Szilagyi v. North Florida Hotel Corp.

610 So. 2d 1319, 1992 Fla. App. LEXIS 13018, 1992 WL 383006
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedDecember 22, 1992
DocketNo. 91-4105
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 610 So. 2d 1319 (Szilagyi v. North Florida Hotel Corp.) 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
Szilagyi v. North Florida Hotel Corp., 610 So. 2d 1319, 1992 Fla. App. LEXIS 13018, 1992 WL 383006 (Fla. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING OR CLARIFICATION

PER CURIAM.

Based on our thorough review of the record and the decisions cited in Appellants’ Motion for Rehearing or Clarification, we find no basis for rehearing. However, because Appellants alleged that the four decisions cited in the motion “are directly on point and require that a new trial be ordered in this case,” we believe it will be useful to clarify the basis of our per curiam affirmance 606 So.2d 1170, of the final judgment in favor of Appellee and of the denial of Appellant’s motion for a new trial.

This cause arose from injuries allegedly sustained by Appellant, Mr. Szilagyi, while a passenger in an elevator in a hotel owned and operated by Appellee North Florida Hotel Corporation, and serviced and maintained by Appellee United States Elevator Corporation, the third-party defendant. Mr. Szilagyi and his wife brought an action in negligence.

The pertinent language in the applicable statute governing elevators states:

The elevator owner shall be responsible for the safe operation and proper maintenance of the elevator after it has been inspected and a certificate of operation has been issued by the division. The responsibilities of the elevator owner may be assigned by lease.

Section 399.02(5)(b), Florida Statutes (1985). At the charge conference, Appellants received an instruction on section 399.02, that the elevator owner is responsible for the safe operation and proper maintenance of the elevator. Appellants requested an instruction that, pursuant to the statute, Ap-pellee was strictly liable for the safe operation and proper maintenance of the elevator, and that a violation of the statute is negligence per se or, alternatively, evidence of negligence. Appellants based their “negligence per se” request on the “shall” language in the statute. The trial court declined to give the requested standard instruction on either negligence per se or evidence of negligence. The jury was instructed on the doctrine of res ipsa loqui-tur, and the trial court defined “negligence” for the jury and paraphrased subsection (5)(b) for the jury in the context of the discussion of negligence.

Appellants argue that when an elevator’s operation causes injury to a passenger, it is reversible error to fail to give a negligence per se instruction. In Appellants’ first cited decision, Reliance Electric Co. v. Humphrey, 427 So.2d 214 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983) the district court held that a violation of section 399.02(5)(b) (then numbered (6)(b)), Florida Statutes (1981), constitutes negligence per se, and it approved the trial court’s instruction to that effect, finding:

An instruction that a violation of a given statute is negligence per se is appropriate in two circumstances: (1) when the statute is of the “strict liability” type, i.e., “designed to protect a particular class of persons from their inability to [1321]*1321protect themselves, such as one prohibiting the sale of firearms to minors.” deJesus v. Seaboard Coastline Railroad, 281 So.2d 198, 201 (Fla.1973); and (2) when the statute “establishes a duty to take precautions to protect a particular class of persons from a particular injury or type of injury.” Ibid, [additional citations omitted] [emph. in orig.]

Id. The Fourth District Court found that the statute “falls squarely within the second category.”' Id. Thus, Reliance Electric is on point if the evidence in the case sub judice demonstrated “a violation of the statute” by Appellee. Cf. Winemiller v. Feddish, 568 So.2d 483 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990) (where evidence showed the appellee was violating a municipal ordinance, the appellant was entitled to have the jury know of the violation of the ordinance, and failure to give the instruction was reversible error). Appellee submits that no such evidence of a statutory violation was presented at trial.

The second decision on which Appellants rely, Seaboard Coastline R.R. Co. v. Addison, 502 So.2d 1241 (Fla.1987), involved an alleged violation of a traffic control statute. The trial court refused to instruct the jury on the requirements of the statute, and the railroad asserted this was reversible error. Our court disagreed, but the Florida Supreme Court disapproved the reasoning underlying our opinion and held that the request for the standard jury instruction should have been granted. That instruction tracked the rule of law that “a violation of a traffic regulation is evidence of negligence.” Id. at 1242. The supreme court held:

When there is evidence of such a violation a party is entitled to a jury instruction thereon. This is simply a specific application of the equally established rule of law that a party is entitled to have the jury instructed upon his theory of the case when there is evidence to support the theory, [citation omitted]

Id. Accordingly, Addison is instructive when there is evidence to support the party’s theory of the case that a statutory violation occurred.

The facts in Appellants’ third case, Davis v. Otis Elevator Co., 515 So.2d 277 (5th DCA 1987), rev. den., 520 So.2d 585 (Fla.1988), bear similarities to the instant allegations. The plaintiff was injured when the employer/hospital’s elevator suddenly dropped 15 inches as he was exiting it. The elevator company was sued based on its alleged negligence in failing to maintain the elevator in accordance with the terms of a service contract with the hospital. The plaintiff’s expert testified that the bottom conductor switch was energized because something in the elevator unit was “broken or shorted out or grounded” and that with appropriate maintenance the system would not have failed. The plaintiff requested that section 399.02(6)(b) (now renumbered (5)(b)) and Jury Instruction 4.9 be read to the jury.

That instruction provided:

Violation of this statute is negligence. If you find that a person alleged to have been negligent violated this statute, such person was negligent. You should then determine whether such negligence was a legal cause of the injury complained of.

The trial court refused to give the jury instruction, and the issue on appeal was whether the failure to instruct constituted reversible error. The elevator company suggested that, even if error, it was harmless because the trial court had thoroughly instructed the jury on the elements of negligence. Citing deJesus and Addison, the Fifth District Court in Davis concluded that the failure to give the requested instruction was reversible error and required a new trial. Id. at 278. Significantly, although the expert was unable to pinpoint the exact cause of the overload, “the overload was the cause of the malfunction which would not have occurred but for the negligent maintenance of the elevator.” Id.

The fourth and final case on which Appellants rely is Nicosia v. Otis Elevator Co., 548 So.2d 854 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989), a negligence case based on injuries received after an elevator stalled. The plaintiffs appealed the granting of a directed verdict in favor of the defendant/building owner. [1322]*1322The opinion notes that section 399.02(2), Florida Statutes (1987), adopted the Elevator Safety Code, one section of which states that it is the duty of the elevator owner to provide voice communication to the outside for anyone trapped in the elevator.

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Bluebook (online)
610 So. 2d 1319, 1992 Fla. App. LEXIS 13018, 1992 WL 383006, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/szilagyi-v-north-florida-hotel-corp-fladistctapp-1992.