensation benefits may have very likely influenced the jury against the plaintiff at the very start of the trial.” The challenged examination, as we have noted, did not include use of the word “benefit” or “benefits,” cf. Sosa v. Knight-Ridder Newspapers, 435 So.2d 821 (Fla.1983) (new trial was warranted in light of comment in closing argument to workers’ compensation benefits), and the cleansing effect of some five days between the voir dire of the jurors and the jury’s deliberations cannot be ignored. The trial court’s linkage of the “lengthy” and “unduly heated nature of the jury deliberations” to the disputed voir dire is wholly speculative and [928]*928emerges as little more than a gloss designed to induce appellate acceptance of the trial court's customary preeminence in a matter of this kind.

II.

The trial court’s second asserted reason for ordering a new trial is patently erroneous. Simon Bol, referred to as Sam in the record, a vice president and general manager of the appellant Tampa Tractor, the supplier of the front-end loader purchased by Royster and operated by the appellee at the time he was injured, testified to his managerial duties, educational background, the various types of equipment vended by Tampa Tractor, the purposes to which such equipment can be put, and finally:

Q. Sam, this unit that we’re talking about, it was your company that sold it to Royster. Correct?
A. Yes sir.
Q. And where it was — when it was first presented to Royster, what did, as you recall, what did Royster ask for?
MR. FROST: Your Honor, I’m going to object. I think the testimony, there’s been no proper predicate laid. He was not involved in that sale as we understand from his deposition.
MR. SCHOTT: The vice-president and general manager of whole operations, You (sic) Honor. He can testify to what he knows as to the sale itself for sure.
MR. FROST: It’s hearsay—
MR. SCHOTT: Your Honor, that’s not hearsay. He’s the man that knows all about what was done. He’s probably got documents if we want to get into who signed the documents, etc., indicating who asked for what requested. He’s the man.
THE COURT: If he knows of his own knowledge.
MR. FROST: Okay. If he had contact with Royster is the predicate that’s got to be laid. Then if he asks what Royster said, then that’s hearsay.
MR. SCHOTT: Well, Your Honor, I can tell you he didn’t go over to Royster if that’s what he’s saying. But he had personnel under his supervision for the corporate unit, which is what we have here. And he has sales meetings with them, I know that. And he knows what they ordered.
MR. FROST: Then that’s pure hearsay. If what somebody tells him, because he’s the manager, comes up and tells him what Royster said, it's two degrees of hearsay.

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Bluebook (online)
522 So. 2d 926, 13 Fla. L. Weekly 694, 1988 Fla. App. LEXIS 984, 1988 WL 20056, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/john-deere-co-v-thomas-fladistctapp-1988.