Adelman v. St. Paul Guardian Ins. Co., No. 4D00-463
| Decision Date | 23 January 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 4D00-4150., No. 4D00-463 |
| Citation | 805 So.2d 106 |
| Parties | Laurence T. ADELMAN and Eileen Adelman, Appellants, v. ST. PAUL GUARDIAN INSURANCE COMPANY, Roberta Neal, Rosalind Mitchell, and Anthony T. Collins, Appellees. St. Paul Guardian Insurance Company, Appellant, v. Laurence T. Adelman and Eileen Adelman, Appellees. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Scott A. Mager of Mager & Associates, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, and Walter G. Campbell of Krupnick Campbell, et al., Fort Lauderdale, for appellants.
Richard A. Sherman and Rosemary B. Wilder of the Law Offices of Richard A. Sherman, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, and Thomasina H. Williams of the Law Offices of Williams & Associates, P.A., Miami, for appellee St. Paul Guardian Insurance Company.
Laurence T. Adelman and Eileen Adelman appeal a portion of the trial court's post-trial rulings in favor of St. Paul, their uninsured/underinsured motorist carrier. Characterizing the ruling as a judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV), the Adelmans seek to have the jury verdict, which they argue was actually in their favor, reinstated. St. Paul counters that the trial court did not grant a JNOV on the Adelmans' uninsured motorist claim, but instead ruled in favor of St. Paul based on a jury verdict favoring St. Paul. St. Paul cross-appeals the denial of its motion for JNOV on Laurence's PIP claim.
This case arose from a rainy-day incident involving several cars. Laurence was rear-ended by Harry Jonsson when Laurence braked to avoid the car in front of him. Jonsson was in turn rear-ended by Rosalind Mitchell, and the force caused him to strike Laurence's car a second time. Jonsson was driving an insured Scamp rental car. Mitchell was uninsured and was driving a car owned by Roberta Neal, who was also uninsured. The Adelmans contend that each collision was a separate accident; one caused by Jonsson and the other by Mitchell. St. Paul counters it was one chain-reaction accident, thus Jonsson and Mitchell were joint tort-feasors.
Laurence Adelman suffered injuries as a result of these collisions and sued. He settled with Scamp rental company for less than the policy limits, obtained a default against Mitchell and Neal, dismissed as to all remaining defendants except Mitchell and St. Paul, and then went to trial against Mitchell and St. Paul, his insurance company, for uninsured motorist benefits.
The jury returned a verdict of $600,000 in damages on Laurence's uninsured motorist benefits claim, $25,000 in damages for Eileen's loss of consortium claim, and $25,787.82 damages on Laurence's Personal Injury Protection claim.
St. Paul filed post-trial motions which the judge granted in part and denied in part. The trial court, interpreting the jury's verdict, refused to enter judgment in favor of the Adelmans on the awards of $600,000 to Laurence and $25,000 to Eileen. Ruling in favor of Laurence on his PIP claim, the trial court denied St. Paul's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV) and confirmed the award to Laurence of $25,787.82.
The trial court granted St. Paul's post-trial motion regarding the uninsured motorist claim on two grounds. First, interpreting the jury's verdict as finding Mitchell not liable, the trial court determined that such a finding precluded the jury from awarding damages to Laurence and Eileen. The trial court also ruled that because Jonsson and Mitchell were joint tort-feasors, the settlement with Scamp for less than the policy limits precluded the Adelmans from recovering under their uninsured motorist policy with St. Paul, citing Bayles v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 483 So.2d 402 (Fla. 1985).
The Adelmans appeal the trial court's ruling on their claim for uninsured motorist benefits and St. Paul cross-appeals the PIP award. Without further discussion we affirm the trial court's ruling on the PIP award to Laurence.
Resolving the remainder of this appeal requires a tedious review and comparison of the jury instructions with the verdict form. Neither the Adelmans nor St. Paul take issue with the instructions or the verdict form. All parties claim a review of the instructions and the verdict form mandates judgment in their favor on the uninsured motorist benefits issue. Both the Adelmans and St. Paul argue that the jury actually rendered a verdict in their favor. St. Paul contends the trial court correctly interpreted the jury verdict as being in its favor and entered judgment accordingly. The Adelmans, on the other hand, counter that the trial court granted a JNOV, thereby disregarding a verdict in their favor.
The obvious reason for these positions is to gain an advantageous standard of review. The Adelmans remind us that when reviewing a JNOV, we must view all of the evidence in a light most favorable to the non-movant and resolve all conflicts in the non-movant's favor. Diamond v. Rosenfeld, 511 So.2d 1031 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987). In response, St. Paul argues that abuse of discretion is the standard of review because the trial court, when ruling in St. Paul's favor, was correctly interpreting the jury's verdict.
We will first examine the trial court's stated reasons for granting St. Paul's post-trial motion. The first ground was based on the trial court's conclusion that the jury found Mitchell not liable. The trial court reached this conclusion by interpreting the jury's answer to a question on the verdict form. The jury was asked, "If it is reasonably possible to do so, please state the percentage of negligence or fault, if any, which was a legal cause of Laurence T. Adelman's alleged injuries which you charge: Harry Jonsson, Rosalind Mitchell, Anthony T. Collins, Nissan North America." The jury placed a zero after each name.
The trial court interpreted the jury's zeroes as an assignment of no liability to Mitchell, the uninsured defendant for whom St. Paul would be responsible. Once the trial court decided the jury had found Mitchell not liable, it then ruled that the jury could not award damages against Mitchell where the jury had found no liability, citing Continental Assurance Co. v. Davis, 538 So.2d 542 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989) (). We believe the more reasonable interpretation of the zero beside each name is that the jury did not find "it reasonably possible" to divide the liability into specific percentages. We reach this interpretation because the jury had been specifically instructed that "Rosalind Mitchell, the driver of the vehicle, owned by the Defendant, Roberta Neal, was negligent and such negligence was the legal cause of loss, injury or damage to the Plaintiff, Laurence Adelman." Having been instructed that Mitchell was negligent, it does not make sense that the jury would then find her not negligent.
Concerning apportionment of liability, the jury was instructed as follows: "If, however, the greater weight of the evidence shows that both Laurence Adelman, one or more, Jonsson, Scamp, Mitchell, Neal, Collins or Nissan were negligent, and that the negligence of each contribute as a legal cause of loss, injury or damage sustained by Laurence Adelman, you should write on the verdict form what percentage of the total negligence of all parties to this action is chargeable to each." From the language of the instruction, it is clear that the jury was requested to apportion liability only if they decided that both Laurence and one or more of the defendants were negligent. In order for the instruction to be used by the jury, the verdict form should have required the jury to determine Laurence's negligence. The verdict form, however, did not provide any space for the jury to make a determination whether Laurence was negligent.
Without a question on the verdict form matching the instruction, we are unable to determine how or whether this instruction was applied by the jury in its determination. Thus, we do not know what their factual findings may have been with regard to this instruction. Consequently, this instruction sheds no light on what the jury may have meant by its verdict in this case, and no assumptions can be made about any factual findings by the jury on the liability issue.
In sum, regarding the first ground for granting St. Paul's motion and entering a judgment in favor of St. Paul, we hold that the trial court erred in ruling that the jury found Mitchell not liable. We reach this conclusion because the jury was not given an opportunity on the verdict form to apportion liability; moreover, the jury was specifically instructed that Mitchell was "negligent and such negligence was the legal cause of loss, injury or damage to the Plaintiff, Laurence Adelman." Thus, the jury did not in fact decide this issue and the trial court consequently erred in ruling that the jury made such a finding of no liability. That being so, the trial court likewise erred in ruling that the jury was precluded from awarding $600,000 in damages to Laurence and an award for loss of consortium to Eileen.
The second ground for granting St. Paul's motion and entering judgment in its favor was the trial court's conclusion that Bayles prohibited recovery from Laurence's uninsured motorist policy in the instant case. 483 So.2d at 402. We conclude that this is an alternative ground because the first ground was based on a finding of no liability; however, the second ground was based on a finding that the same defendants were liable as joint tort-feasors. These findings are clearly...
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