Mays v. Stratton

• Decision Date: 17 February 1966
• Docket Number: No. G-387,G-387
• Parties: J. B. MAYS, Appellant, v. Daniel D. STRATTON, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 43

183 So.2d 43

J. B. MAYS, Appellant, v. Daniel D. STRATTON, Appellee.

No. G-387.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

Feb. 17, 1966.

Rehearing Denied March 4, 1966.

William H. Maness, and John S. Duss, Jacksonville, for appellant.

John Paul Howard, Jacksonville, for appellee.

WIGGINTON, Judge.

Defendant has appealed a final judgment based upon a jury verdict awarding plaintiff the sum of $15,000.00 compensatory damages, and $5,000.00 punitive damages, in a tort action alleging interference with plaintiff's favorable employment relationship with his employer .

Appellant first questions the sufficiency of the evidence to establish liability and contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a direct verdict and his posttrial motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. The complaint alleges and the proof establishes that plaintiff voluntarily terminated his employment with defendant and thereafter sought and was successful in obtaining temporary part-time employment with a new employer. Plaintiff's new employer sent defendant a personnel date questionnaire with the request that the information called for therein be furnished by defendant and returned to the employer. Among the questions asked was the reason why plaintiff left defendant's service to which defendant replied, 'Caught in disloyal act.' As a result of this information plaintiff was discharged from his new employment and the institution of this action followed. The complaint alleges and the proof is susceptible of the conclusion apparently reached by the jury that the information furnished by defendant to plaintiff's employer was false, and was given maliciously with the intent to injure plaintiff in his employment.

Appellant contends that the information he furnished to plaintiff's employer was qualifiedly privileged, and the fact that it may have been false or was motivated by malice is wholly immaterial and not sufficient to impose liability on him for the damages suffered by plaintiff as a result thereof. We do not understand this to be the law in this state. Although a statement derogatory of another's character and otherwise libelous may be qualifiedly privileged when made in response to a legal, moral or social obligation and for good motive, such a statement loses its privileged character if it is knowingly false and maliciously made for the purpose of injuring the one adversely affected thereby. ¹

Appellant also assigns as error the ruling of the trial court admitting in evidence over defendant's objection the 1959 Commissioner's Standard Ordinary Mortality Table for a person twenty-six years of age, this being the age of plaintiff at the time of his discharge.

From the evidence it appears without dispute that plaintiff's employment by his new employer was not on a full-time basis, but only as a regular casual laborer to be called if and when his services were needed. The secretary of plaintiff's company in charge of personnel testified that at the time plaintiff was employed, his company was not then nor was it at the present time employing any regular full-time employees at its office in Jacksonville where plaintiff lives, and did not propose to do so in the future. The evidence further establishes that during the period of plaintiff's employment with his new employer he worked as a casual laborer for only one day during the month of May, seven days during the month of June, and six days during the month of July prior to this discharge. Plaintiff's employment was for a total of 109.11 hours for which he was paid at the rate of $3.12 per hour. Plaintiff further testified that if he had not been discharged, and if he had been permitted to work a total of thirty-nine hours each week for the entire period transpiring between the date of his discharge and the date of trial, and had he been paid at the rate of $3.12 an hour for his labor, he would have earned the total sum of $4,574.88. On the basis of this testimony plaintiff offered in evidence the 1959 Commissioner's Standard Ordinary Mortality Tables for a person twenty-six years of age. Plaintiff testified that he was twenty-six years old at the time he was discharged by his new employer. The mortality tables reveal that plaintiff had a life expectancy of forty-four years. It was upon this evidence that the jury awarded plaintiff compensatory damages in the sum of $15,000.00 .

It is our view and we so hold that under the undisputed evidence regarding appellee's employment status with his new employer the mortality tables showing plaintiff to have a life expectancy of forty-four years were wholly irrelevant, incompetent, and immaterial to establish a basis for the damages claimed to have been suffered as the result of his wrongful discharge. Plaintiff was not a permanent employee of the company for which he worked, but occupied the status of a part-time casual employee who was on a standby basis and subject to call...