Schmitz v. S.A.B.T.C. Townhouse Ass'n, Inc., 88-1521
| Decision Date | 22 December 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. 88-1521,88-1521 |
| Citation | 14 Fla. L. Weekly 32,537 So.2d 130 |
| Parties | 14 Fla. L. Weekly 32 Walter SCHMITZ, et al., Petitioners, v. S.A.B.T.C. TOWNHOUSE ASSOCIATION, INC., etc., Respondent. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Frederick R. Brock of Gartner, Phillips, Brock & Simon, Jacksonville, for petitioners.
B. Thomas Whitefield of Ulmer, Murchison, Ashby & Taylor, Jacksonville, for respondent.
Petitioners seek this court's writ of certiorari to quash the order below permitting the post-trial interview of a juror. We issue the writ and quash the order.
A person who knows one of the jurors told an attorney involved in the lawsuit that the juror told him that the said juror felt pressured into reaching a quick decision in the case. He said the juror told him that a court bailiff said the judge was going on vacation so the jury should reach a verdict by the next day.
We cannot agree that the allegations of misconduct are sufficient to warrant the extraordinary and intrusive procedure of questioning of a juror. Orange County v. Fuller, 502 So.2d 1364 (Fla. 5th DCA 1987). There is no substantial allegation that any juror was led to a verdict because of some misconduct or was improperly influenced in reaching a verdict. The jury took three and one-half hours to consider its verdict and rendered it long before the judge was supposedly going out of town. A jury poll was conducted and no hint of any irregularity came out until over three weeks after the trial.
Post-trial juror interviews should be rarely granted and the sanctity of the jury process as well as the privacy rights of the jurors themselves should be closely guarded and protected. See Sentinel Star Co. v. Edwards, 387 So.2d 367, 374 (Fla. 5th DCA 1980), pet. for rev. denied, 399 So.2d 1145 (Fla.1981); National Indemnity Co. v. Andrews, 354 So.2d 454, 456 (Fla. 2d DCA), cert. denied, 359 So.2d 1210 (Fla.1978); Velsor v. Allstate Insurance Co., 329 So.2d 391, 393 (Fla. 2d DCA), cert. dismissed, 336 So.2d 1179 (Fla.1976).
The order permitting a jury interview is quashed.
WRIT ISSUED, ORDER QUASHED.
Petitioners seek to prevent a limited interview of jurors on the question of whether they were "rushed" to a verdict by a bailiff improperly instructing the jury that they "had to decide the case before Saturday because the judge was going out of town." The factual situation presented at trial was somewhat complicated and the matter was submitted to the jury at...
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Maler By and Through Maler v. Baptist Hosp. of Miami, Inc., 89-756
...that he was pressured into a verdict after being told by the bailiff that the judge was going on vacation, Schmitz v. S.A.B.T.C. Townhouse Ass'n, 537 So.2d 130 (Fla. 5th DCA 1988); and (h) a mistaken reduction by the jury, instead of the court, of the plaintiffs' total damages by the amount......
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...judicial process and are closely guarded. Rodgers v. After Sch. Programs, Inc., 78 So.3d 42, 45 (citing Schmitz v. S.A.B.T.C. Townhouse Ass'n, 537 So.2d 130, 131 (Fla. 5th DCA 1988)). Thus, juror interviews are highly disfavored and rarely granted. Id. It is an equally well-established prin......
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State, Dept. of Transp. v. Rejrat, 88-3509
...process as well as the privacy rights of the jurors themselves should be closely guarded and protected. Schmitz v. S.A.B.T.C. Townhouse Ass'n, Inc., 537 So.2d 130 (Fla. 5th DCA 1988). To establish grounds authorizing the interview of a jury, a party must provide evidence that the jury's ver......
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Penalver v. Masomere
...interview and reiterating the belief that there is "strong public policy against juror interviews"); Schmitz v. S.A.B.T.C. Townhouse Ass'n, Inc., 537 So.2d 130, 131 (Fla. 5th DCA 1988) (holding that post-trial juror interviews should "be rarely granted"). Moreover, a post-trial juror interv......
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