Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company v. Branham
| Decision Date | 09 July 1958 |
| Citation | 104 So.2d 356 |
| Parties | SEABOARD AIR LINE RAILROAD COMPANY and R. H. Williams, a resident of the State of Florida Petitioners, v. Jesse H. BRANHAM, Respondent. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Smathers, Thompson & Dyer and L. S. Bonsteel, Miami, for petitioners.
Nichols, Gaither, Green, Frates & Beckham and Sam Daniels Miami, for respondent.
Jesse H. Branham, who was the plaintiff Company and R. H. Williams to recover Comapny and F. H. Williams to recover damages for injuries resulting from the negligent operation of one of the trains of the railroad company. From a judgment in favor of the plaintiff, the defendants appealed, assigning as error the refusal of the Circuit Court to direct a verdict in their favor at the close of the plaintiff's case in chief and at the end of the entire case. The District Court of Appeal, Third District, affirmed the judgment, Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company v. Branham, Fla., 99 So.2d 621, and the defendants thereupon petitioned this court for a writ of certiorari to review the District Court decision on the ground that it 'is in conflict with and, by implication, seeks to overrule this Court's decision in Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company v. Holland, Fla., 79 So.2d 691 * * *.' The petition for the writ of certiorari was granted and the matter is now before this court for final consideration.
Section 4, Article V, Florida Constitution, F.S.A. provides, so far as is material here, that 'The supreme court may review by certiorari any decision of a district court of appeal * * * that is in direct conflict with a decision * * * of the supreme court on the same point of law.' (Italics supplied.)
As is pointed out by this court in Ansin v. Thurston, Fla., 101 So.2d 808, 811, the discretionary power of review granted by the portion of the Constitution we have quoted is concerned 'with decisions as precedents as opposed to adjudications of the rights of particular litigants.' While by a 'decision' of a court is generally meant the judgment, and not the 'opinion', which represents merely the reasons for that judgment, 14 Am.Jur., Courts § 131, we are of the view that as the term is used in the constitutional provision under consideration 'decision' comprehends both the opinion and judgment. The reason for the adoption of the constitutional provision and the manner in which the jurisdiction therein conferred will be exercised are discussed in Lake v. Lake, Fla., 103 So.2d 639, 643.
In the opinion it is said that 'If in a particular case an opinion is rendered by a district court of appeal that prima facie conflicts with a decision of another ...
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King v. State
...*.' (Italics supplied.) This Court has never decided, not even in Lake v. Lake, Fla.1958, 103 So.2d 639, or in Seaboard Air Line Railroad Co. v. Branham, Fla.1958, 104 So.2d 356, that it will look only and exclusively to an opinion of a district court to determine whether there is a conflic......
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...cert. denied, 325 So.2d 6 (Fla.1975), and Seaboard Air Line R. Co. v. Branham, 99 So.2d 621 (Fla.3d DCA 1958), cert. discharged, 104 So.2d 356 (Fla.1958), that the decedents were implied or uninvited licensees on the premises. See Morris v. Florida C.&P.R. Co., 43 Fla. 10, 29 So. 541 (1901)......
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