School Bd. of Broward County v. Greene, 98-0726.
| Decision Date | 25 August 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 98-0726.,98-0726. |
| Citation | 739 So.2d 668 |
| Parties | The SCHOOL BOARD OF BROWARD COUNTY, Florida, Appellant, v. Andrew GREENE, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Amy D. Shield of Amy D. Shield, P.A., Boca Raton, and Eugene K. Pettis of Haliczer, Pettis & White, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, for appellant. Jason R. Marks and Scott A. Mager of Kluger, Peretz, Kaplan & Berlin, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, for appellee.
ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
We deny the motion for rehearing, deny the request for certification, withdraw our earlier opinion, and substitute the following opinion.
The School Board of Broward County ("School Board") appeals the final judgment awarding $850,000 in damages to Andrew Greene ("Greene"), as well as the trial court's denial of the School Board's motion to limit collectibility of the judgment under section 768.28, Florida Statutes (1997). We affirm the final judgment; however, we reverse and remand to the trial court to limit the collectibility of the judgment to $100,000, in accordance with the sovereign immunity statute.
Greene, a part-time teacher in Broward County, decided to run for a seat on the School Board. While Greene was a candidate for the seat, the School Board, without prior notice to Greene, released derogatory statements gathered in an earlier disciplinary investigation of him. This was in violation of the statutory requirement of section 231.291(3)(a)3, Florida Statutes (1997), in that Greene had not been informed of these derogatory statements prior to their release. In response, Greene sued the School Board alleging negligence and invasion of privacy by the School Board for releasing the derogatory statements.
On the issue of negligence, the jury was instructed to decide:
Whether the School Board was negligent in releasing the personnel file of Andrew Greene, and, if so, whether such negligence was a legal cause of loss, injury or damage sustained by the plaintiff.
Further, as to the invasion of privacy claim, the jury was instructed, in pertinent part, to decide:
Whether the School Board disclosed to the public, or caused to be disclosed to the public, the facts or matters as Mr. Greene contends.
The placing of the derogatory statements in the file was not an issue submitted to the jury. The verdict form submitted to the jury referred to negligence and invasion of privacy as it related to the releasing of the derogatory statements. The verdict form did not require the jury to decide whether the School Board wrongfully placed information in Greene's personnel file. The jury found for the plaintiff on the negligence and invasion of privacy issues and awarded Greene a total of $850,000 in damages. Thereafter, the School Board moved to limit the collectibility of the judgment under section 768.28, Florida Statutes, but the trial court denied the motion.
§ 768.28(5), Fla. Stat. (1997).
On appeal, although both parties concede the collection of the judgment should be limited by the statute, they dispute whether this claim represents a single incident or occurrence or two separate incidents or occurrences. The School Board argues the collectibility of the judgment should be limited to $100,000 because Greene's complaint reflects only one incident or occurrence, the release of the information to the public. Greene, on the other hand,...
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Bradshaw v. School Bd. of Broward County, Fla., 06-13182.
...$100,000 per plaintiff limit is not affected by the presence of more than one underlying claim."); Sch. Bd. of Broward County v. Greene, 739 So.2d 668, 670 (Fla.Dist.Ct. App. 1999) ("Greene is limited to $100,000 notwithstanding that Greene prevailed on two separate theories of recovery.");......
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Comer v. City of Palm Bay
...decision to consolidate multiple claims into a single action and to proceed to a single judgment. See School Board of Broward County v. Greene, 739 So.2d 668 (Fla. 4th D.C.A.1999) (plaintiff limited to $100,000 despite separate claims for negligence and invasion of privacy). Under the rule ......
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Zamora v. Atlantic Univ. Bd. of Trustees
...it is the continuing duty to protect the children which the department breached. We applied the statute in School Board of Broward County v. Greene, 739 So.2d 668 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999). There, a teacher brought an action against a school board for negligence and invasion of privacy for the pu......
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STATE DHRS v. TR ex rel. Shapiro
...on the part of HRS employees in supervising patients was not barred. 2. We acknowledge that dicta in School Board of Broward County v. Greene, 739 So.2d 668 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999), might indicate that court's analysis of section 768.28(5), may be different than our own. In Greene, a teacher br......