Hernandez v. Feliciano

Decision Date23 December 2004
Docket NumberNo. 5D03-3679.,5D03-3679.
Citation890 So.2d 401
PartiesIngrid HERNANDEZ, Appellant, v. Mildred FELICIANO, Appellee.
CourtFlorida District Court of Appeals

Patrick J. Formella of the Law Offices of Stephen F. Lanosa, and Elizabeth C. Wheeler of Elizabeth C. Wheeler, P.A., Orlando, for Appellant.

Gregory C. Maaswinkel of Jeffrey M. Byrd, P.A., Orlando, for Appellee.

PETERSON, J.

Ingrid Hernandez appeals the trial court's order granting a new trial after a jury verdict rejected Mildred Feliciano's damage claim for personal injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident.

Hernandez's vehicle was struck from behind by Feliciano's vehicle as Hernandez was making a right turn into a shopping center entranceway off Orange Blossom Trail in Orange County on a rainy afternoon. Feliciano claimed that she was unable to avoid colliding with Hernandez's vehicle because Hernandez turned her vehicle abruptly into her path without signaling in order to gain entrance to the shopping center. There were no third party witnesses to the accident. The trial court's decision to grant a new trial was based upon the weight of the evidence, its rejection of a stipulation as to the time of the accident and its post-trial opinion that it erroneously refused to give Feliciano's requested jury instruction regarding the inadmissibility of a traffic citation following an accident.

WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE

A trial court has broad discretionary authority to grant a new trial on the grounds that the verdict is contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence. See, e.g., Brown v. Estate of Stuckey, 749 So.2d 490 (Fla.1999). The Florida Supreme Court explained:

The trial judge's discretionary power to grant a new trial on the grounds that the verdict is contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence is the only check against a jury that has reached an unjust decision on the facts. This discretionary power emanates from the common law principle that it is the duty of the trial judge to prevent what he or she considers to be a miscarriage of justice. The role of the trial judge is not to substitute his or her own verdict for that of the jury, but to avoid what, in the judge's trained and experienced judgment, is an unjust verdict.

Id. at 495 (citations omitted). The trial court should always grant a new trial if the jury has been deceived as to the force and credibility of the evidence or has been influenced by considerations outside the record. Cloud v. Fallis, 110 So.2d 669, 673 (Fla.1959). The Florida Supreme Court also explained an appellate court's standard of review when considering an appeal of a trial court's order granting a new trial:

When reviewing the order granting a new trial, an appellate court must recognize the broad discretionary authority of the trial judge and apply the reasonableness test to determine whether the trial judge committed an abuse of discretion. If an appellate court determines that reasonable persons could differ as to the propriety of the action taken by the trial court, there can be no finding of an abuse of discretion. The fact that there may be substantial, competent evidence in the record to support the jury verdict does not necessarily demonstrate that the trial judge abused his or her discretion.

Brown, 749 So.2d at 497-98. In the instant case, the trial court did not find that the jury was improperly influenced by considerations outside the record. Instead, it apparently found that the jury had been deceived as to the force and credibility of the evidence by ruling that the manifest weight of the evidence shows that Hernandez was negligent. But the trial court's order does not address the conflicting nature of the evidence presented at trial. Absent from the trial court's findings is Hernandez's adamant denial that she cut-off Feliciano, that Hernandez testified to being squarely within the far right lane of Orange Blossom Trail for what she estimated to be 100 paces or at least one minute prior to the collision impact from behind. Hernandez further testified that she was already turning into the driveway of the shopping center when Feliciano rear-ended her. It is undisputed that the front right of Feliciano's car impacted with the rear left bumper of Hernandez's car and that Hernandez's car was pushed all the way into the driveway by the impact.1

This evidence could have indicated to the jury that Feliciano could have avoided the accident had she been paying proper attention. Additionally, Hernandez had to overcome the presumption that a rear driver in a rear-end collision is negligent. E.g., Clampitt v. D.J. Spencer Sales, 786 So.2d 570 (Fla.2001). The trial court abused its discretion in simply disagreeing with the finding of the jury on the issue of liability. E.g., Snider v. Bancroft Inv. Corp., 61 So.2d 184 (Fla.1952) (recognizing that mere disagreement with the verdict of a jury is not sufficient warrant for a new trial); see also Wackenhut Corporation v. Canty, 359 So.2d 430 (Fla.1978) (recognizing that the province of the jury should not be invaded by a judge because he raises a judicial eyebrow at its verdict).

Although the trial court expressly found Hernandez to be "very honest," it ultimately found Feliciano to be more credible on the issue of liability. Liability, however, is the primary issue the jury was charged with determining and the trial court abused its discretion in reaching a decision on that essential issue based upon what, at most, was conflicting evidence. In doing so, the court merely substituted its own verdict for that of the jury's. Review of the record does not support the trial court's order because the evidence was not manifestly weighted to either side. E.g., Hillsboro Plantation, Inc. v. Plunkett, 59 So.2d 872 (Fla.1952) (holding that trial court abused its discretion in granting new trial because in doing so he was weighing the sufficiency of the evidence which was a jury function); Midtown Enterprises, Inc. v. Local Contractors, Inc., 785 So.2d 578 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001) (holding in action for breach of contract that the trial court abused its discretion by granting contractor a new trial after the jury returned a verdict in favor of subcontractor where trial court's reasons for granting a new trial were only based upon the weight of the evidence and the credibility of witnesses); Jones v. Stevenson, 598 So.2d 219 (Fla. 5th DCA 1992) (holding the trial court abused its discretion by improperly weighing the evidence, where after the jury found that defendants were not liable in a wrongful death claim, the trial court concluded that the verdict was against the manifest weight of the evidence, although it expressly found that the witnesses for both sides were credible, because the evidence was equally compelling in favor of both sides, and the negligence issue was a factual dispute properly resolved by the jury); Phar-Mor of Florida, Inc. v. Steuernagel, 550 So.2d 548 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989) (holding that in a negligence action arising out of a customer's slip-and-fall in a retail store, the trial court abused its discretion in granting a new trial to the plaintiffs, where the trial court had improperly acted as an "additional juror" in determining whether the defendants had done anything to warn its customers of a known hazard, and where the trial court had determined the issue on the basis of conflicting evidence). We conclude that the sole effect of the trial court's grant of a new trial on the issue of liability is to allow another jury to try the case as a result of dissatisfaction with the decision of the first jury.

THE STIPULATION

While a trial court has broad discretion when deciding whether to override a jury's verdict on the ground that it is contrary to the manifest weight of evidence, ordering a new trial on the basis of a legal issue significantly reduces the discretionary authority that a trial court enjoys. E.g., Tri-Pak Machinery, Inc. v. Hartshorn, 644 So.2d 118 (Fla. 2d DCA 1994) (recognizing that while trial court has broad discretion to override jury's verdict and grant new trial on ground that verdict is contrary to manifest weight of evidence, that discretion is significantly reduced when motion concerns purely legal question; this is so because error involving purely legal question can be as accurately reviewed from appellate record as from trial judge's bench). Additionally, if an issue is not preserved prior to the post-trial hearing, the trial court's power to grant a new trial is further restricted to those exceptional errors that are fundamental. Id. at 120. Fundamental error is error which deprives a party of a fair trial — error which an objection and a curative instruction could not have prevented, and which gravely impairs a calm and dispassionate...

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  • Stephenson v. State
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • 21 Abril 2010
    ...a curative instruction, and thus reversibly impaired the dispassionate consideration of evidence by the jury. See Hernandez v. Feliciano, 890 So.2d 401 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004); DeFreitas v. State, 701 So.2d 593 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997); Anderson v. Watson, 559 So.2d 654 (Fla. 2d DCA The defense and ......
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