EDWARD ARENADO, PETITIONER,
v.
FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT COMPANY, A FLORIDA CORPORATION, RESPONDENT

Fla. | 1989-04-13
No. 72533
EHRLICH, C.J., and OVERTON, SHAW, GRIMES and KOGAN, JJ., concur., BARKETT, J., did not participate in this case.
541 So. 2d 612 Florida Supreme Court (1989) Caution
Cited by 12 cases

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Holding

The court held that there was no conflict with prior precedent, and therefore, it should not have accepted jurisdiction and should dismiss the petition for review.


Headnotes

[1] A court should decline review of a case when it determines there is no conflict between decisions of different district courts of appeal.

[2] A public utility's duty to a noncustomer for failure to supply electricity is a question of first impression when not previously addressed by the courts.

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Facts & Procedural History

The district court addressed whether an electric power company owes a duty to a non-customer for damages from an accident caused by an inoperative tra…

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Opinion of the Court
McDonald, justice.

McDonald, justice.

We accepted jurisdiction in this cause, Arenado v. Florida Power & Light Company, 523 So. 2d 628 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988), because of perceived conflict with Mugge v. Tampa Waterworks Co., 52 Fla. 371, 42 So. 81 (1906), and Woodbury v. Tampa Waterworks Co., 57 Fla. 243, 49 So. 556 (1909). Upon further review and analysis we now determine that we should decline review because, in fact, there is no conflict.

The issue decided by the district court in this case was whether or not an electric power company (Florida Power & Light Company) owes a duty to a noncustomer which would allow the noncustomer to maintain an action for damages suffered as a result of an automobile accident occurring in an intersection collision because'the traffic signal was inoperative due to the alleged negligence of the power company. The district court of appeal answered the question in the negative. Insofar as we can determine, the question of whether a duty is owed to a noncustomer for failure to supply electricity is a case of first impression.1

Both Mugge and Woodbury are factually distinguishable from this case. In Mugge Tampa Waterworks entered into a contract with the City of Tampa. The contract granted it the franchise and right to lay pipes and erect fountains and other structures as well as the exclusive privilege to construct and operate the city’s waterworks for thirty years. An individual whose property was destroyed by fire because of insufficient water pressure sued the waterworks.

It was alleged in Mugge that the contract between Tampa Waterworks Company and the City of Tampa contained the right on the part of waterworks company to have sufficient taxes levied and collected annually on all taxable property in the city to pay for hydrant rentals for public fire service. The complaint also alleged that a special tax could be levied and collected for such purposes and that the proceeds were to be kept as a separate fund to be devoted exclusively to hydrant rentals. This special tax for hydrant rentals had been levied annually, collected and paid to the defendant company. It was also specifically alleged that the principal and primary consideration for grant of the franchises and rights to the defendant, as stipulated by ordinance, was to provide and secure to the citizens, residents, and property owners of the city, better protection against fires. Our Court held that these facts stated a cause of action.2

Woodbury involved a claim against Tampa Waterworks Company for damages due to the burning of a house. The damage allegedly resulted from the negligence of the defendant in not furnishing water for fire protection under a franchise with the City of Tampa, the same contract that existed in Mugge. The complaint was dismissed for failure to state a cause of action on proximate cause grounds. This Court upheld the dismissal, stating:

To maintain the action the plaintiff should allege facts to show that the defendant negligently failed to perform a duty it owed to the plaintiff because of the public service undertaken by the defendant, and that such failure was a proximate cause of the injury complained of. Where the duty does not necessarily result from the relation of the parties as alleged, the circumstances from which the duty arises should be alleged.... A declaration in an action at law should allege distinctly every fact that is essential to the plaintiffs right of action.

57 Fla. at 246-47, 49 So. at 559.

We now agree that Mugge and Wood-bury were predicated upon special language in the Tampa Waterworks’ contracts which does not exist here. “[T]he contract of the water company is the measure of its duty to the property owner.” Mugge, 52 Fla. at 388, 42 So. at 86.

There is no conflict, and, hence, we should not have accepted the case for review. Because of this we now dismiss the petition for review.

It is so ordered.

EHRLICH, C.J., and OVERTON, SHAW, GRIMES and KOGAN, JJ., concur. BARKETT, J., did not participate in this case.

. A trial judge in the 11th Circuit, in the case of Abravaya v. Florida Power & Light Co., 39 Fla. Supp. 153 (Fla. 11th Cir.Ct.1973), ruled that the utility had not assumed the duty which was sought to be imposed on it and hence there was no liability.

. After the case was tried, a verdict entered for Mugge was vacated because it was contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence. Tampa Waterworks Co. v. Mugge, 60 Fla. 263, 53 So. 943 (1910).


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Citator

Cited By

  • Clay Elec. Coop., Inc. v. Johnson, 873 So. 2d 1182 (Fla. 2003)
    …d only once, in the facts section of the opinion, see Mugge, 42 So. at 81, and is not relied on by the Court as the basis for imposing a duty on Tampa Waterworks to the public. Moreover, this Court's decision in Arenado v. Florida Power & Light Co., 541 So. 2d 612 (Fla.1989), should not be read as anything other than a determination that no conflict existed between Mugge, Woodbury and the district court's decision in Arenado. . Clay Electric has not asserted nor does it appear in the record that there was an…
    1 / 2
  • …ho has been injured in an intersection collision because a traffic signal was rendered inoperative due to the negligence of the power company. See Arenado v. Florida Power & Light Co., 523 So. 2d 628 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988), petition for rev. dismissed, 541 So. 2d 612 (Fla.1989); Derrer v. Georgia Elec. Co., 537 So. 2d 593 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988); Adoptie v. Southern Bell Tel. and Tel. Co., 426 So. 2d 1162 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983). In Arenado, the power company’s transmission light went down and interrupted the flow of elec…
  • Staci Levy v. Fla. Power & Light Co., 798 So. 2d 778 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001)
    …a noncustomer who was injured in an intersection collision because a traffic signal was rendered inoperative due to the negligence of the power company. See Arenado v. Fla. Power & Light Co., 523 So. 2d 628, 629 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988), rev. dismissed, 541 So. 2d 612 (Fla.1989). In Are-nado, the plaintiff was killed in a collision at an intersection controlled by a traffic signal which was inoperative due to a down transmission line. The plaintiff alleged that the power company’s negligence caused the interrupti…

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