Saudi Arabian Airlines Corp. v. Dunn

438 So. 2d 116
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedSeptember 14, 1983
DocketAO-97
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 438 So. 2d 116 (Saudi Arabian Airlines Corp. v. Dunn) 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
Saudi Arabian Airlines Corp. v. Dunn, 438 So. 2d 116 (Fla. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

438 So.2d 116 (1983)

SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES CORPORATION, and Iowa National Mutual Insurance Company, Appellants,
v.
Thomas Harrison DUNN, Jr., et al., Appellees.

No. AO-97.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

September 14, 1983.
Rehearings Denied October 6, 1983.

*117 Julian Clarkson, Holland & Knight, Tallahassee, James M. McLean, Rogers, Towers, Bailey, Jones & Gay, Jacksonville, for appellant Saudi Arabian Airlines Corp.

John I. Todd, Jr., Jacksonville, for appellant Iowa Nat. Mut. Ins. Co.

William G. Gentry and C. Rufus Pennington, III, Bedell, Bedell, Dittmar & Zehmer, Jacksonville, for appellee.

LARRY G. SMITH, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment entered after a jury trial in a negligence action. Appellant-defendant Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudi) was found liable for damages for injuries sustained by appellee-plaintiff, *118 Thomas H. Dunn, Jr., caused by the negligent operation of an automobile driven by Saudi's employee, Hazza Saud Al-Faqeer. Saudi relies for reversal primarily upon its contention that the evidence is insufficient to support a jury finding that Al-Faqeer was its agent or employee, or, alternatively, that he was not acting within the scope of his agency or employment at the time of the accident. Saudi also asserts that it was error to allow the plaintiff to use Al-Faqeer's deposition, taken at a time when Saudi was not a party in the litigation, to prove his employee status. Iowa National Mutual Insurance Company (Iowa), Dunn's underinsured motorist insurer, cross-appeals the final judgment entered against it. We affirm as to the appeal and the cross-appeal.

Al-Faqeer was brought to the United States by Saudi to learn English and go to technical training school. Saudi enrolled Al-Faqeer in a special English language institute, which leased classroom and office space from the University of North Florida in Jacksonville and which was operated by Systran Corporation, under a contract with the airlines. While Al-Faqeer was going to school, Saudi paid for his tuition and books and gave him $650.00 a month toward housing and food. Saudi monitored Al-Faqeer's academic progress and prohibited him as a Saudi technical trainee from taking any kind of flight training. After his training, Al-Faqeer planned to work for Saudi.

On the afternoon of October 10, 1979, Al-Faqeer, who did not have a valid United States or Florida drivers license, drove the car of his cousin, Abdullah Ali Shihry, from school to an Albertsons store to buy some groceries. When driving back to the school, he lost control of the car going through a Jacksonville intersection, sent the car airborne, and landed on top of Dunn's car, causing Dunn to suffer severe head injuries.

Dunn filed a complaint against Shihry and Al-Faqeer. Two months later, Dunn's counsel took Al-Faqeer's deposition, at which time it was learned that Al-Faqeer was a Saudi Arabian citizen in the United States pursuant to a technical training program of the airlines. Seven months later, Dunn amended his complaint to name Saudi as a defendant under the doctrine of respondeat superior. At the same time he added Allstate Insurance Company, Shihry's liability insurer, as a defendant. Later, when the second amended complaint was filed, Iowa was added as a defendant.

Saudi filed a motion to abate for lack of jurisdiction and a motion to dismiss for failure to state a cause of action, both of which were denied. Saudi appealed the denial of the motion to abate relying on Al-Faqeer's deposition as support for its position that as a matter of law there could be no liability under the doctrine of respondeat superior since Al-Faqeer was not acting within the course and scope of his employment at the time of the accident but was instead either "coming and going" to work or deviating from his employment. This court found that "the allegations of the amended complaint were clearly sufficient to charge appellant with legal responsibility for its alleged employee's wrongful act while acting within the course and scope of his employment" and that Saudi's "motion to abate for the lack of personal service, supported as it was by Al-Faqeer's deposition, failed to make a prima facie showing that Al-Faqeer was not acting within the course and scope of his employment at the time of the accident" and accordingly affirmed the trial court's denial of the motion to abate. Saudi Arabian Airlines Corp. v. Dunn, 395 So.2d 1295, 1296 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981).[1]

*119 Subsequently Al-Faqeer was terminated from Saudi because he was unreliable and was returned to Saudi Arabia.

At the trial, over Saudi's objection, Dunn was permitted to read excerpts of Al-Faqeer's deposition to the jury. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Dunn and awarded damages in the amount of $325,000.00.[2] The trial court entered final judgment against all defendants in this amount. Iowa filed a motion requesting the court to amend the final judgment to reflect that Iowa would not be liable to Dunn since Dunn had made a full recovery in the amount of his damages against Saudi. The trial court denied Iowa's motion to amend the final judgment and motion to tax costs and entered an amended final judgment limiting the recovery against Allstate to $10,000.00, and the recovery from Iowa to $90,000.00.[3]

Initially, appellant complains that the trial court erred in permitting excerpts of Al-Faqeer's deposition to be introduced against it because it was not a party at the time the deposition was taken. Brown v. Tanner, 164 So.2d 848 (Fla. 1st DCA 1964). Saudi contends this constituted reversible error since these excerpts were the sole testimony introduced by Dunn's counsel at trial to show that Al-Faqeer was at school on the day of the accident, that he had been buying groceries just prior to the accident and that he had been returning to school at the time of the accident, facts which are crucial to Dunn's contention that Al-Faqeer was acting within the scope of his employment.

However, Saudi's argument ignores the admissibility of Al-Faqeer's deposition testimony as one of the exceptions to the hearsay rule under Section 90.803, Florida Evidence Code, Florida Statutes (1981). A statement offered as an admission against a party of which he has manifested his adoption or belief in its truth is admissible. Section 90.803(18)(b). In its previous interlocutory appeal from the trial court's order denying the motion to abate, Saudi relied on Al-Faqeer's deposition testimony as support for its position that Al-Faqeer was not acting in the course and scope of his employment at the time of the accident. Subsequent to that unsuccessful appeal, Saudi again adopted Al-Faqeer's deposition testimony by asserting it as a basis for its motion for summary judgment. Under the circumstances, Saudi's conduct amounted to an "adoptive admission" of Al-Faqeer's deposition testimony which the trial court correctly permitted to be introduced as evidence in the trial below. Dinter v. Brewer, 420 So.2d 932 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1982). Brown v. Tanner, relied upon by Saudi, does not dictate a contrary result since it did not involve consideration of other independent evidentiary grounds for admitting the deposition.

Recognizing that the existence of an employer-employee relationship is normally one for the jury, Saudi nevertheless contends that it was entitled to a judgment n.o.v. on this issue since as a matter of law, Al-Faqeer could not have been an agent or employee of Saudi.

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

Related

James v. Hernandez, Premier Construction-Residential, LLC
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2026
PHILIP MORRIS USA INC., and R.J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO CO. v. ROSE POLLARI, etc
228 So. 3d 115 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2017)
Crystal Sells, as Personal, etc. v. CSX Transportation, Inc.
170 So. 3d 27 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2015)
In re Fedex Ground Package System, Inc.
273 F.R.D. 424 (N.D. Indiana, 2008)
Howland v. Hertz Corp.
431 F. Supp. 2d 1238 (M.D. Florida, 2006)
Gillet v. Watchtower Bible & Tract Soc.
913 So. 2d 618 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2005)
Hernandez v. TALLAHASSEE MEDICAL CENTER
896 So. 2d 839 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2005)
In Re Owen
324 B.R. 373 (N.D. Florida, 2004)
Carnival Corp. v. Hertz Corp.
748 So. 2d 323 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1999)
Pate v. Gilmore
647 So. 2d 235 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1994)
Gardner v. Holifield
639 So. 2d 652 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1994)
Warner v. Reiss
623 So. 2d 777 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1993)
Liberty Mutual Insurance v. Electronic Systems, Inc.
813 F. Supp. 802 (S.D. Florida, 1993)
Hoar Construction v. Varney
586 So. 2d 463 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1991)
Alvarado v. MANRO, INCORPORATED
550 So. 2d 1174 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1989)
Winn Dixie Stores, Inc. v. Akin
533 So. 2d 829 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1988)
Herman v. Roche
533 So. 2d 824 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1988)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
438 So. 2d 116, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/saudi-arabian-airlines-corp-v-dunn-fladistctapp-1983.