STEVEN TOGNOLI v. PHILIP MORRIS USA INC.

254 So. 3d 423

• Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida
• Decided: April 25, 2018
• Docket: 16-0224
• Status: Published

Opinion

DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA FOURTH DISTRICT

STEVEN TOGNOLI, as Personal Representative for the Estate of LYNDA TOGNOLI, Appellant,

v.

PHILIP MORRIS USA INC., Appellee.

No. 4D16-224

[April 25, 2018]

Appeal and cross-appeal from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County; John J. Murphy III, Judge; L.T. Case Nos. 08-80000 (19) and 2008-CV-045898 (19).

Thomas J. Seider, Celene H. Humphries and Maegen Peek Luka of Brannock & Humphries, Tampa; Alex Alvarez of The Alvarez Law Firm, Coral Gables; Randy Rosenblum of Dolan, Dobrinsky, Rosenblum, LLP, Miami; Philip Freidin of Freidin Brown P.A., Miami; and Maria P. Sperando of the Law Office of Maria P. Sperando, P.A., Stuart, for appellant.

Scott D. Kaiser of Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP, Kansas City, Missouri; and Geoffrey J. Michael of Arnold & Porter LLP, Washington, DC, for appellee.

ON REMAND FROM THE FLORIDA SUPREME COURT

PER CURIAM.

This matter is before us on remand from the Supreme Court of Florida. In a decision rendered June 28, 2017, we per curiam affirmed the trial court’s final judgment, which reduced the plaintiff’s damages by the percentage of fault that the jury attributed to Mrs. Tognoli, based on our then-binding precedent in R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Schoeff, 178 So. 3d 487, 488 (Fla. 4th DCA 2015). The Florida Supreme Court then quashed our Schoeff decision and held that “the comparative fault statute does not apply to Engle progeny cases in which the jury finds for the plaintiff on the intentional tort claims.” Schoeff v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 232 So. 3d 294, 304 (Fla. 2017). Consequently, our decision in the instant case was also quashed.

The parties do not assert issues with the jury’s findings of intentional torts and have agreed on the remedy that we likewise deem proper. Accordingly, we reverse the final judgment and remand with instructions for the trial court to enter judgment for the entire amount of damages found by the jury.

Reversed and remanded with instructions.

DAMOORGIAN, CIKLIN and LEVINE, JJ., concur.

* * *

Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.