Langmead v. Admiral Cruises, Inc.

• Decision Date: 14 May 1997
• Docket Number: No. 95-970,95-970
• Citation: 696 So.2d 1189
• Parties: 22 Fla. L. Weekly D1199 Laura LANGMEAD, Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. ADMIRAL CRUISES, INC., Appellee/Cross-Appellant.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 1189

696 So.2d 1189

22 Fla. L. Weekly D1199

Laura LANGMEAD, Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. ADMIRAL CRUISES, INC., Appellee/Cross-Appellant.

No. 95-970.

District Court of Appeal of Florida Third District.

May 14, 1997.

Rehearing Denied Aug. 6, 1997.

Charles R. Lipcon; Cooper & Wolfe, and Sharon L. Wolfe, Miami, for appellant.

Canning Murray & Peltz; Hicks, Anderson & Blum, and Mark Hicks, Miami, for appellee.

Before JORGENSON, FLETCHER and SORONDO, JJ.

SORONDO, Judge.

Laura Langmead (Langmead), appeals to this Court a lower court order granting Admiral Cruises, Inc.'s (Admiral) Motion for New Trial. Admiral cross-appeals the same order, which denies Admiral's Renewed Motion for Directed Verdict, Motion for Judgment in accordance with Motion for Directed Verdict, Motion for Mistrial, and Motion for Remittitur.

Langmead was an entertainer employed by Admiral to perform on its cruise ships. While exercising in the ship's gym, an elastic band she was using snapped and hit her in the eye. Langmead was treated by Dr. Joseph "Yossi" Sidikaro, a prominent Los Angeles ophthalmologist, from October 31, 1987 through May 19, 1989. In 1988, Langmead hired a lawyer to sue Admiral. Her lawyer referred her to ophthalmologist Dr. Harry Hamburger. Dr. Hamburger's charges of $160 and $75 for these two visits are Langmead's only unpaid medical bills.

In the first trial, Langmead sued Admiral for Jones Act negligence, unseaworthiness, maintenance and cure, and punitive damages. The court directed a verdict for Admiral on the maintenance and cure and punitive damages claims. The negligence and unseaworthiness claims went to the jury, which found against Langmead on the unseaworthiness claim, but for her on the negligence claim. The jury awarded $50,000, which was reduced to $5,000 by a 90% comparative negligence finding. The jury was instructed to award sums for Langmead's past and future medical expenses, including those for Drs. Hamburger and Sidikaro.

Langmead appealed. This Court affirmed the jury's verdict, holding the comparative negligence issue was properly submitted to the jury, but reversed and remanded the directed verdict for Admiral on the maintenance and cure claim, holding that the issue of when Langmead reached "maximum medical cure" should have been submitted to the jury. Langmead v. Admiral Cruises, Inc., 610 So.2d 565 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992).

The second trial concerned: 1) whether Langmead's two visits to Dr. Hamburger constituted "cure" that Admiral should have paid for; 2) whether Langmead was owed two weeks' lost wages due to her injury; and 3) whether Admiral's failure to pay was arbitrary and capricious, warranting punitive damages. The trial court directed a verdict against Langmead on her maintenance claim.

While Langmead claimed that she was never paid $730 in wages she lost for the two-week period she was out of work ($365 per week), Admiral claimed that she was fully paid for both weeks. The jury awarded Langmead $160 and $75 for Dr. Hamburger's bills, $730 for lost wages, and $3.5 million for punitive damages.

The trial court granted Admiral's motion for a new trial. In its order, the court determined that the jury verdict was contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence and was influenced by prejudicial matters, finding: 1) Langmead improperly presented immaterial, prejudicial and speculative evidence in questioning Dr. Hamburger about her deteriorating permanent eye condition, caused by Admiral's failure to provide treatment he recommended after seeing Langmead; 2) Langmead improperly presented prejudicial closing argument that "we are here over an important principle," sending a message and suggesting that Admiral may be abusing other people; 3) Langmead improperly presented prejudicial and inflammatory closing argument about how much money and time Admiral spent defending and litigating this case, while refusing to pay a $235 bill; and 4) the amount of punitive damages was contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence, was so grossly excessive as to shock the judicial conscience, was a product of passion and prejudice, and bore no relationship to Langmead's harm and Admiral's level of culpability.

We reverse the order under review in as much as it grants Admiral a new trial on the issue of liability and actual damages, and violates the law of the case. Langmead, 610 So.2d at 567. The record fully supports the jury's verdict, and we find that the trial court abused its discretion in granting Admiral a new trial.

The more difficult issue presented to this court is the trial court's ruling granting Admiral a new trial on the issue of punitive damages. In reviewing this part of the trial judge's order we begin with an analysis of the applicable law in the area of punitive damages.

Admiral argues that the punitive damage award in this case is so excessive that it violates Federal and Florida Constitutional notions of substantive due process. ¹ It relies on the United States Supreme Court's decision in BMW of North America v. Gore, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 1589, 134 L.Ed.2d 809 (1996). In BMW, the plaintiff purchased what he thought to be a brand new BMW automobile for $40,750.88 from an authorized dealer in Alabama. After driving the car for several months the plaintiff took the car to an independent detailer to make the car look better. The detailer advised plaintiff that the car had, in fact, been repainted. Plaintiff then sued BMW of North America alleging, inter alia, that the failure to disclose the repainting of the car constituted suppression of a material fact. He sought compensatory and punitive damages in the amount of $500,000.

At trial, BMW acknowledged that in 1983 it had adopted a policy whereby damaged cars would be sold as new if the damage did not exceed 3 percent of the suggested retail price. The damage to plaintiff's car, the cost of repainting it, was only $601.37, or 1.5 percent of its suggested retail value. BMW did not advise the dealer about the repainting done on the car.

The plaintiff called an expert witness to testify that his actual damages were $4,000, approximately 10 percent of the price he paid for the vehicle. In support of his request for punitive damages the plaintiff presented evidence that BMW had sold close to 1000 refinished cars as new, nationwide. He argued to the jury that using his $4,000 figure as the real damage number, a punitive damage award of $4 million would be appropriate.

BMW responded that the value of the plaintiff's car was not, in fact, decreased in any way and that it had no obligation to disclose repairs of minor damage to new cars. Additionally, it argued that its activities in jurisdictions other than Alabama were completely irrelevant to the litigation.

The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff awarding him $4,000 in compensatory damages and $4 million in punitive damages. On appeal, the Alabama Supreme Court ordered a remittitur reducing the punitive damage award to $2 million. The United States Supreme court granted certiorari "because ... a review of this case would help illuminate 'the character of the standard that will identify constitutionally excessive awards' of punitive damages." BMW, --- U.S. at ----, 116 S.Ct. at 1595.

The Court analyzed the excessiveness of the punitive damage award by addressing three criteria: 1) the degree of reprehensibility of the defendant's conduct; 2) the ratio of the punitive damage award to the actual harm inflicted on the plaintiff; and 3) the comparison between the punitive damage award and the civil or criminal penalties that could be imposed for comparable misconduct.

As concerns the first "indicium of reasonableness," the Court found that BMW's conduct "was not sufficiently reprehensible to warrant imposition of a $2 million exemplary damages award." Id. at ----, 116 S.Ct. at 1601. As to the second, the Court observed that the punitive damage awarded to the plaintiff was 500 times the amount of the actual harm as determined by the jury. In this regard, the Court commented: "When the ratio is a breathtaking 500 to 1, however, the award must surely 'raise a suspicious judicial eyebrow.' " Id. at ----, 116 S.Ct. at 1602. Finally, as to the third, the Court found that the award in question was "substantially greater than the statutory fines available in Alabama and elsewhere for similar malfeasance." Id. at ----, 116 S.Ct. at 1603.

The Court's analysis is instructive and, in considering Admiral's due process argument, we now review the facts of the present case under the same criteria.

I. The degree of reprehensibility of the defendant's conduct.

In order to gauge the reprehensibility, if any, of the defendant's conduct we have conducted a detailed review of the treatment Admiral afforded to Langmead throughout the relevant time.

Immediately after her injury Langmead was examined by the ship's physician, Dr. Sullivan. In order to insure the best possible treatment, Dr. Sullivan called Dr. Sidikaro in Los Angeles, California for advice on how to treat Langmead's injury. Dr. Sidikaro told Dr. Sullivan to have Langmead lie flat on her back with a patch on her eye. Langmead was injured at sea on a Thursday. The ship got back to Los Angeles on Saturday. Immediately upon docking in Los Angeles, Admiral transported her to see Dr. Sidikaro.

Dr. Sidikaro is a board certified ophthalmologist. He is a retina specialist and surgeon. At the time Langmead saw him, he was a full-time associate professor of ophthalmology at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) at the Jules Stein Eye Institute. ² Presently, Dr. Sidikaro remains on the faculty of UCLA and conducts a private practice from his office on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California.

For the three days following her injury, Langmead did not work but was paid by Admiral. After leaving the ship, she had to remain ashore for one week so that Dr. Sidikaro could see her and follow-up. Admiral paid for her...