GRACE BOTTITA, AS MOTHER AND NEXT FRIEND OF BRIEANNE BOTTITA, A MINOR, APPELLANT,
v.
FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT COMPANY, GRACE BOTTITA, ANTHONY BOTTITA, AND JOANNE MILLER, APPELLEES

Fla. 4th DCA | 1988-11-16
No. 87-0683
GLICKSTEIN and GUNTHER, JJ„ concur., ANSTEAD, J., concurs specially with opinion.
534 So. 2d 1198 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1988) Positive Treatment
Cited by 7 cases

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Synopsis

A two-year-old child was injured when she caught her foot under a Florida Power & Light Company transformer pad located near her home. The trial court granted summary judgment for F.P.&L., but the appellate court reversed, holding that the child's legal status on the property (invitee, licensee, or trespasser) presented a genuine issue of material fact for a jury.


Holding

The determination of the child's legal status on F.P.&L.'s property presents a genuine issue of material fact that must be decided by a jury rather than by summary judgment. At minimum, the facts must be more fully developed before judgment on the issue may be made.


Headnotes

[1] The determination of a plaintiff's status on another's property (e.g., invitee, licensee, or trespasser) can present a genuine issue of material fact for a jury when the…

[2] Summary judgment is improper when the status of a child on another's property is disputed and could reasonably be construed as that of an invitee, thereby imposing a duty…

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Key Quotes

“It may be that on the facts in a particular case the determination of the category of the plaintiff must be determined as a matter of law by the trial judge, ... other causes will present a factual issue for the jury as to whether plaintiff is invitee, licensee or trespasser under appropriate instructions.”

Establishes the legal standard that invitee/licensee/trespasser status may be a jury question depending on case facts.

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Facts & Procedural History

Brieanne Bottita, age two, was playing with other children near an F.P.&L. transformer located between neighbors' homes. Earth beneath a corner of the…

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

This is an appeal of a summary final judgment rendered in favor of appellee, Florida Power & Light Company. We reverse and remand for further proceedings consistent herewith.

Two-year-old Brieanne Bottita was playing with other children near a Florida Power & Light Company transformer located between two of her neighbors’ homes. Allegedly, the earth beneath a corner of the transformer pad had eroded and the child caught her foot under the pad and fell, thereby injuring her chin. The child’s mother, Grace Bottita, initiated this personal injury action against F.P. & L. claiming that F.P. & L. owned, operated, maintained and controlled the “electrical box.” Bottita alleged that the dangerous condition of the electrical box was known or should have been known to F.P. & L., or that F.P. & L. allowed the electrical box to become elevated off the ground, thereby becoming unsafe. Bottita further alleged that F.P. & L. had a duty to use reasonable and ordinary care to maintain the premises in a safe condition; that F.P. & L., breached its duty in negligently failing to maintain the electrical box and surrounding premises in a safe condition; or alternatively, that F.P. & L. was negligent in failing to warn Botti-ta of the danger. Citing to Wood v. Camp, 284 So. 2d 691 (Fla.1973), Bottita contends that the trial court erred in granting summary final judgment in favor of F.P. & L., as the determination of the child’s status on F.P. & L.’s property was a genuine issue of material fact that should properly have been decided by a jury rather than by the trial judge. The specific factual issue which Bottita contends existed is whether the child’s status on F.P. & L.’s property at the time of the subject accident was that of a “licensee by express or reasonably im plied invitation” or an uninvited licensee or trespasser — as the trial judge concluded her status to have been. Bottita points out that if the child were determined to have been an invitee by virtue of being a “licensee by express or implied invitation,” then F.P. & L. would have owed the child the duty of reasonable care, i.e., to protect her from the dangerous condition it was aware of or should have been aware of.

In Wood the Florida Supreme Court stated that:

It may be that on the facts in a particular case the determination of the category of the plaintiff must be determined as a matter of law by the trial judge, ... other causes will present a factual issue for the jury as to whether plaintiff is invitee, licensee or trespasser under appropriate instructions. We feel that the present case falls into this latter division for the jury.

Id. at 696. Without setting forth the facts underlying the case, the court concluded that Wood fell into the latter category, in which the determination of the plaintiffs status presented a jury question. Noting that the facts could have supported a reasonable inference of negligence sufficient for the plaintiffs recovery as an invited guest, the Wood court found summary judgment to be improper and remanded the case for jury trial.

In our view, the case at bar is one of those cases contemplated by Wood v. Camp as requiring the trier of fact to decide the status of the injured two-year-old child. At the very least, we believe that the facts must be more fully developed before a judgment on the issue may be made.

GLICKSTEIN and GUNTHER, JJ„ concur. ANSTEAD, J., concurs specially with opinion.

Concurrence
ANSTEAD, Judge,

ANSTEAD, Judge,

concurring specially.

I concur in the reversal because I believe the facts of this case present a unique situation as to the child’s status on the property of the appellee. The trial court decided that the child was a trespasser and that the appellee had not been shown to have breached the only duty owed to a trespasser, that of avoiding wilful or wanton acts against the trespasser. The record is not totally clear as to the facts. However, it appears that a piece of F.P. & L. equipment was placed between two homes in an area where children, like the minor plaintiff, were free to come and go. This circumstance contrasts sharply with the ordinary situation where status on a defendant’s property is clear-cut and may control. Hence, I agree with the majority in concluding that the facts as presented in the record to date appear to create a factual issue as to the child’s status.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Lukancich v. City OF Tampa, 583 So. 2d 1070 (Fla. 2d DCA 1991)
    …spasser. The status of the person on the premises of another is generally a question of fact. Heath v. First Baptist Church, 341 So. 2d 265 (Fla. 2d DCA), cert. denied, 348 So. 2d 946 (Fla.1977). The case of Bottita v. Florida Power & Light Company, 534 So. 2d 1198 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988), which is similar to the instant case, demonstrates this legal principle. In Bottita, a child was injured while playing with other children when she fell over a Florida Power transformer located between two of her neighbor’s home…
  • ARP v. Waterway E. Ass'n, Inc., 217 So. 3d 117 (Fla. 4th DCA 2017)
    …er cases in this respect; other causes will present a factual issue for the jury as to whether plaintiff is invitee, licensee or trespasser under appropriate instructions. Wood, 284 So. 2d at 696. For example, in Bottita v. Fla. Power & Light Co., 534 So. 2d 1198, 1198-99 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988), we reversed a summary judgment in favor of Florida Power and Light, holding that the trier of fact was required to decide the status of a two-year-old child who was playing with other children near a transformer located…
  • Bucci v. Auto Builders S. Fla., Inc., 690 So. 2d 1387 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997)
    …al, on this record a jury could determine Bucci was an uninvited licensee. Therefore, a jury question existed, which precluded a directed verdict. Bucci’s status was a question of fact to be decided by the jury. Bottita v. Florida Power & Light Co., 534 So. 2d 1198, 1199 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989) (explaining the status of the injured party may be either a matter of law to be determined by the trial judge, or a factual issue for the jury, citing Wood v. Camp, 284 So. 2d 691, 696 (Fla.1973)). We therefore affirm as to…

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