Sunbank and Trust Co. of Brooksville v. Transcontinental Ins. Co., 95-652

Decision Date22 December 1995
Docket NumberNo. 95-652,95-652
Citation666 So.2d 198
Parties21 Fla. L. Weekly D23, 28 UCC Rep.Serv.2d 918 SUNBANK AND TRUST COMPANY OF BROOKSVILLE, Florida, Appellant, v. TRANSCONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY, etc., Appellee.
CourtFlorida District Court of Appeals

Charlie Luckie, Jr. of McGee, Luckie & Dayton, P.A., Brooksville, for Appellant.

Eddy R. Resnick of Gold & Resnick, P.A., and Larry M. Segall, Tampa, for Appellee.

DAUKSCH, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment in a commercial banking case. Appellant was a clearing bank for a Tennessee construction company which was working on a Brooksville hospital. The local providers of services and supplies to the construction company would cash or deposit checks of the company, written on the company's Tennessee bank account, in appellant bank. The checks were then sent by usual banking channels to the Tennessee bank for payment back to the clearing bank, appellant.

An employee of the construction company caused false and forged checks to be written to nonexistent employees of the construction company and then deposited in appellant bank to the credit of the embezzling employee. Appellee is the subrogated insurer of the construction company which was cheated by its employee. Appellee sued appellant to recover the money stolen from the construction company by the employee alleging that it was liable for conversion under section 673.419(1)(c), Florida Statutes (1989), was guilty of "bad faith in handling items" and was guilty of negligence in its handling of the checks.

The problem in the case is the jury verdict has two fatally inconsistent interrogatories:

2. Was there negligence on the part of Defendant, Sunbank and Trust Company of Brooksville, which was a legal cause of the damage sustained by the Plaintiff, Transcontinental Insurance Company, as Subrogee of Rock City Mechanical, Inc.?

YES NO X

_____ _____

6. State the percentage of any negligence, which was a legal cause of damage sustained by the Plaintiff, Transcontinental Insurance Company, as Subrogee of Rock City Mechanical, Inc., that you charge to:

                       Sunbank and Trust Company of Brooksville        20%
                                                                      ----
                       Rock City Mechanical, Inc.                      80%
                                                                      ----
                                                  Total must be       100%
                

Because the jury first found that appellant was not guilty of negligence in its transaction, it could not then assess a percentage of...

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1 cases
  • Coba v. Tricam Indus., Inc.
    • United States
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • May 14, 2015
    ...a claim that a verdict is inconsistent, that issue has been waived. See id. at 611 ; see also Sunbank & Trust Co. of Brooksville v. Transcon. Ins. Co., 666 So.2d 198, 199 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995) (not applying the “fundamental nature” exception to a “fatally” inconsistent verdict where the jury ......

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