Walt Disney World Co. v. Merritt

404 So. 2d 1077
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedAugust 26, 1981
Docket80-1064
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 404 So. 2d 1077 (Walt Disney World Co. v. Merritt) 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
Walt Disney World Co. v. Merritt, 404 So. 2d 1077 (Fla. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

404 So.2d 1077 (1981)

WALT DISNEY WORLD CO. and Insurance Company of North America, Appellants,
v.
Jacqueline MERRITT and Bill Merritt, Her Husband, Appellees.

No. 80-1064.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.

August 26, 1981.
Rehearing Denied September 29, 1981.

John L. O'Donnell, Jr., and John W. Ward, of DeWolf, Ward, Morris, Wohlust, Jontz & O'Donnell, P.A., Orlando, for appellants.

James O. Cunningham, of Billings, Durie & Morgan, Orlando, for appellees.

*1078 DAUKSCH, Chief Judge.

This is an appeal from a plaintiff's judgment in a personal injury action.

Although we agree with the appellant that there was little evidence to support the giving of the instruction to the jury regarding the State Fire Marshal's Rules and Regulations, we do find enough such evidence to determine it was not reversible error to give the charge. The charge reads as follows:

Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, the following is a portion of the Rules and Regulations of the Florida Administrative Code as adopted by the State Fire Marshal and filed in the Office of the Secretary of State of the State of Florida which provides, among other things, as follows:
A place of assembly shall mean a room or space used for assembly or educational occupancy for 100 or more occupants or which has a floor area of 1500 square feet or more used for such purposes. Such room or space shall include any similar occupied connecting room or space in the same story, or in a story or stories above or below where entrance is common to the rooms or spaces.
In a place of assembly: In each room where chairs, or tables and chairs, are used, the arrangement shall be such as will provide for ready access by aisles to each exist doorway. Aisles leading directly to exit doorways shall have not less than 36 inches clear width which shall not be obstructed by chairs, tables or other objects.
Violation of this cited rule and cited regulation is evidence of negligence. It is not, however, conclusive evidence of negligence. If you find that a person alleged to have been negligent violated such a regulation, you may consider that fact, together with other facts and circumstances, in determining whether such person was negligent.

A jury could have found that the premises were not in a reasonably safe condition and that the aisles were blocked. The testimony of both the injured plaintiff and her husband was to the effect that the chairs in the restaurant were in such a jumbled disarray that there was no way she and her family could leave the area where they had been seated without pushing the chairs out of the way or climbing over them. Since she was leading the way she elected to clear a pathway by moving chairs out of her way. While so doing her legs became tangled in the chair she was moving at the moment and she fell. This is not a situation where one isolated chair is left in an aisle, but where a mass of chairs are pushed away from tables in a haphazard way and are completely blocking the egress of customers at other tables. The jury had a right to conclude that the premises were not maintained in a reasonably safe condition because a restaurant patron should have a right to leave the premises without running an obstacle course. What degree of negligence can be attributed to the property owner and to the patron, respectively, is also a jury question, and no issue of apportionment of negligence is raised here.

We find the exclusion of the tendered photographic evidence to not be harmful error since the photograph did not depict the area when the injury occurred.

We agree appellant that plaintiffs' attorney's remarks regarding his wife being an employee of Walt Disney World were wrong as were his remarks about the doctor and the insurance company. The trial judge adequately instructed the jury about these improprieties, thus no reversible error has been shown. As has been often said, it is up to the trier of the fact to determine the weight of the evidence; we only determine the legal sufficiency. It was legally sufficient so we cannot reverse the judgment as appellants would have us do.

AFFIRMED.

ORFINGER, J., concurs.

COBB, J., dissents with opinion.

COBB, Judge, dissenting.

In my view, the trial court erred in instructing the jury in regard to violation of *1079 an administrative rule of the State Fire Marshal. There are two reasons for this conclusion. First, the injury herein was not caused by a fire. Second, even if it had been, it did not occur in an aisle described by the instruction.

The plaintiffs' instruction, to which there was timely objection, was:

Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, the following is a portion of the Rules and Regulations of the Florida Administrative Code as adopted by the State Fire Marshal and filed in the Office of the Secretary of State of the State of Florida which provides, among other things, as follows:
A place of assembly shall mean a room or space used for assembly or educational occupancy for 100 or more occupants or which has a floor area of 1500 square feet or more used for such purposes. Such room or space shall include any similar occupied connecting room or space in the same story, or in a story or stories above or below where entrance is common to the rooms or spaces.
In a place of assembly: In each room where chairs, or tables and chairs, are used, the arrangement shall be such as will provide for ready access by aisles to each exit doorway. Aisles leading directly to exit doorways shall have not less than 36 inches clear width which shall not be obstructed by chairs, tables or other objects.
Violation of this cited rule and cited regulation is evidence of negligence. It is not, however, conclusive evidence of negligence. If you find that a person alleged to have been negligent violated such a regulation, you may consider that fact, together with other facts and circumstances, in determining whether such person was negligent.

The above instruction is based upon Rules 4A-27.01(2) and 4A-27.06 of the Rules of the State Fire Marshal. These rules were certified to be in effect on the date Mrs. Merritt fell while pushing a chair in a Disney restaurant. At the jury instruction conference, Disney[1] objected to the giving of the charge on various grounds, one of which was that the fire code was inapplicable to the case.

On appeal, Disney's first issue is whether the trial court erred by instructing the jury that violation of the Fire Marshal's rule was evidence of negligence. The judicial act, the propriety of which has been brought before this court to review, was the giving of the instruction. On appeal, Disney argues the rule is inapplicable because Mrs. Merritt did not prove she fell in an "aisle," to which the rule (Rule 4A-27.06) is directed. While this may be a valid argument, another, perhaps stronger, argument is that the rule is inapplicable because her injuries were not of a type the rule sought to prevent.[2]

A preliminary question, then, is whether this court can utilize an argument (as distinguished from the issue or judicial act that was properly raised and brought before this court) not presented on appeal. Disney properly raised in this court the judicial act to be reviewed, i.e., the inclusion of the instruction. It specified, briefed, and argued the propriety of including the instruction.

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Bluebook (online)
404 So. 2d 1077, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walt-disney-world-co-v-merritt-fladistctapp-1981.