Dorsey v. Honda Motor Co. Ltd., 79-3845
| Citation | 670 F.2d 21 |
| Decision Date | 08 March 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 79-3845,79-3845 |
| Parties | Glen K. DORSEY, Jr., and Barbara J. Dorsey, his wife, Plaintiffs-Appellants-Cross Appellees, v. HONDA MOTOR COMPANY LTD., et al., Defendants-Appellees-Cross Appellants. HONDA MOTOR COMPANY LTD., Defendant-Appellant-Cross Appellee, v. CONTINENTAL CASUALTY COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee-Cross Appellant. . Unit B * |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Frates, Floyd, Pearson, Stewart, Richman & Greer, Gary D. Fox, Larry S. Stewart, Miami, Fla., for the Dorseys.
Anthony M. Lanzone & Associates, Anthony M. Lanzone, Robert A. Calinoff, New York City, DeWolf, Ward, Morris, Wohlust, Jontz & O'Donnell, John L. O'Donnell, Jr., Thomas B. DeWolf, Orlando, Fla., for Honda Motor Co. Ltd.
Akerman, Senterfitt & Eidson, John Edwin Fisher, Orlando, Fla., for Continental Cas. Co.
Joe N. Unger, Miami, Fla., for Honda Motor Co. Ltd., American Honda Motor and Mission Ins.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Before GODBOLD, Chief Judge, MORGAN and HENDERSON, Circuit Judges.
ON PETITIONS FOR REHEARING
Pending this appeal and a few days before the case was argued to us, the Supreme Court of Florida decided Mercury Motors Express, Inc. v. Smith, 393 So.2d 545 (Fla.1981) in which the court said that before an employer may be held vicariously liable for punitive damages under the doctrine of respondeat superior, there must be "some fault" on the employer's part. 1
Relying upon Mercury Motors, Honda urges by petition for rehearing that it cannot be held liable in punitive damages for acts done by Honda R & D because, it says, our opinion excludes the possibility that Honda was guilty of "some fault" of its own. Continental Casualty has also petitioned for rehearing, contending that Mercury Motors abolished Florida's vicarious liability exception to no insurance coverage for punitive damages.
As we pointed out in our opinion, 655 F.2d 650 (5th Cir. 1981), by the pretrial stipulation Honda accepted that in legal effect the acts of Honda R & D and its employees were its own acts. Honda cannot escape the consequences of this pretrial acceptance of responsibility via the escape hatch of Mercury Motors. The issues having been drawn in this manner in the pretrial order, at trial the distinction between Honda and Honda R & D was blurred, and presumably no party saw any necessity of distinguishing clearly between what Honda did and what Honda R & D did. In the record it is often hard to tell which one of the family of Honda companies was being described, and no one treated such distinction as a matter of particular...
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