Robinson v. Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., WINN-DIXIE
| Decision Date | 28 March 1984 |
| Docket Number | WINN-DIXIE,No. 82-2083,82-2083 |
| Citation | 447 So.2d 1003 |
| Parties | Gilbert L. ROBINSON, Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v.STORES, INC., Appellee/Cross-Appellant. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Haggard & Kirland, P.A., and R. Stuart Huff of Law Offices of R. Stuart Huff, Coral Gables, for appellant/cross-appellee.
Vernis, Bowling, Montalto, Goodman & Black, Fort Lauderdale, and Larry Klein West Palm Beach, for appellee/cross-appellant.
The issues which confront us in this appeal arise from post-judgment orders related to new trial and remittitur. In an action for conversion, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution, the jury, by special interrogatory verdict, awarded plaintiff $200,000 as compensatory damages and $750,000 as punitive damages, finding liability as to each of these three causes of action. The trial court entered a final judgment whereupon appellee, Winn-Dixie, filed various post-trial motions. The trial court first entered an order granting a motion for directed verdict as to the punitive damages. The court then entered an order to take effect should the order directing out punitive damages be overturned on appeal, requiring the plaintiff to accept a remittitur of $500,000 and, in the alternative, granting a new trial on the issue of punitive damages. Subsequently the court entered an amended final judgment reflecting compensatory damages only. Both parties have appealed.
Appellant Robinson operates a small store in the Bahamas and makes frequent trips to the United States to purchase merchandise and transport it back for resale in his own store. On the evening before the incident which gave rise to this action appellant purchased goods which he stored in the backseat of his automobile. The next morning an employee of Winn Dixie assisted appellant in bringing additional purchases out to his car, observed the contents of the backseat, and concluded that the goods had been shoplifted. After consultation with the assistant manager of the store the authorities were called, whereupon Robinson was placed under arrest and his person and vehicle were searched. Winn Dixie employees removed merchandise from his car and returned it to the shelves for resale.
Robinson was charged with petty theft, but a nolle prosequi was subsequently entered on that charge. Robinson then filed the within action, claiming damages for aggravation of an existing heart condition and for other direct and consequential damages. Trial resulted in the damage awards appealed.
We first address the issue of recovery of punitive damages against the corporate appellee, Winn-Dixie.
Winn Dixie relies on Mercury Motors Express, Inc. v. Smith, 393 So.2d 545 (Fla.1981). In that case the Florida Supreme Court prescribed the following principles to be applied in cases involving respondeat superior:
We conclude that the principles of law which should be applied in this and in other similar respondeat superior cases are as follows: (1) An employer is vicariously liable for compensatory damages resulting from the negligent acts of employees committed within the scope of their employment even if the employer is without fault. This is based upon the long-recognized public policy that victims injured by the negligence of employees acting within the scope of their employment should be compensated even though it means placing vicarious liability on an innocent employer. (2) Punitive damages, however, go beyond the actual damages suffered by an injured party and are imposed only as a punishment of the defendant and as a deterrent to others. (3) Before an employer may be held vicariously liable for punitive damages under the doctrine of respondeat superior, there must be some fault on his part. (4) Although the misconduct of the employee, upon which the vicarious liability of the employer for punitive damages is based, must be willful and wanton, it is not necessary that the fault of the employer, independent of his employee's conduct, also be willful and wanton. It is sufficient that the plaintiff allege and prove some fault on the part of the employer which foreseeably contributed to the plaintiff's injury to make him vicariously liable for punitive damages.
Id. at 549. In the instant case Winn Dixie attempts to distinguish the acts of the corporation from the acts of its employees in order to argue that "some fault" was not proven.
On the other hand, Robinson argues that vicarious liability was not an issue in the case and that Mercury Motors does not apply where it is alleged and proved that the corporation "itself" committed the tort. Robinson points out that not one word in approximately seven hundred pages of trial transcript implies a distinction between the corporate acts and the acts of its employees. The...
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...that a managing agent must be more than just a manager. (5) Winn-Dixie Stores, 472 So. 2d at 724. (6) See Robinson v. Winn Dixie Stores, 447 So. 2d 1003, 1005 (Fla. 4th D.C.A. (7) The Fourth District Court of Appeal also found that there was sufficient record evidence of independent fault o......