McDonough Power Equipment, Inc. v. Brown

486 So. 2d 609, 11 Fla. L. Weekly 531, 1986 Fla. App. LEXIS 8181
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMay 7, 1986
Docket85-569
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 486 So. 2d 609 (McDonough Power Equipment, Inc. v. Brown) 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
McDonough Power Equipment, Inc. v. Brown, 486 So. 2d 609, 11 Fla. L. Weekly 531, 1986 Fla. App. LEXIS 8181 (Fla. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

486 So.2d 609 (1986)

McDONOUGH POWER EQUIPMENT, INC., Appellant,
v.
Charles Andrew BROWN, et al., Appellees.

No. 85-569.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

February 26, 1986.
On Rehearing May 7, 1986.

Myron Shapiro, John D. Golden, and Wendy F. Lumish, of Rumberger, Wechsler & Kirk, Miami, and Alan C. Sundberg and George N. Meros, Jr., of Carlton, Fields, Ward, Emmanuel, Smith & Cutler, P.A., Tallahassee, for appellant.

*610 Joe N. Unger of Law Offices of Joe N. Unger, P.A., and Major & Logan, P.A., Miami, for appellees.

GLICKSTEIN, Judge.

In McDonough Power Equipment, Inc. v. Brown, 443 So.2d 1050 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984) (McDonough I), this court found no error concerning liability, but reversed and remanded for new trial on the sole issue of compensatory damages. Now the final judgment rendered as the result of the new trial is before this court. We affirm.

On a summer day more than seven years ago, when Charles Andrew Brown (Andrew) was eight, he was operating a self-propelled riding rotary lawnmower manufactured by appellant, when he fell, and his foot, caught under the mower, was injured. His parents brought suit on his behalf and their own. They sought compensatory and punitive damages on Andrew's behalf, based on theories of negligent design, breach of implied warranty and failure to warn. For themselves they sought merely recovery of medical expenses. The Browns' complaint was duly answered. McDonough stated as an affirmative defense the negligence or contributory negligence of the plaintiffs — the parents, for letting Andrew operate the lawnmower, and Andrew, for the way he operated it.

The case was tried to a jury. The jury received instructions regarding liability, as well as punitive damages, compensatory damages to Andrew for his personal injuries, and compensatory damages to his parents for medical expenses. One item on a special verdict form required the jury to state the percent of negligence attributable respectively to Andrew, his parents and defendant McDonough.

As this court stated in McDonough I, the jury brought in first a verdict that was internally inconsistent, and did the same on a second try. The trial court accepted their third attempt, but subsequently struck the punitive damages and reduced the parents' award by remittitur. This court held the elimination of punitive damages was correct because McDonough's conduct had not been shown to have been in gross disregard of the rights of others. McDonough I, 443 So.2d at 1051-52. The court held, however, that acceptance of the jury's third verdict totalling $380,000, only to reduce it immediately by $191,000, was an abuse of discretion. This court said the jury had to have been extremely confused to turn out the damages verdict that it did. Therefore, the court reversed and remanded for a new jury trial on the issue of compensatory damages only. Id. at 1052. That trial has now taken place, and defendant appeals again.

This time defendant/appellant assigns as a first error the special jury verdict form used to determine comparative negligence. Now, for the first time, appellant contends the form was fundamentally defective and resulted in a fundamentally erroneous and constitutionally infirm judgment. We disagree.

Only if there were fundamental or constitutional error would this assignment of error be presently reviewable, for appellant never objected to the use of the subject verdict form, and failed to raise the issue on the previous appeal. Failure to object to a verdict form regarding defects not of a constitutional or fundamental character constitutes a waiver of such defects. Papcun v. Piggy Bag Discount Souvenirs, Food & Gas Corporation, 472 So.2d 880, 881 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985); Gould v. National Bank of Florida, 421 So.2d 798, 802 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982); Robbins v. Graham, 404 So.2d 769 (Fla. 4th DCA 1981). Moreover, "[t]he law of the case precludes relitigation of all issues necessarily ruled upon by the [appellant] court, as well as of all issues upon which appeal could have been taken, but which were not appealed." State v. Stabile, 443 So.2d 398, 400 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984) (emphasis in original); Airvac, Inc. v. Ranger Insurance Co., 330 So.2d 467 (Fla. 1976). When one point has not been appealed on in a prior appeal on some other issue, that point becomes law of the case and cannot be revisited. Marine Midland Bank Central v. Cote, 384 So.2d 658, 659 (Fla. 5th DCA 1980). It may be, *611 however, that the law of the case that is implicitly established in an earlier appeal is subject to change as the appellate court's explicit erroneous ruling is, so long as the appellate court has jurisdiction, if otherwise the result will be manifestly unjust. See, e.g., Beverly Beach Properties v. Nelson, 68 So.2d 604, 607-08 (Fla. 1953), quoted in State v. LoChiatto, 381 So.2d 245, 247 (Fla. 4th DCA 1979).

We hold, however, that, in the instant case, not only was the use of the particular verdict form not fundamental or constitutional error, but, indeed, it was entirely proper. Appellant argues that because the parents' and the child's claims in the present case are independent, there should have been not one, but two separate questions on the issue of comparative negligence. We disagree.

The child's claim for his injuries and the parents' claim for medical expenses are independent only in the sense that the respective claims could be brought separately. In the event of separate suits, judgment in one suit would not estop the other, as parents suing as a minor's next friend are not deemed, for res judicata purposes, to be identical litigants with themselves suing in their own right for loss of the injured child's services and earnings or for medical expenses. E.g., Youngblood v. Taylor, 89 So.2d 503, 505-06 (Fla. 1956). The claims are not, however, independent in the sense that they arise out of separate transactions or occurrences. Although the plaintiffs in the instant case are distinctly separate parties, essential to both claims tried in this single action were identical facts resulting in the injury of one person, the minor child, Andrew. It was therefore entirely proper for the jury to be asked in a single question to apportion the negligence among the child, his parents and the lawnmower manufacturer. What could be more inconsistent than determinations that as to the damages to the child the negligence of the various parties compared in one way, but as to the medical costs incurred by the child's parents because of the same injury to the child the distribution of liability among the same parties was different? When one person was injured in one incident, the fault attributable to various parties can add up to only 100%, albeit different plaintiffs are able to claim different kinds of damages arising out of that person's injury.

Appellant relies on the out-of-state case of Vroman v. Kempke, 34 Wis.2d 680, 150 N.W.2d 423 (1967), to support its contention the jury should have been given separate comparative negligence questions for the damages claim of the child and the claim for medical expenses of his parents. In Vroman it was held that there should have been separate comparative negligence questions. However, there the special verdict apportioned 50% of the liability to the active negligence of the host driver and 25% to the passive negligence of each of two guest passengers who were suing for their injuries.

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Bluebook (online)
486 So. 2d 609, 11 Fla. L. Weekly 531, 1986 Fla. App. LEXIS 8181, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcdonough-power-equipment-inc-v-brown-fladistctapp-1986.