Lee v. Dade County

• Decision Date: 22 February 1977
• Docket Number: No. 75--689,75--689
• Parties: Tillie W. LEE, Appellant, v. DADE COUNTY, a political subdivision of the State of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 846

342 So.2d 846

Tillie W. LEE, Appellant, v. DADE COUNTY, a political subdivision of the State of Florida, Appellee.

No. 75--689.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

Feb. 22, 1977.

Frates, Floyd, Pearson, Stewart, Proenza & Richman, Miami, for appellant.

John E. Finney, Sam Daniels, Miami, for appellee.

Before HENDRY, C.J., and NATHAN, J., and CHARLES CARROLL (Ret.), Associate Judge.

PER CURIAM.

Appellant appeals from a final judgment entered pursuant to an adverse jury verdict in a negligence, personal injury action.

Plaintiff-appellant, an eighty-year old woman, suffered a broken hip while alighting from a bus operated by defendant-appellee. It was appellant's contention at trial, that the accident was proximately caused by appellee's driver parking his bus in such a position that the exit door directly overlooked a recessed sewage drain. Appellant argued that, in so parking his vehicle in the above manner, the driver created a negligent condition, i.e., an unusually high (20 inches) final step, causing appellant to lose her balance upon disembarkment and fall, seriously injuring herself.

Appellee's driver admitted that if he had parked the bus in such a manner, then he would have been in violation of appellee's own safety rules, however, he denied that the drain was directly under the exit door. His testimony appeared to be corroborated by appellee's accident investigator, whose photographs of the scene were introduced into evidence. (Curiously, no photograph was taken from a position directly head-on, so as to dispositively resolve the above issue.)

Appellant, on the other hand, introduced testimony of two eye-witnesses to the accident--the exiting passenger directly preceding appellant and the exiting passenger directly in back of appellant. Both testified that the drain was directly below the exit door. Another witness, a rescue squad worker, also testified to that same effect. It was also brought out by appellant that only a few feet further from where the bus had stopped was a safe disembarking area where a bus bench had been installed.

At the close of the trial, the jury retired, deliberated, and found for the defendant on the issue of negligence. A final judgment was rendered in appellee's favor and this appeal follows.

Appellant contends that the jury verdict for appellee was against the manifest weight of the evidence requiring reversal. In addition, appellant cites as error the trial judge's failure to direct a verdict for appellant on the issue of liability and his failure to set aside the jury verdict.

Generally speaking, although the evidence may be susceptible to...