BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc. v. Meeks

• Decision Date: 16 October 2003
• Docket Number: No. SC02-1033.,SC02-1033.
• Parties: BELLSOUTH TELECOMMUNICATIONS, INC., Petitioner, v. Linda MEEKS, etc., Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

863 So.2d 287

BELLSOUTH TELECOMMUNICATIONS, INC., Petitioner, v. Linda MEEKS, etc., Respondent.

No. SC02-1033.

Supreme Court of Florida.

October 16, 2003.

John R. Hargrove of Heinrich, Gordon, Hargrove, Weihe & James, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, FL, for Petitioner.

Robert P. Avolio and Tracy L. Markham of Avolio & Hanlon, P.C., St. Augustine, FL, for Respondent.

BELL, J.

We have for review Meeks v. Florida Power & Light Co., 816 So.2d 1125 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002), in which the Fifth District Court of Appeal certified the following question as one of great public importance:

ARE THE DAMAGES RECOVERABLE BY A MINOR CHILD PURSUANT TO SECTION 768.21(3), FLORIDA STATUTES, LIMITED TO THE PERIOD OF MINORITY?

Id. at 1133. We have jurisdiction under article V, section 3(b)(4) of the Florida Constitution. For the reasons stated below, we answer the certified question in the negative. We approve the district court's decision that the damages recoverable by a minor child under section 768.21(3), Florida Statutes (2002), should be calculated based on the joint life expectancies of the minor child and the deceased parent.

BACKGROUND

The claim in this case arises from the wrongful death of Herbert Meeks, and relates to the damages recoverable by his son, Kevin Meeks. Kevin was twenty-four at the time of his father's death, a minor under the statute. Herbert Meeks was electrocuted by downed Florida Power & Light (FP & L) electric wires suspended from a fallen pole allegedly owned by Bell-South. At the time of his death, Meeks was driving on a rural road. The pole had rotted at its base and fallen across the road. Meeks got out of his truck, approached the pole, and was killed.

The parties dispute whether BellSouth or FP & L was responsible for maintaining and inspecting the pole. BellSouth's predecessor installed the pole in 1952. In 1997, when the accident occurred, the pole was tagged with a metal BellSouth tag and was identified on BellSouth plats as a Bell-South pole. However, before the 1997 accident, BellSouth had removed its wires from the pole and from all the other poles in that pole line. At the time of the accident that killed Meeks, only FP & L had wires running on the pole line that included the fallen pole.

FP & L's use of BellSouth's poles was governed by their Joint Use Agreement (JUA), a contract covering the joint use of poles. Under the JUA, each company had the right to use the other's poles. The owner of a joint-use pole was responsible for maintaining the pole in a safe condition, and could charge the joint user a licensing fee. The JUA provided a formal procedure for a pole owner to abandon a pole, including a requisite thirty-day notice to the joint user. Under this procedure, a pole abandoned by its owner would become the property of the joint user, who would then be solely responsible for the pole's condition.

With respect to the pole involved in Meeks' death, when BellSouth removed its wires from the pole, BellSouth did not give formal written notice to FP & L of the abandonment, as the JUA required. However, the JUA expressly provided that the parties could modify its terms through their course of conduct, i.e., the parties could adopt working practices that were different from the express contractual terms. Neither party followed the formal abandonment procedures the JUA prescribed. Nonetheless, despite BellSouth's claim that it informally abandoned the pole to FP & L, FP & L denies having assumed ownership or responsibility. BellSouth continued to collect a licensing fee from FP & L for the pole, up to the time of the accident that killed Meeks.

Meeks was survived by his wife and by two children, a twenty-eight-year-old daughter and a twenty-four-year-old son. Where a decedent has a surviving spouse, Florida's wrongful death statute permits a minor child, but not an adult child, to recover damages for loss of parental companionship and for mental pain and suffering. § 768.21(3), Fla. Stat. (2002). The statute defines a minor as a person under twenty-five years of age. Id. § 768.18(2). Meeks' survivors filed suit against both FP & L and BellSouth. FP & L settled for $1,300,000. The trial court dismissed the claim of Meeks' daughter for section 768.21(3) damages,¹ because an adult child may not recover these damages under the statute. She does not dispute the dismissal.

BellSouth filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing the two issues it continues to argue on review in this Court. First, BellSouth argued that FP & L was solely responsible for maintaining and inspecting the pole, so that BellSouth owed no duty of care to Meeks. Second, Bell-South argued that any damages awarded under section 768.21(3) to Kevin Meeks should be calculated only for the time until Kevin reached twenty-five, the statutory age of majority.

The trial court granted summary judgment to BellSouth on both grounds. The Fifth District Court of Appeal reversed. The district court first concluded that material fact questions existed regarding whether BellSouth had effectively abandoned the utility pole to FP & L and that, therefore, the trial court had erred in granting summary judgment relieving BellSouth of its duty to maintain the pole in a safe condition. See Meeks v. Florida Power & Light Co., 816 So.2d 1125, 1129-30 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002). Next, the district court held that a minor child's damages for lost parental companionship and for mental pain and suffering based on a parent's death were not limited to the period of minority, but should be calculated based on the joint life expectancies of the minor child and the deceased parent. Id. at 1133. The district court certified the question of the correct measure of damages under section 768.21(3) as a question of great public importance.

DISCUSSION

1. Standard of Review

Statutory interpretation is a question of law subject to de novo review. State v. Glatzmayer, 789 So.2d 297, 301 n. 7 (Fla. 2001). Our purpose in construing a statute is to give effect to the Legislature's intent. State v. J.M., 824 So.2d 105, 109 (Fla.2002). In attempting to discern legislative intent, we first look to the actual language used in the statute. Joshua v. City of Gainesville, 768 So.2d 432, 435 (Fla.2000). If the statutory language is unclear, we apply rules of statutory construction and explore legislative history to determine legislative intent. Id.; Weber v. Dobbins, 616 So.2d 956, 958 (Fla.1993).

2. Controlling Statute

Section 768.21, Florida Statutes (2002), describes the damages recoverable in a wrongful death action, including the following:

(1) Each survivor may recover the value of lost support and services from the date of the decedent's injury to her or his death, with interest, and future loss of support and services from the date of death and reduced to present value.... In computing the duration of future losses, the joint life expectancies of the survivor and the decedent and the period of minority, in the case of healthy minor children, may be considered.

(2) The surviving spouse may also recover for loss of the decedent's companionship and protection and for mental pain and suffering from the date of injury.

(3) Minor children of the decedent, and all children of the decedent if there is no surviving spouse, may also recover for lost parental companionship, instruction, and guidance and for mental pain and suffering from the date of injury....

(4) Each parent of a deceased minor child may also recover for mental pain and suffering from the date of injury.

§ 768.21, Fla. Stat. (2002).

The dispute in this case centers on the measure of damages recoverable by a minor child under section 768.21(3). Section 768.21(3) provides no express guidance regarding the length of time for which a minor child may recover damages. Bell-South argues that the statute should be interpreted to limit a minor child's recovery to the child's period of minority. Bell-South points out that, where a decedent leaves a surviving spouse, only minor children can recover under subsection (3). Therefore, if there is a surviving spouse, BellSouth argues that a child's recovery must be cut off when the child is no longer a minor. We agree with the district court that this is not a proper interpretation of the measure of damages to be awarded a minor child under section 768.21(3).

Contrary to BellSouth's interpretation, Meeks argues that section 768.21(3) does not limit a minor child's damages to the period of minority. Instead, Meeks points out that the statute gives a starting date "from the date of injury" for measuring damages, but provides no ending date for the calculation. Meeks argues that the statute should be interpreted to vest recovery rights in a child who is a minor on the date of injury, and to allow recovery through the child's life. The district court found Meeks' argument persuasive, and we agree.

3. Liberal Construction

As the district court accurately observed, our analysis is guided by the Legislature's general intent that the remedial provisions of the wrongful death statute should be liberally, rather than strictly or narrowly, construed. While the general rule is that statutes in derogation of the common law are strictly construed, the general rule of strict construction does not, in Florida, apply to a remedial statute in derogation of the common law. With respect to the wrongful death statute, the Florida Legislature has stated:

It is the public policy of the state to shift the losses resulting when wrongful death occurs from the survivors of the decedent to the wrongdoer. Sections 768.16-768.26 are remedial and shall be liberally construed.

§ 768.17, Fla. Stat. (2002) (emphasis added). With this rule of liberal construction in mind, we examine the specific provisions of section 768.21(3).

4. Parallel Provisions

To ascertain the meaning of a specific statutory section, the section should be read in the context of its surrounding sections. See Rollins v. Pizzarelli...