City of Jacksonville v. Waldrep
| Decision Date | 16 January 1953 |
| Citation | 63 So.2d 768 |
| Parties | CITY OF JACKSONVILLE v. WALDREP et al. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Howell & Howell, Jacksonville, for appellant.
Will O. Murrell and Wm. O. Murrell, Jr., Jacksonville, for appellee.
The final judgment from which this appeal is prosecuted must be reversed upon the authority of the City of Miami Beach v. Quinn, 149 Fla. 326, 5 So.2d 593 and Kitchen v. City of Jacksonville, 158 Fla. 621, 29 So.2d 441.
Moreover, the evidence relied upon by appellee to established the allegation 'The plaintiff, Charles Wayne Waldrep, a minor, came upon said watermeter and was caused to trip and fall and be hurled to the ground and was seriously and permanently injured, * * *' is entirely circumstantial in character. Although the nature of the circumstances relied upon to establish the aforementioned allegation is consistent with the theory which would authorize recovery, it is not as conclusive as is demanded of circumstantial evidence for it is 'reasonably susceptible of two equally reasonable inferences.' Stigletts v. McDonald, 135 Fla. 385, 186 So. 233, 235.
In this jurisdiction in civil cases when circumstantial evidence alone is relied upon to establish the material allegations of a complaint all reasonable inferences deducible from the proven circumstances must be sufficient to overcome all other contrary reasonable inferences. Fireman's Fund Indemnity Co. v. Perry, 149 Fla. 410, 5 So.2d 862. In the last cited case we receded from our pronouncement in the case of Florida East Coast R. Co. v. Acheson, 102 Fla. 15, 135 So. 551, 137 So. 695, 140 So. 467, wherein we inadvertently adopted the rule with reference to circumstantial evidence which obtains in criminal cases.
The present rule in this jurisdiction in civil cases is that which is set forth in the cases of King v. Weis-Patterson Lumber Co., 124 Fla. 272, 168 So. 858; Reed v. American Insurance Co. of Newark, N. J., 128 Fla. 549, 175 So. 224, and Fireman's Fund Indemnity Co. v. Perry, supra. In the case of King v. Weis-Patterson Lumber Co. supra, we stated the rule in the following language [124 Fla. 272, 168 So. 859]:
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Coral Gables Federal Sav. & Loan Ass'n v. City of Opa-Locka
...from the circumstantial evidence before the court. Shepherd v. Finer Foods, Inc., 165 So.2d 750, 753 (Fla.1964); City of Jacksonville v. Waldrep, 63 So.2d 768, 769 (Fla.1953); Girdley Constr. Co. v. Ohmstede, 465 So.2d 594, 595 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985). Substantial competent evidence adduced at ......
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...124 Fla. 272, 168 So. 858, 859. Quoted in Voelker v. Combined Ins. Co. of America, Fla., 73 So.2d 403, 405; see also City of Jacksonville v. Waldrep, Fla., 63 So.2d 768. We do not think that we should seek to discover how that apparently unique doctrine of Florida law should be applied to t......
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...reasonable inferences, so that it is a matter of speculation and conjecture as to which inference is accurate. City of Jacksonville v. Waldrep, 63 So.2d 768 (Fla.1953); Fireman's Fund Indemnity Co. v. Perry, 149 Fla. 410, 5 So.2d 862 (1942); Stigletts v. McDonald, 135 Fla. 385, 186 So. 233 ......
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Sakolsky v. City of Coral Gables, 31842
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