BERNADETTE LOUISE ANTHONY, A MINOR, AND WILLIE L. ANTHONY, JR., A MINOR, ETC., APPELLANTS,
v.
THE JACKSONVILLE TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY, ETC. ET AL., APPELLEES

Fla. 1st DCA | 1980-03-25
No. OO-491
LARRY G. SMITH, J., concurs., WENTWORTH, J., dissents with opinion., ROBERT P. SMITH, Jr., LARRY G. SMITH and WENTWORTH, JJ., concur.
383 So. 2d 650 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1980) Positive Treatment
Cited by 13 cases

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Synopsis

Minors injured when struck by an automobile while sitting on a bus stop bench sued the Jacksonville Transportation Authority and others for negligent placement of the bench near busy traffic. The court affirmed dismissal of their third amended complaint for failure to allege sufficient ultimate facts showing foreseeability of the vehicle running off the road.


Holding

The appellants failed to allege ultimate facts supporting their conclusory allegations that the bench placement was unreasonably close to the roadway under the circumstances and that its placement contributed to their injury. The complaint lacked allegations that the particular location was more vulnerable than ordinarily to runaway automobiles or that conditions made such an occurrence reasonably foreseeable.


Headnotes

[1] A complaint fails to state a cause of action for negligence when it alleges conclusory statements without pleading ultimate facts to support those allegations.

[2] A municipality or transportation authority is not liable for negligence in selecting a bus stop location absent allegations demonstrating that the location was more than…

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Key Quotes

“There is no allegation that, under particular circumstances which might have been but were not described in the complaint, this particular wayside was more than ordinarily vulnerable to runaway automobiles, or that conditions made it reasonably foreseeable that a vehicle would run off the road at or near the bus stop.”

Establishes the critical factual deficiency in the complaint—lack of allegations regarding foreseeability of the specific hazard

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Facts & Procedural History

Appellants were struck by an automobile while sitting on a bench at a bus stop at the corner of Atlantic Boulevard and Live Oak Drive awaiting a bus. …

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Opinion of the Court
ROBERT P. SMITH, Jr., Judge.

ROBERT P. SMITH, Jr., Judge.

Appellants complain of the trial court’s dismissing with prejudice their third amended complaint, which was appellants’ second effort to aver ultimate facts showing a cause of action in the incident complained of. Suing the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, the City of Jacksonville, and Metropolitan Systems, Inc., which either operated a bus transportation system or placed benches at bus stops for the convenience of passengers, appellants alleged that the corner of Atlantic Boulevard and Live Oak Drive was negligently chosen for a bus stop because of danger from “busy vehicular traffic at said intersection,” and also that the said bench [at that corner] was unreasonably close to busy vehicular traffic and posed an unreasonable risk of harm to those persons, including the plaintiffs, who would utilize said bench while await ing the arrival of buses at said bus stop

Plaintiffs were struck by an automobile while they sat on the bench awaiting a bus. The complaint, which is somewhat vague in this detail, was treated in argument as alleging that the bench was in a position near but not in the roadway and that the automobile left the road before striking plaintiffs. There is no allegation that, under particular circumstances which might have been but were not described in the complaint, this particular wayside was more than ordinarily vulnerable to runaway automobiles, or that conditions made it reasonably foreseeable that a vehicle would run off the road at or near the bus stop. See Newton v. Davis Transport & Rentals, Inc., 312 So. 2d 200 (Fla. 1st DCA 1975); Nance v. James Archer Smith Hospital, Inc., 329 So. 2d 377 (Fla. 3d DCA 1976), cert. den., 339 So. 2d 1171 (Fla.1976); contrast Brinkley v. Southern Bell Tel. & Tel. Co., 353 So. 2d 593 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977), cert. den., 359 So. 2d 1219 (Fla.1978).

We agree with the trial judge that plaintiffs failed to allege ultimate facts tending to support the concluso-ry allegations that, under all the circumstances, this bench was placed or maintained in a position unreasonably close to the roadway, and that its placement contributed to plaintiffs’ injury. Nothing in the record suggests that plaintiffs may by further amendment be able to cure the deficiencies in their third amended complaint. The judgment of dismissal is therefore -

AFFIRMED.

LARRY G. SMITH, J., concurs.

WENTWORTH, J., dissents with opinion.

Dissent
WENTWORTH, Judge,

WENTWORTH, Judge,

dissenting:

The • complaint appears to me to adequately identify certain conditions of alleged unreasonable risk which are within the province of a jury to determine on sufficient evidence. The conditions described were (1) heavy traffic volume (busy vehicular traffic) at the point in question where (2) specified streets intersected together with (3) close proximity between traffic and the bench, which was easily movable and erected under a contract (attached to the complaint) permitting placement 18 inches from the curb face unless closer placement was authorized.

Appellees argue that plaintiffs were not yet passengers, that the driver’s negligence was an efficient independent intervening cause, and that the risk of a vehicle leaving the roadway created “extraordinary exigencies” beyond their liability as a matter of law. The latter conclusion is supported to some extent by Speigel v. Southern Bell Telephone Co., 341 So. 2d 832 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1977), denying liability to occupants of a vehicle which collided with a telephone pole near the road. Without elaboration of distinctions between duty toward persons seated on bus stop benches and those in other vehicles, I believe the better view would not as a matter of law in this case support total unforeseeability of any vehicle’s departure from the travel lane at a busy street intersection. Peninsular Telephone Co. v. Marks, 144 Fla. 652, 198 So. 330 (1940).

Other
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

It appearing from their petition for rehearing that the trial court dismissed appellants’ complaint only once on the merits, rather than twice as previously stated, and that plaintiffs conceivably may be able to further amend to state a cause of action, rehearing is GRANTED, the trial court’s order dismissing the third amended complaint is AFFIRMED, but the dismissal with prejudice is REVERSED and the cause is remanded with instructions to afford plaintiffs another opportunity to amend. Bradham v. Hayes Enterprises, 306 So. 2d 568 (Fla. 1st DCA 1975).

ROBERT P. SMITH, Jr., LARRY G. SMITH and WENTWORTH, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Affordable Homes, Inc. v. Devil's RUN, 408 So. 2d 679 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982)
    …give leave to amend a deficient complaint unless there has been an abuse of the amendment privilege, or the complaint shows on its face that there is a deficiency which cannot be cured by amendment. Anthony v. Jacksonville Transportation Authority, 383 So. 2d 650 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980); Highlands County School Board v. K. D. Hedin Construction, Inc., 382 So. 2d 90 (Fla. 2d DCA 1980). Here, the record does not reveal that the appellant abused the amendment privilege. Moreover, the appellant has represented to th…
  • Ranger Ins. Co. v. Travelers Indem. Co., 389 So. 2d 272 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980)
    …so as to state a cause of action. Sapp v. City of Tallahassee, 348 So. 2d 363, 366 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977); Hansen v. Central Adjustment Bureau Incorporated, 348 So. 2d 608, 610 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977); and Anthony v. Jacksonville Transportation Authority, 383 So. 2d 650 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980). Although we have indicated the possibility of an amended complaint being filed by Ranger, we caution that in so doing we are not ruling as a matter of law that any specific set of facts and circumstances would or would not be s…
  • The Duval Cnty. Sch. Bd. v. Dutko, 483 So. 2d 492 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986)
    …arnings of any kind, after the occurrence of events and the receipt of complaints which should have alerted the Board to the existence of dangers to which the waiting children were being exposed. Cf. Anthony v. Jacksonville Transportation Authority, 383 So. 2d 650 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980) (complaint failed to allege bus [*496] stop waiting area “more than ordinarily vulnerable” to runaway automobiles). Whether the evidence was sufficient to compel a jury to find that the Board’s actions, or failure to act, contri…

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