Tallahassee Furniture Co., Inc. v. Harrison
| Decision Date | 31 July 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 89-2163,89-2163 |
| Citation | 583 So.2d 744 |
| Parties | 16 Fla. L. Weekly D1993 TALLAHASSEE FURNITURE COMPANY, INC., a Florida corporation, Appellant, v. Elizabeth Holland HARRISON, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Robert Scott Cox of Messer, Vickers, Caparello, French & Madsen, P.A., and David H. Burns of Huey, Guilday, Kuersteiner & Tucker, P.A., Tallahassee, for appellant.
W. Dexter Douglass and John C. Cooper of Douglass, Cooper, Coppins & Powell, Tallahassee, for appellee.
Richard M. Davis, Sr. Vice President and Gen. Counsel of Associated Industries, Inc., Tallahassee, for amici curiae/Associated Industries of Florida, Inc., Florida Chamber of Commerce, Inc., Florida Retail Federation, Inc., Florida Ass'n of Ins. Agents, Inc., Nat. Federation of Independent Business, Inc., and Florida Movers & Warehousemen's Ass'n, Inc.
Appellant, Tallahassee Furniture Company, Inc., appeals from a jury verdict finding it liable for personal injuries suffered by the appellee, Elizabeth Holland Harrison, and awarding compensatory and punitive damages. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm.
On January 1, 1986, Harrison was brutally attacked in her home by John Allen Turner, a furniture deliveryman employed by Tallahassee Furniture. The attack left Harrison with permanent scarring and disfigurement, loss of one eye, and partial paralysis in both hands. Harrison filed suit, alleging in her complaint that Tallahassee Furniture was negligent in hiring and retaining Turner, and that Tallahassee Furniture was also liable on an agency theory. A summary judgment in favor of Tallahassee Furniture argues for reversal primarily upon five grounds: (1) that the trial court erred in submitting the theories of actual or apparent agency to the jury; (2) that Tallahassee Furniture satisfied its duty of reasonable care in hiring and retaining Turner, and was thus entitled to judgment as a matter of law; (3) that the trial court reversibly erred in admitting into evidence Turner's psychiatric and criminal records, including juvenile offenses; (4) that Tallahassee Furniture did not proximately cause Harrison's injuries; and (5) that the court erred in submitting the issue of punitive damages to the jury.
Tallahassee Furniture was reversed on appeal, Harrison v. Tallahassee Furniture Co., Inc., 529 So.2d 790 (Fla. 1st DCA 1988), when this court held that the existence of numerous issues of fact made summary judgment inappropriate. On remand, after a six-day trial at which Harrison presented the testimony of 21 witnesses, the jury returned a general verdict in favor of Harrison for $1,900,000 in compensatory damages, and $600,000 punitive damages. This appeal followed.
The evidence at trial established that prior to being employed in the job he held at the time Harrison was injured, John Allen Turner had performed some work as a laborer on construction projects for a company owned in part by a managing agent of Tallahassee Furniture, and he had performed odd jobs and yard work for the managers of Tallahassee Furniture. As a result of this experience with Turner, he was then hired to work part-time for Tallahassee Furniture at what was referred to as the "fairground sale," a semiannual event involving the sale of household furniture and other merchandise at the local fairgrounds. Sometime in the spring of 1985, after working part-time for approximately three months, Turner was hired to work full-time as a furniture deliveryman. Although this job entailed the delivery to customers' homes on a daily basis at times prearranged with the customers, no job interview was conducted, no references were requested, and Turner was not asked to complete a job application form. Turner was first hired to work as a junior member of a two-man delivery crew, in which the driver was the lead employee. By the late summer of 1985, Turner became a driver and was allowed to drive a company truck home.
Harrison was a student at Florida State University, living alone in an apartment. For her birthday, Harrison's father, a stockholder in Tallahassee Furniture, offered to buy her a couch of her choice. She picked out a couch from Tallahassee Furniture and made arrangements to have it delivered. Turner and another employee delivered the couch sometime in October 1985, at which time the delivery crew also assisted Harrison in moving a bed and a few other belongings to a new apartment, the place where Turner's attack upon Harrison later took place. During this moving process, Harrison offered the deliverymen a broken television set, which she said she wanted to discard, but was unable to carry it down three flights of stairs. Turner accepted it. Harrison later discovered the couch was defective, a new couch was ordered, and Harrison was told that it would arrive around Christmas.
On New Year's Eve, Harrison fell asleep while watching television on her couch. She was awakened the next morning, on New Year's Day, by a knock on her door. She recognized the man at the door as one of the men who delivered her couch. Turner told Harrison that he needed a receipt for the television set she had given him, because "they," which Harrison assumed meant Tallahassee Furniture, thought he had stolen it. Harrison agreed to write a receipt and left the door ajar. While she was writing the receipt, Turner looked inside and asked if he could use the bathroom. Harrison told him he could. After Turner entered the house, he went into the kitchen area, then suddenly reappeared with a knife in the living room, where Harrison was writing the receipt, and attacked Harrison, threatening to kill her. When Harrison pleaded with him, he suddenly released her and said he was sorry and that he was "screwed up" and on When police officers arrived at the scene of the attack, Harrison told the officers that her assailant was John Allen Turner, a Tallahassee Furniture employee. At this time, Turner reappeared at the apartment driving a Tallahassee Furniture delivery truck. Police approached the driver and asked for a driver's license. Seeing the name John Allen Turner, Turner was arrested.
drugs, and told her to go call the police. Instead, Harrison, terrified, ran into the bathroom and locked the door. Unfortunately, Turner pursued her, broke the door open, savagely stabbed her with the knife, and bludgeoned her into unconsciousness while she lay bleeding on the bathroom floor. Miraculously, Harrison regained consciousness after Turner left the apartment, and was able to reach the front door, where her cries for help were heard by neighbors.
During the presentation of plaintiff's case, Harrison presented extensive evidence establishing Turner's unfitness for employment for duties involving the entry of customers' homes. This included proof that Turner had a juvenile record for armed robbery and burglary in 1976; adult records of arrest for assault and battery; a charge of aggravated battery in 1979; a conviction for battery involving cutting his former wife in the face with a knife; additional charges of battery on his wife in 1981; and voluntary hospitalization for psychiatric problems on two occasions, in 1979 and 1981, with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, including reported delusions of voices telling him to kill himself and to kill other people. Turner had been heavily using drugs preceding both periods of hospitalization. Further, Turner had been using cocaine intravenously for about a year prior to his attack on Harrison, and had been using heroin intravenously for about two months. In addition, Turner had been fired by his prior employer. At the time of his arrest, Turner had clearly visible "track marks" on both arms, indicating heavy intravenous drug use, which were still apparent at the end of January 1986. He was examined by two court-appointed psychologists and was found incompetent to stand trial in January and even as late as March 1986. One of the psychologists testified that in March, Turner was making bizarre comments, hearing voices, and seeing people when there was no one present.
Although much of the trial and argument below dealt with proof of Turner's unfitness for employment and continued retention in the job he held on the day of his attack on Harrison, as the trial progressed this became less of an issue, given testimony by the representatives of the management of Tallahassee Furniture that had they known of Turner's prior criminal record, his drug addiction, and psychiatric illness, Turner would not have been hired as a deliveryman.
Tallahassee Furniture's standard employment application form, which was never submitted to Turner, included a question requesting the applicant to disclose whether he or she had a personal history, even if slight, of drug addiction, nervous disorders, or psychiatric care, among other things. The form also included the question, "Have you ever been convicted of a crime?" and "If Yes, please explain." The form also requested a "yes" or "no" answer to the question, "Have you ever been arrested?" followed by the instruction, "If Yes, give details (omit minor traffic violations)." At least two of Tallahassee Furniture's representatives testified that it could be assumed that if the employment application had been requested, Turner would have furnished the information requested.
As above noted, the case was submitted to the jury upon three alleged bases for liability: actual or apparent agency, negligent hiring, and negligent retention of the employee, Turner. However, since the several issues were submitted to the jury for consideration and return of a general verdict, without specifying the theory of recovery upon which liability was based, a favorable verdict for the plaintiff must be upheld if the evidence supports recovery on any one of the several theories alleged. Whitman v. Castlewood International
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