Meister v. Fisher, 64223
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Florida |
| Citation | 462 So.2d 1071 |
| Docket Number | No. 64223,64223 |
| Parties | Mildred MEISTER, et al., Petitioners, v. Paul FISHER, et al., Respondents. |
| Decision Date | 20 December 1984 |
Page 1071
v.
Paul FISHER, et al., Respondents.
Rehearing Denied Feb. 26, 1985.
Sams, Gerstein & Ward, P.A., and Sam Daniels and Mark Hicks of Daniels & Hicks, Miami, for petitioners.
Gordon James, III and Joseph S. Kashi of Conrad, Scherer & James, Fort Lauderdale, for respondents.
Larry Klein, West Palm Beach, amicus curiae for The Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers.
Robert D. Peltz and Rossman & Baumberger, P.A., Miami, amicus curiae for Mary Kurtz.
ADKINS, Justice.
The Fourth District Court of Appeal certified the following question to this Court as one of great public importance:
Should golf carts be included within the dangerous instrumentality doctrine enunciated in Southern Cotton Oil Co. v. Anderson, 80 Fla. 441, 86 So. 629 (1920), and as expanded in Reid v. Associated Engineering of Osceola, Inc., 295 So.2d 125 (Fla. 4th DCA 1974)?
Meister v. Fisher, 435 So.2d 981, 983 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983). We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. We answer the certified question in the affirmative and hold that a golf cart that is being operated on a golf course is included within the dangerous instrumentality doctrine.
Page 1072
The facts of the case are not disputed. Petitioners Mildred Meister and her husband and respondent Paul Fisher were playing golf at the Emerald Hills Country Club. Petitioners and respondent, Paul Fisher, had each rented golf carts from the country club. When they approached the seventh hole, Mr. Meister turned their cart toward the restroom area to get a drink of water. The Fishers were following the Meisters. When Mrs. Meister got out of the golf cart, after it stopped moving, the cart driven by Fisher struck the Meisters' cart in the rear. As a result, Mrs. Meister suffered personal injuries. She and her husband sued Fisher, Emerald Hills Country Club, and their respective insurers. The Meisters based their sole theory of liability against Emerald Hills on the dangerous-instrumentality doctrine. The trial court found, as a matter of law, that a golf cart is not a dangerous instrumentality. The district court affirmed, finding insufficient policy reasons in the record to apply the theory to golf carts.
This Court applied the dangerous-instrumentality doctrine to automobiles in Anderson v. Southern Cotton Oil Co., 73 Fla. 432, 74 So. 975 (1917).
In that case we held that:
This form of vicarious liability is not based on respondent superior or an agency conception, but on the practical fact that the owner of an instrumentality which [has] the capability of causing death or destruction should in justice answer for misuse of this instrumentality by anyone operating it with his knowledge and consent. Southern Cotton Oil v. Anderson, 80 Fla. 441, 86 So. 629 (1920).
Jordan v. Kelson, 299 So.2d 109, 111 (Fla. 4th DCA 1974).
There is no question that vehicles other than automobiles can qualify as such instrumentalities, and indeed, the doctrine in Florida has not been so limited. In later years it has been applied to trucks, buses, tow-motors and other motorized vehicles. See, e.g., Eagle Stevedores, Inc. v. Thomas, 145 So.2d 551 (Fla. 3d DCA 1962). And although we have found no cases from other jurisdictions dealing with the precise issue involved here, those states which have enacted legislation in this area have not limited liability to the owner of an automobile. Instead, all of the statutes speak in terms of the...
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Adams v. Lindsey, 86-8352-CIV.
...a seizure, was unreasonable. 12 Florida had long ago declared motor vehicles to be "dangerous instrumentalities," see Meister v. Fisher, 462 So.2d 1071, 1071 (Fla.1984); Bellere v. Madsen, 114 So.2d 619, 621 (Fla.1959); Nelson v. Ziegler, 89 So.2d 780, 783 (Fla.1956), and, in any event, it ......
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Newton v. Caterpillar Fin. Servs. Corp., SC17-67
...pieces of machinery as dangerous instrumentalities: Rippy v. Shepard , 80 So.3d 305 (Fla. 2012) (farm tractor); Meister v. Fisher , 462 So.2d 1071 (Fla. 1984) (golf cart); Sherrill v. Corbett Cranes Services , 656 So.2d 181 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995) (crane); Lewis v. Sims Crane Service Inc. , 498......
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John Morrell & Co. v. Royal Caribbean Cruises, Case No. 06-60786-CIV.
...anyone operating it with his knowledge and consent." Saullo v. Douglas, 957 So.2d 80, 86 (Fla. 5th DCA 2007) (quoting Meister v. Fisher, 462 So.2d 1071, 1072 (Fla.1984)). As a result, the Florida Supreme Court has stated that, "in determining who is vicariously liability under the dangerous......
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Rippy v. Shepard, SC09–1677.
...a farm tractor is a dangerous instrumentality. The First District's opinion conflicts with our precedent set forth in Meister v. Fisher, 462 So.2d 1071, 1072 (Fla.1984), where we held that the dangerous instrumentality doctrine can apply to motor vehicles other than automobiles that have th......
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Negligence cases
...tractor of sufficient size, character, weight, and broad operational use to be considered dangerous instrumentality); Meister v. Fisher , 462 So.2d 1071 (Fla. 1984) (golf carts). The dangerous instrumentality doctrine seeks to provide greater financial responsibility to pay for the carnage ......