Beauvais v. Edell

• Decision Date: 07 June 2000
• Docket Number: No. 4D98-2771.,4D98-2771.
• Citation: 760 So.2d 262
• Parties: Paulette BEAUVAIS, Appellant, v. Shirley Ann EDELL, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

760 So.2d 262

Paulette BEAUVAIS, Appellant, v. Shirley Ann EDELL, Appellee.

No. 4D98-2771.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

June 7, 2000.

Tami R. Wolfe of Jones & Wolfe, Fort Lauderdale, for appellant.

Shelley H. Leinicke of Wicker, Smith, Tutan, O'Hara, McCoy, Graham & Ford, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, for appellee.

EN BANC

KLEIN, J.

Appellant plaintiff contends that the trial court should have granted her motion for new trial because the total amount awarded her by the jury for injuries arising out of an accident was the same as her medical expenses. Plaintiff relies on two cases from this court in which we held that verdicts for medical expenses were inadequate as a matter of law. We now recede from those cases and hold that where there is a dispute as to whether the injuries have resulted from the accident, the inadequacy of the award is left to the discretion of the trial court.

The primary injuries for which plaintiff sought compensation were a torn rotator cuff shoulder injury and a carpal tunnel wrist injury, both of which required surgery. At the time the accident occurred, and in the hospital to which plaintiff was taken after the accident, she had no complaints of pain in either her shoulder or her wrist. Her own orthopedist testified that her shoulder problem resulted from osteoarthritis, and her neurologist testified that if she had torn the rotator cuff in the accident it would have "hurt like hell." In regard to her carpal tunnel injury, there were a number of other possible causes, but probably the most significant evidence was that she had carpal tunnel surgery on both wrists, even though only one wrist was allegedly injured in the accident.

Plaintiff put on evidence that her medical expenses resulting from her injuries came to $68,501. Plaintiff submitted a general form of verdict which did not itemize damages, and the jury in that verdict awarded unspecified total damages of $68,501. Plaintiff filed a post-trial motion seeking an additur, or in the alternative a new trial on the grounds that the verdict was inadequate as a matter of law or contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence.¹ The trial court denied the motion, and she appeals. Plaintiff relies primarily on two cases, Daigneault v. Gache, 624 So.2d 818 (Fla. 4th DCA 1993) and Mason v. District Bd. of Trustees of Broward Community College, 644 So.2d 160 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994). In Daigneault, we stated that:

[A] jury verdict awarding to an injured person only the exact amount of the medical expenses incurred and nothing for pain and suffering is an inadequate verdict as a matter of law when there is uncontradicted evidence that the injured plaintiff suffered at least some pain from the injury. See e.g., Watson v. Builders Square, Inc., 563 So.2d 721 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990)

; Gonzalez v. Westinghouse Elec. Corp., 463 So.2d 1229 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985); Skelly v. Hartford Cas. Ins. Co., 445 So.2d 415 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984); Rodriguez v. Allgreen Corp., 242 So.2d 741 (Fla. 4th DCA 1971); Pickel v. Rosen, 214 So.2d 730 (Fla. 3d DCA 1968).

Daigneault, 624 So.2d at 819-20.

In the cases cited in Daigneault, it appears that it was undisputed that the injuries resulted from the accidents. In Daigneault, however, whether the injuries resulted from the accident was in dispute. This is a significant distinction which we may not have recognized in Daigneault. We followed Daigneault in Mason, in which there was also a dispute as to whether the plaintiff was injured in the accident.

In Allstate Ins. Co. v. Manasse, 681 So.2d 779 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996), this court held that a finding of permanent injury and an award of future medical expenses required an award for future pain and suffering as a matter of law, relying on Daigneault and Mason. Because of uncertainty in this area of the law we certified the issue as one of great public importance. The Florida Supreme Court disagreed with our conclusion and held that the verdict in Manasse was not inadequate as a matter of law, reiterating what it had said in Cloud v. Fallis, 110 So.2d 669, 673 (Fla.1959):

When a motion for new trial is made it is directed to the sound, broad discretion of the trial judge, who because of his contact with the trial and his observation of the behavior of those upon whose testimony the finding of fact must be based is better positioned than any other one person fully to comprehend the processes by which the ultimate decision of the triers of fact, the jurors, is reached.

Allstate Ins. Co. v. Manasse, 707 So.2d 1110, 1111 (Fla.1998). In Manasse, as in the present case, whether the accident was the cause of plaintiffs pain and suffering was an issue of fact. Defendant argues that it follows from Manasse that the verdict in the present case was not inadequate as a matter of law. Manasse, however, involved an award of future medical expenses but no future pain and suffering, and our supreme court observed that future damages "are, by nature, less certain than past damages." Id. at 1111.

Although Manasse involved future damages and Daigneault, Mason and this case involved past damages, Manasse emphasized that post-trial motions concerning amounts of damages are left to the "broad" discretion of the trial judge. Id. at 1111. Our supreme court again reiterated that standard for post-trial motions in Brown v. Estate of Stuckey, 749 So.2d 490 (Fla.1999). In light of Manasse and Brown we have concluded that the award in the present case is not inadequate as a matter of law. It follows that the awards in Daigneault and Mason were not inadequate as a matter of law either.

We therefore recede from Daigneault and Mason and hold that, where there is a dispute as to whether the injuries resulted from the accident, a verdict awarding only medical expenses does not require a new trial as a matter of law. Rather, a motion directed to the inadequacy, whether it seeks a additur or a new trial, is left to the broad discretion of the trial judge. We find no abuse of discretion in the present case and affirm.²

WARNER, C.J., DELL, STONE, POLEN, STEVENSON, SHAHOOD, GROSS, TAYLOR, and HAZOURI, JJ., concur.

FARMER, J., concurring specially with opinion, in which GUNTHER, J., concurs.

FARMER, J., concurring.

In this action for damages after an automobile accident, the central issue at trial was whether there was a permanent injury and if so the amount of plaintiff's damages. The trial judge instructed the jurors not to award any damages unless they found a permanent injury. The evidence focused on whether plaintiffs condition and pain resulted from the accident or were instead caused by a history of diabetes, hypertension and angina. Plaintiff proposed a verdict form—and the trial court accepted it without objection—stating only a gross sum for damages and lacking an itemization of the various kinds of damages plaintiff was seeking in the action. The verdict implicitly found a permanent injury, awarding unspecified total damages of $68,501. Neither party objected to the verdict; the jury was discharged.

In her post trial motion, plaintiff moved for an additur and, if defendant refused to accept it, a consequent new trial. Her motion was not a motion for a new trial on the grounds that the verdict was against the manifest weight of the evidence or was inadequate as a matter of law.³ Instead it was a motion for an additur expressly made pursuant to sections 768.043 and 768.74.⁴ She also cited Mason v. District Board of Trustees of Broward Community College, 644 So.2d 160, 161 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994), and Allstate Ins. Co. v. Manasse, 681 So.2d 779 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996),quashed,707 So.2d 1110 (Fla.1998). The motion did not contain an alternative request —unrelated to the additur—for a new trial on the grounds that the damages verdict was against the manifest weight of the evidence. Plaintiff's motion argued that the award of the exact amount of her claimed medical bills meant that the jury's verdict encompassed an award of medical bills only, without including something for past non-economic damages.⁵ The trial court denied her motion without elaboration.

Relying on our decisions in Mason and Daigneault v. Gache, 624 So.2d 818, 820 (Fla. 4th DCA 1993), rev. denied, 634 So.2d 623 (Fla.1994), plaintiff argues on appeal that the trial court's denial of an additur is legal error that is per se reversible. In Daigneault we held that the trial court's denial of a new trial on damages must be reversed as a matter of law where the verdict represents the exact amount of medical expenses already incurred but fails to include anything for past pain and suffering and where the evidence of pain from the injury caused by the accident is unchallenged. Daigneault makes clear, however, that—unlike the present case— the trial court there submitted an itemized verdict to the jury, which was deficient only in failing to require a specific finding on permanency. We followed Daigneault in Mason and reversed for a new trial under identical circumstances. Unlike Daigneault, our opinion in Mason does not make clear explicitly that the verdict form was itemized as to damages—but that is nevertheless a fair inference.

Defendant has two responses to the argument on per se reversal. First she argues that the issue has not been properly preserved. She points out that plaintiff herself proposed the form of jury verdict failing to contain an itemization of damages. Then, she adds, plaintiff failed to voice any objection when the jury pronounced its verdict in open court. Both of these result in a failure to preserve this issue, she suggests, even for the trial judge and ultimately also for review on appeal. Second, even assuming that the issue were properly preserved, she argues that the correct standard of review is abuse of discretion, not legal error. Applying the correct standard, she contends, the trial judge simply cannot be said to have abused his considerable discretion to deny an additur on account of...