Metropolitan Dade County v. Green

• Decision Date: 09 April 1992
• Docket Number: No. 78091,78091
• Citation: 596 So.2d 458
• Parties: 17 Fla. L. Weekly S229 METROPOLITAN DADE COUNTY, Petitioner, v. Gregory GREEN, et al., Respondents.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 458

596 So.2d 458

17 Fla. L. Weekly S229

METROPOLITAN DADE COUNTY, Petitioner, v. Gregory GREEN, et al., Respondents.

No. 78091.

Supreme Court of Florida.

April 9, 1992.

Robert A. Ginsburg, Dade County Atty., and James J. Allen, Asst. County Atty., Miami, for petitioner.

Milton Kelner, Kelner and Kelner, Miami, for respondents.

PER CURIAM.

We have for review Metropolitan Dade County v. Green, 579 So.2d 277 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991), which certified the following question of great public importance:

Does appellate jurisdiction under Rule 9.130(a)(3)(C)(iv) authorize review of a jury verdict determining liability in favor of a claimant seeking affirmative relief?

Id. at 277-78. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, Sec. 3(b)(4), Fla. Const.

The litigation below arose from a traffic accident involving a church bus that contained some twenty passengers, one of whom was killed. Various claims were consolidated into a single trial, and the trial court ordered bifurcated proceedings. The first proceeding would be a trial on liability alone, and the second would deal with damages. At the close of the first proceeding, the jury found defendants liable. Various motions to defeat the verdict were denied, and defendants appealed. The district court dismissed the appeal on grounds that the issues were not appealable until the question of damages was resolved. Green, 579 So.2d at 277.

Under the rules of procedure, interlocutory appeals can be taken from orders that "determine ... the issue of liability in favor of a party seeking affirmative relief." Fla.R.App.P. 9.130(a)(3)(C)(iv) (emphasis added). We thus need only ask whether an issue of liability was determined here. The general rule of construction is that words not expressly defined are given their plain and ordinary meaning. Tatzel v. State, 356 So.2d 787 (Fla.1978). As previously recognized, the term "liability" means an obligation, whether or not it has ripened into a debt. Waters' Dictionary of Florida Law 389 (1991) (citing Brogan v. Ferguson, 101 Fla. 1306, 131 So. 171 (1930)). This obviously includes a jury determination of liability not yet reduced to a dollar sum. Accordingly, the jury's verdict here meets the plain language of the rule of procedure, because it has determined an issue of liability. Once a proper motion to defeat that verdict has been made and denied, an appeal can be taken.

We are mindful of the contrary position espoused in Dauer v. Freed, 444 So.2d 1012, 1016-18 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984). There, the Third District concluded that the rule's language actually is referring only to orders entered without a jury trial. A concurrence in that opinion noted that the rule contemplates an expedited and more summary form of appellate review. Time limitations are shorter, and the full record below need not be submitted on appeal. Thus, interlocutory appeals should be confined to those matters that genuinely can be resolved expeditiously. Id. at 1016-19.

However, the rule itself applies to any determination of "liability," not merely those made without a jury trial. Moreover, the shorter time limitations for interlocutory appeals...