Sacco v. Eagle Finance Corp. of North Miami Beach, 69--708
| Decision Date | 21 April 1970 |
| Docket Number | No. 69--708,69--708 |
| Parties | Iona SACCO and Carl Sacco, as the husband of Iona Sacco, Appellants, v. EAGLE FINANCE CORP. OF NORTH MIAMI BEACH, a Florida corporation, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Essen & Essen, Miami, for appellants.
Patton, Kanner, Tietig & Segal, Donald W. Stobs, Jr., Miami, for appellee.
Before PEARSON, C.J., and BARKDULL and HENDRY, JJ.
The appellants were plaintiffs below, having based their complaint on three counts, to wit: (1) intentional interference with peace of mind; (2) invasion of privacy; and (3) trespass. At the close of the plaintiffs' case, the court granted the defendant's motion for directed verdict.
Diana Sacco, daugher of the appellants, had become indebted to the corporate appellee. The actions of the appellee's agents in attempting to procure collection of that debt gave rise to the facts which the plaintiffs contend support their numerous causes of action. On October 17, 1968, one of the appellee's agents, having learned that Diana was then residing in her parents' house, telephoned her there and engaged her in a conversation. Diana testified at the trial that the ensuing conversation caused her to become very upset and prompted her to hang up on the caller. However, the appellee's agent phoned immediately afterward, again speaking with Diana, and again causing her to become upset. Upon observing her daughter's consternation, appellant Iona Sacco thereupon took the extension phone and began her own conversation with the agent. Apparently, the conversation disintegrated into a shouting match, finally resulting in the phone being hung up on the appellant's agent for the second time.
A third call was placed to the Sacco's house, and was received by Iona Sacco. The earlier exchanges between these parties continued and amplified, with a result identical to the previous one as Mrs. Sacco hung up on the caller. For the following two hours the appellee's agent continued to phone the residence of the Saccos while one of the women would occasionally answer the phone in order to learn who the caller was.
The next incident of consequence occurred when another of the appellee's agents arrived at the Sacco residence. The record indicates that this agent announced his presence by banging on the front door, and his summons was answered by appellant Sacco who thereupon requested him to leave so that she could begin to make arrangments with her daughter to settle the difficulties. The offer was rejected by the agent, who refused to leave. Needless to say, this activity provoked Mrs. Sacco into shouting her remonstrations at the appellee's agent, and he, in turn, responded with similar vehemence and causticity.
Thereupon, the appellee's agent temporarily left the threshold of the Sacco's residence, only to return several minutes later and begin pounding on the front door again. This time, however, Mrs. Sacco did not answer the door or engage in a further exchange of hostilities with the agent. After several minutes of futile waiting, the agent shouted an obscenity, presumably directed at the Sacco residence and all human and canine female occupants therein. Then, taking several steps back from the house into the street, the agent shouted his parting words to the effect that he would return the next day to get the money.
The exchanges between these parties did not end with the above incident however. Several minutes later, the appellee's second agent again called the Sacco residence from a nearby phone booth, receiving the by-then standard procedure of Mrs. Sacco's hanging up the phone. This time, however, the agent deliberately left his phone receiver off the hook, causing the Sacco's telephone line to be virtually inoperative for twenty to thirty minutes.
The first count of the plaintiffs' complaint alleges that a cause of action exists in tort for intentional interference with mental tranquility. The defendant below moved to dismiss this count on the grounds that the general rule in Florida with...
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