Lassiter v. International Union of Operating Engineers

• Decision Date: 21 July 1976
• Docket Number: Nos. 47869-47871,s. 47869-47871
• Citation: 349 So.2d 622
• Parties: 92 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3711, 96 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3040 Earl Lowell LASSITTER, Petitioner, v. INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS, Respondent. Earl Lowell LASSITTER, Petitioner, v. Dennis WALTON, Respondent. Earl Lowell LASSITTER, Petitioner, v. INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS, LOCAL NO. 675, Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 622

349 So.2d 622

92 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3711, 96 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3040

Earl Lowell LASSITTER, Petitioner, v. INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS, Respondent.

Earl Lowell LASSITTER, Petitioner, v. Dennis WALTON, Respondent.

Earl Lowell LASSITTER, Petitioner, v. INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS, LOCAL NO. 675, Respondent.

Nos. 47869-47871.

Supreme Court of Florida.

July 21, 1976.

On Rehearing May 26, 1977.

Rehearing Denied Sept. 20, 1977.

Writs of Certiorari to the District Court of Appeal, Fourth District.

Rex Conrad, Ronald A. FitzGerald and Paul R. Regensdorf of Fleming, O'Bryan & Fleming, Fort Lauderdale, for petitioner.

Frank E. Hamilton, III of Hamilton, Douglas & Bennett, Tampa, Woll, Mayer & Gold, Washington, D.C., Cone, Wagner, Nugent, Johnson & McKeown, and Larry Klein, West Palm Beach, for respondents.

PER CURIAM.

Petitions for writ of certiorari have been granted in this cause, and oral argument has been dispensed with.

The decision of the District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, 325 So.2d 408, here under review is quashed with directions that the judgments entered in the trial court be reinstated.

ROBERTS, Acting C. J., and ADKINS, BOYD and HATCHETT, JJ., concur.

SUNDBERG, J., dissents.

ON REHEARING

ADKINS, Justice.

By petition for certiorari, we have for review a decision of the District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, (International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 675 v. Lassitter, 325 So.2d 408). This case has plowed through a slow, rough road of judicial labor, culminating in our quashal of the District Court decision and, now, by granting respondents' petition for rehearing.

An action was brought by Lassitter against union member Walton, the Local union and the International union for injuries sustained in union violence. The jury found for petitioner Lassitter and assessed compensatory damages of $240,000 jointly and severally against all of the defendants. The jury also awarded punitive damages in the amount of $10,000 against Walton, $300,000 against the Local union and $700,000 against the International union. Upon appeal, the finding of liability was affirmed but the verdicts for compensatory and punitive damages were reversed. International Union of Operating Engineers, Local No. 675 v. Lassitter, 295 So.2d 634 (Fla. 4th DCA 1974).

All parties then filed petitions for certiorari in this Court. The defendants' petitions were from that portion of the decision of the District Court affirming the liability and plaintiff Lassitter's petition was from that portion of the opinion reversing the damages. The defendants' cross-petitions for writ of certiorari were denied, but this Court granted plaintiff Lassitter's petition and quashed the decision of the Fourth District Court "insofar as it is inconsistent with Rinaldi v. Aaron, 314 So.2d 762, 79 A.L.R. 3d 1132." The cause was then remanded for further proceedings consistent therewith. Lassitter v. Walton, 314 So.2d 761 (Fla.1975). This decision was brief, but confusing.

In a subsequent decision, upon our mandate, the District Court pointed out that the original opinion did three basic things: (1) affirmed the judgments as to liability; (2) reversed and remanded for a new trial on the issue of compensatory damages; and (3) reversed and remanded for a new trial on the issue of punitive damages. The District Court reasoned that numbers one and two stood undisturbed, but expressed deep concern as to their proper course of action in complying with our mandate to quash the opinion insofar as it was inconsistent with Rinaldi v. Aaron, supra. The District Court then said:

"A review of our opinion reveals, though, that we assigned two additional reasons as a basis for reversing the award of punitive damages and remanding that issue for a new trial, reasons that were not encompassed or contradicted by Rinaldi v. Aaron, supra, or otherwise compromised by Supreme Court action.

"First, we held:

" 'It is our firm judgment that the awards singly and in combination are so manifestly excessive as to shock our judicial conscience. Under the circumstances the verdicts could only be indicative of the improper influences of passion and prejudice working on the jury. These influences probably emanated from usual well known union partisanships, excited by injuries to an innocent victim, coupled with the publicity and heated climate . . . .' " 325 So.2d at 409-10.

The District Court then said:

"Secondly, we held that, while an award of punitive damages was proper in the case, we were concerned with the amount of such award. We said:

" '(I)t is our understanding that there should be some reasonable, albeit imprecise, relationship between punitive and compensatory damages. Air Line Employees Ass'n Int. v. Turner, 291 So.2d 670 (3d D.C.A. Fla.1974); Crowell-Collier Pub. Co. v. Caldwell, 170 F.2d 941 (5th Cir. 1948); Hutchinson v. Lott, 110 So.2d 442 (1st D.C.A. Fla.1959). With this background we opine that there is an impermissible and gross inbalance here between the actual damages suffered and the punitive damages awarded.' 205 So.2d at 640." 325 So.2d at 410.

The holding that there should be some reasonable relationship between punitive and compensatory damages is in conflict with the decision in Levine v. Knowles, 197 So.2d 329, 331 (Fla. 3d DCA 1967) and Hutchinson v. Lott, 110 So.2d 442, 445 (Fla. 1st DCA 1959). We have jurisdiction.

In Hutchinson v. Lott, supra, it was said:

"While we do not follow the rule established in some jurisdictions to the effect that punitive damages must be 'in proportion' to the compensatory damages, in McLain v. Pensacola Coach Corp., supra, it was held that punitive damages are not recoverable unless actual damages are shown. The relation of punitive damages to actual damages cannot be reduced to a mathematical certainty and is dependent upon the facts of each case. Punitive damages are awarded as a punishment to a defendant and as a warning to deter him from committing a similar offense in the future. Miami Beach Lerner Shops, Inc. v. Walco Mfg. of Florida, Inc., Fla.App., 106 So.2d 233; Ross v. Gore, Fla., 48 So.2d 412. Accordingly, they must bear some relation to the amount that the defendant is able to pay since the pecuniary punishment to a man of large means would not be the same as to a man of small means. Maiborne v. Kuntz, Fla., 56 So.2d 720; Jones v. Greeley, 25 Fla. 629, 6 So. 448."

The court in Air Line Employees Ass'n International v. Turner, 291 So.2d 670 (Fla. 3d DCA 1974), construed the quoted language in Hutchinson as not being dispositive of the issue and then decided that a jury is not authorized to award punitive damages in "a sum which does not bear some reasonable relation to the compensatory damages awarded, and which is excessively out of relation to the latter." 291 So.2d 670 at 672. In Lan-Chile Airlines, Inc. v. Rodriguez, 296 So.2d 498 (Fla. 3d DCA 1974), the court relying on Hutchinson and Turner, directed a remittitur of a portion of a punitive damage award that was forty-four times the amount of the compensatory damages. Text writers acknowledge that there is a diversity of opinion among the jurisdictions whether punitive damages must bear a reasonable relation to the compensatory damages awarded, but conclude that Florida is aligned with those jurisdictions which require such a relationship. See 22 Am.Jur.2d Damages § 265, and cases collected thereunder.

Federal courts have come to conflicting conclusions in attempting to discern the Florida rule on the subject. Judge Hutcheson writing for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Scalise v. National Utility Service, 120 F.2d 938, 941 (5th Cir. 1941), stated:

"In Florida as in the federal courts, the giving of punitive damages is not dependent upon, nor must it bear any relation to the allowance of actual damages . . . ."

Then in Crowell-Collier Pub. Co. v. Caldwell, 170 F.2d 941 (5th Cir. 1948), the same judge opined that exemplary or punitive damages awarded must bear some, though not an exact relation to actual damages.

The next pronouncement by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on the subject is found in Smith v. McNulty, 293 F.2d 924, 926 (5th Cir. 1961):

"We think also that the award of punitive damages was not legally excessive. It bore a reasonable relationship to the actual damages, although appellant admits in his brief that such a relationship is not necessary under Florida law, citing the case of Hutchinson v. Lott, Fla.App., 110 So.2d 442. But cf. Crowell-Collier Pub. Co. v. Caldwell, 5 Cir. 1948, 170 F.2d 941."

Finally, in Wynn Oil Co. v. Purolator Chemical Corp., 403 F.Supp. 226 (N.D.Fla.1974), a federal district judge sitting in Florida stated:

"In the opinion of this Court, the punitive damage awards bear a reasonable relationship to the actual damages sustained by plaintiff. However, Florida law does not require that such a reasonable relationship exist, but only requires that some actual damage be shown and that the acts of defendants were done with malice. See Hutchinson v. Lott, 110 So.2d 442 (Fla.App. 1st 1959); and Smith v. McNulty, 293 F.2d 924 (5th Cir. 1961). . . ." 403 F.Supp. at 232.

The terms compensatory and actual damages have been used interchangeably by the courts in dealing with the problem at hand. This probably stems from the language in McLain v. Pensacola Corp., 152 Fla. 876, 13 So.2d 221 (1943), approving and applying the following quotation from 4 Am.Jur. 219:

"The general rule that exemplary or punitive damages are not recoverable in an action of tort unless actual damages are shown finds application in cases of assault and battery." 13 So.2d at 222.

The Court in McLain, supra, held that the failure to submit the issue of punitive damages to a jury was not ground for reversal where the jury found no liability on the underlying cause of action, because an action for punitive damages cannot be maintained independently of an action for compensatory damages. The...