Evanoff v. City of St. Petersburg
| Decision Date | 24 May 1966 |
| Docket Number | No. 5540.,5540. |
| Citation | 186 So.2d 68 |
| Parties | Nicholas C. EVANOFF, Appellant, v. CITY OF ST. PETERSBURG, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Masterson, Lloyd & Rogers, St. Petersburg, for appellant.
Carl R. Linn and Harry I. Young, St. Petersburg, for appellee.
On the evening of July 11, 1962, acting upon a report of an attempt to rob a Madeira Beach Bank, an officer in a police cruiser of the City of Madeira Beach tried to stop and question the driver of a Chevrolet automobile in Madeira Beach who was suspected of having participated in the attempted robbery. The suspect refused to submit and proceeded to drive away at a high rate of speed. The Madeira Beach police car thereupon took up the chase, pursuing the Chevrolet at a very high rate of speed through Madeira Beach, through the adjoining community of Treasure Island, and on into the Metropolitan City of St. Petersburg. Up to this point, the two cars were estimated as going at a rate of speed from 70 to 80 miles per hour on up to 100 miles an hour as they were gathering steam on St. Petersburg streets. Several shots were fired at the pursued vehicle during the Gulf Beach chase, and the Madeira Beach police established communication with the St. Petersburg police department, and several St. Petersburg police cruisers joined the pursuit as it reached that City. A police road block was attempted to be set up near the boundary entrance to the City proper, but the pursued vehicle got through before the road block was completed, and the several cars proceeded in their unmerry flight easterly toward the center of the City on Central Avenue, one of the main traffic arteries of the City. Some more shots were fired from the pursuing vehicles, with their red lights flashing and sirens sounding.
During the chase on Central Avenue a minor collision occurred which incapacitated the Madeira Beach cruiser, whereupon the St. Petersburg police cars continued the vehicular chase. At 31st Street, the pursued car turned north from Central. The police cars followed, making the turn, but somewhere during the ensuing five blocks from Central to 5th Avenue North, visual contact was apparently lost between the police cars and the suspect's car. Three St. Petersburg cruisers turned east at 5th Avenue and 31st Street, while a fourth police cruiser continued north on 31st Street, searching for the fleeing car, approximately four blocks to 31st and 9th Avenue North, at which intersection the cruiser came upon the aftermath of a serious automobile collision. The pursued suspect's car, driven, as it turned out, by one George Lee Mims, had struck the right side of a vehicle being driven by Nicholas C. Evanoff, inflicting upon him serious personal injuries. Mims was arrested, and later tried and convicted of attempted bank robbery.
Evanoff filed separate suits against the City of St. Petersburg and the City of Madeira Beach. Later, upon the issues made up in the law suits, depositions taken, etc., the trial Court, after hearing, entered summary judgments in favor of the defendant cities in both suits. The appeals have been prosecuted separately and the instant case involves the appeal of Evanoff in his suit against the City of St. Petersburg.
Evanoff contends...
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