Chiles v. Beaudoin

• Decision Date: 09 May 1980
• Docket Number: No. 79-1498,79-1498
• Parties: June L. CHILES, Richard Robert Hoffenkamp and Florida Lime and Materials Corporation, Appellants, v. Paul BEAUDOIN, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 175

384 So.2d 175

June L. CHILES, Richard Robert Hoffenkamp and Florida Lime and Materials Corporation, Appellants, v. Paul BEAUDOIN, Appellee.

No. 79-1498.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

May 9, 1980.

Rehearing Denied June 5, 1980.

Raymond T. Elligett, Jr. and Charles P. Schropp of Shackleford, Farrior, Stallings & Evans, P. A., Tampa, for appellants.

Michael J. Meksraitis, Peter M. DeManio, Sarasota, and Edna L. Caruso, West Palm Beach, for appellee.

GRIMES, Chief Judge.

The defendants in a vehicular negligence action appeal from an adverse final judgment based upon a jury verdict. They challenge the court's award of a partial summary judgment on the issue of liability and an evidentiary ruling with respect to damages made during the trial.

In his deposition filed prior to the motion for summary judgment, defendant Hoffenkamp testified that he had stopped for a traffic light, that a van driven by the plaintiff, Mr. Beaudoin, was in front of him and that there was a car in front of the van. When the light changed, the three vehicles moved through the intersection. Shortly thereafter the car in front of the plaintiff's van began to turn into a plaza. Mr. Hoffenkamp stated that he took his eyes off the road for a second and when he looked up he saw the taillights on the van. He then hit his brakes and turned his wheels so as to miss the van, but he was unsuccessful in this maneuver. The testimony which Mr. Beaudoin gave in his deposition was essentially similar. He stated that the woman in the car in front of him suddenly stopped and turned left without giving any signal. This required him to make a sudden stop, and he was immediately struck from behind by Hoffenkamp's truck.

When a defendant runs into the rear of a plaintiff's automobile which is lawfully stopped in traffic, there is a presumption of negligence on the part of the defendant upon which the plaintiff is entitled to recover in the absence of an explanation by the defendant. Once the plaintiff establishes that he was rear-ended while lawfully stopped, the burden of going forward with the evidence shifts to the defendant. Gulle v. Boggs, 174 So.2d 26 (Fla.1965); McNulty v. Cusack, 104 So.2d 785 (Fla. 2d DCA 1958); Brethauer v. Brassell, 347 So.2d 656 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977). However, where the defendant shows that he was proceeding in a line of traffic and that the sudden stop of the vehicle ahead of him precipitated his failure to avoid the collision, the presumption is dissipated and the court should submit the case to the jury under ordinary rules of negligence. Keyser v. Brunette, 188 So.2d 840 (Fla. 2d DCA 1966); Hott v. Funk, 165 So.2d 792 (Fla. 2d DCA 1964); Jeskey v. Yellow Cab Co., 136 So.2d 376 (Fla. 3d DCA 1962).

In order to avoid the quick stop exception to the presumption of rear-end negligence, the plaintiff points to the following portion of Mr. Hoffenkamp's deposition testimony:

Q How did this collision occur?

A Well, I stopped at the stop light, and there was the van was in front of me, and there was a car in front of him.

Q Uh-huh.

A When we took off, we got through the intersection, and the car in front of the van was going to turn into a plaza.

Well, I went through the intersection to make sure there was no one turning, and for just a split second, I had took my eyes off the road, and when I looked up, I seen the taillights on that van, and I hit my brakes and turned the wheel to miss him, and I caught his corner, just nicked his corner of the van.

The plaintiff argues that this demonstrates that Mr. Hoffenkamp knew the first car was going to turn into the plaza before the plaintiff stopped and thus he should have been prepared for the stop. While the quoted testimony, by itself, may be susceptible of such a conclusion, when it is read together with the balance of the deposition the more logical interpretation is that Mr. Hoffenkamp was merely giving a narrative of what, in fact, had happened as opposed to what he knew was going to happen. Mr. Beaudoin's deposition testimony that the car in front of him stopped suddenly without any warning lends support to this version. In any event, the conflicting interpretations which could be placed on Mr. Hoffenkamp's testimony were sufficient to preclude the entry of summary judgment. See Rauschbaum v. Goldstein, 204 So.2d 897 (Fla. 4th DCA 1967).

The major issue on damages in this case was whether the plaintiff suffered a ruptured thoracic disc as a result of the accident. The plaintiff offered the testimony of two doctors. Dr. Horace Norrell who had first seen the plaintiff about five months after the accident was asked a hypothetical question concerning whether the plaintiff's ruptured disc was related to the accident. In the hypothetical, counsel requested that Dr. Norrell assume that the plaintiff felt back pain immediately after the accident. The defendant objected to the hypothetical question because of the lack of evidence that the plaintiff had suffered back pain at the time of the accident. The court overruled the objection upon the promise of plaintiff's counsel that such evidence would be forthcoming, and Dr. Norrell rendered an opinion that the ruptured disc was related to the accident.

The problem arises from the...