City of Coral Gables v. Patty
Decision Date | 17 March 1964 |
Docket Number | No. 63-483,63-483 |
Citation | 162 So.2d 530 |
Parties | CITY OF CORAL GABLES and City of Coral Gables d/b/a Coral Gables Municipal System, Appellants, v. Linda PATTY, a minor, by and through her father and next friend, Carl Patty and Carl Patty, individually, Appellees. |
Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Smith & Poole, Kenneth L. Ryskamp, Miami, for appellants.
Green & Hastings and Irma Robbins Feder, Miami, for appellees.
Before HORTON, TILLMAN PEARSON and HENDRY, JJ.
The appellants, defendants below, were sued by the appellees, Linda Patty and her father Carl Patty, and charged with negligent operation of their bus.
The case was tried before a jury which returned a verdict for the plaintiffs-appellees in the amount of $20,000. The appellants' motion for directed verdict was denied as were their motions for new trial, and judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Thereupon, final judgment was entered for the plaintiffs-appellees.
Appellants contend that the trial court committed reversible error in failing to grant their motions. It is argued that the directed verdict should have been granted in favor of the defendants on the authority of Jacksonville Coach Company v. Rivers, Fla.1962, 144 So.2d 308; and Blackman v. Miami Transit Company, Fla.App.1960, 125 So.2d 128, 92 A.L.R.2d 1387. 1 In order to determine the applicability of these cases, it will be necessary to look to the facts involved in the case here on appeal.
Appellee, Linda Patty, a 15 year old girl, boarded appellants' school bus at Ponce de Leon Jr. High School and paid a 20cents (same as adult) fare for the trip from the school to the bus terminal in Coral Gables. The bus was crowded with children standing in the aisle from the rear of the bus to the front. Appellee was one of the standees, and was holding, with her left hand, a bar handle on the back of the seat. The bus was proceeding when it suddenly 'jerked violently' and then proceeded. The following is some of the testimony describing the manner in which the bus slowed or stopped.
(R-64)
(R-56)
Appellee, Linda Patty, suffered physical injuries as a result of this fall, when she struck her head on a metal bar on the back of a seat. The record indicates that from where appellee was standing neither she nor those friends who witnessed her falling could see the front of the bus due to the crowded condition of the bus. They could not testify to the reason for this sudden action on the part of the bus driver, and appellant offered no explanation to the jury, claiming that they did not know in which bus the incident occurred.
It is our opinion that the lower court properly denied appellants' motion for a directed verdict. The rule of law applicable to this situation was enunciated by the Florida Supreme Court in the Rivers case, supra, when it quoted approvingly from Judge Carroll's opinion in Blackman:
This case is clearly one where the stop was of...
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Nicholson v. City of St. Petersburg
...on the part of the bus driver which would warrant the cause being submitted to a jury. * * *' And finally, in City of Coral Gables v. Patty, et al., Fla.App., 162 So.2d 530, decided by the Third District under date of March 17, 1964, the court reviewed several of the foregoing Florida cases......
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Bagley v. Dade County, 76-1004
...sustained their cause of action. See, e. g., Wright v. City of St. Petersburg, 291 So.2d 639 (Fla. 2d DCA 1974); City of Coral Gables v. Patty, 162 So.2d 530 (Fla. 3d DCA 1964); and Blackman v. Miami Transit Co., 125 So.2d 128 (Fla. 3d DCA Therefore, the final judgment appealed is reversed ......
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Resillez v. Metropolitan Dade County, 94-2441
...Co., 125 So.2d 128 (Fla. 3d DCA 1960). Compare Jacobs v. Harlem Cab, Inc., 183 So.2d 552 (Fla. 3d DCA 1966); City of Coral Gables v. Patty, 162 So.2d 530 (Fla. 3d DCA 1964), cert. denied, 168 So.2d 145 ...
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Transit Cas. Co. v. Puchalski, NN-45
...Co. v. Rivers, 144 So.2d 308 (Fla.1962); Blackman v. Miami Transit Co., 125 So.2d 128 (Fla. 3d DCA 1960) and City of Coral Gables v. Patty, 162 So.2d 530 (Fla. 3d DCA 1964). Our decision here does not depart from the existing rule that the plaintiff must establish a prima facie case. Plaint......