DONALD NORDIN, ET AL., APPELLANTS,
v.
MARC GREGORY, ET AL., APPELLEES

Fla. 5th DCA | 1990-08-30
No. 89-2088
GOSHORN and PETERSON, JJ., concur.
566 So. 2d 60 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (1990) Positive Treatment
Cited by 4 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

The Nordins appeal from a trial judge's order granting a new trial on damages in a dog bite case. The jury awarded $10,030 in damages for injuries to the Gregorys' minor son, but the trial judge found the verdict failed to consider all damage elements. The appellate court reversed, holding the jury verdict was reasonable and did not shock the judicial conscience.


Holding

The appellate court reversed the new trial order and reinstated the jury verdict. The court held that a jury verdict should not be disturbed unless it shocks the judicial conscience, and absent clear evidence to the contrary, it must be presumed that the jury correctly followed instructions and considered all damage elements. The $10,030 award was reasonable for the injuries involved and within the range that reasonable jurors could reach.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court may not grant a new trial on damages if reasonable persons could differ as to whether the jury's verdict was against the manifest weight of the evidence.

[2] A jury verdict should not be disturbed unless it shocks the judicial conscience of the court.

Previewing 2 of 6 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“Absent clear evidence to the contrary, it must be presumed that the jury correctly followed the court's instructions, applied the law and considered all the elements of damage.”

Establishes the presumption favoring jury verdicts that courts must apply when reviewing challenges to damage awards.

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

The Gregorys' minor son James was bitten in the face by the Nordins' shepherd dog, Sparky. The jury found the Nordins' dog caused the injury and award…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
W. SHARP, Judge.

W. SHARP, Judge.

The Nordins appeal from an order which grants the Gregorys a new trial on the issue of damages after a jury trial. The Gregorys sued on behalf of their minor son, James, for injuries he sustained after being bitten in and around the face by the Nordins’ shepherd dog. The jury found that the Nordins' dog, Sparky, was the culprit, and awarded James $10,030 in damages. Medical bills for James totaled $830. In his order granting the Gregorys a new trial on the issue of damages, the trial judge found that the jury “failed to consider each and every element of damage as outlined in the itemized verdict form.” The court also found the verdict to be contrary to the evidence, the law and the court’s charge. We disagree and reverse.

The verdict form, submitted by the Greg-orys, contained a total of eleven questions with blank spaces in which the jury could insert the amount of damages. All of the blanks were filled in by the jury. Where no damages were awarded, the jury inserted a zero. Some of the questions on the verdict form contained overlapping elements which could reasonably have been believed to encompass one another. For example, there were separate categories for “mental anguish,” “pain and suffering,” “bodily injury,” “disfigurement,” and “loss of capacity for enjoyment of life.” The jury awarded $1,700.00 damages for pain and suffering, but zero for mental anguish, and it awarded $1,500.00 for disfigurement, past and future, and $2,060.00 for bodily injury (past), and zero for loss of capacity for enjoyment of life. The record shows the child suffered a nasty bite, but no permanent disfigurement other than minor scars.

In reviewing the granting of a motion for a new trial based on the amount of damages awarded, an appellate court must test the adequacy of the verdict based on whether it can be said that the jurors, as reasonable men, could not have reached that particular verdict. Fitzgerald v. Molle-Teeters, 520 So. 2d 645 (Fla. 2d DCA), rev. denied, 529 So. 2d 694 (Fla.1988). If reasonable men could differ as to whether the verdict was against the manifest weight of the evidence, the trial court may not properly grant the motion for a new trial. Fitzgerald; Griffis v. Hill, 230 So. 2d 143 (Fla.1969). A jury verdict should not be disturbed unless it shocks the judicial conscience of the court. Griffis at 144.

Absent clear evidence to the contrary, it must be presumed that the jury correctly followed the court’s instructions, applied the law and considered all the elements of damage. Eley v. Moris, 478 So. 2d 1100 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985); Radiant Oil Co. v. Herring, 146 Fla. 154, 200 So. 376 (1941). Special circumstances, such as prejudice or passion, misconception of the law or evidence, must be shown before such presumptions are overridden. Radi ant. In this case, there is no indication the jury failed to follow the court’s instructions, or that it failed to consider all of the elements of damage. Nor can we find any special circumstances which would justify overriding these presumptions.

In this case, the jury awarded a total of $10,030 in damages, for a relatively minor injury where the total medical expenses did not exceed $830. The award also included $3,000 for future medical treatment to remove any scarring. We cannot say this award so is prejudicial or erroneous that reasonable jurors could not have reached this verdict. Zero awards for pain and suffering have been upheld, even where a plaintiff received full compensation for medical expenses. City of Miami v. Smith, 165 So. 2d 748 (Fla.1964); DeLong v. Wickes Co., 545 So. 2d 362 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989). But here, the jury did award damages for past and future pain and suffering, and past and future disfigurement. We thus reverse the award of new trial and direct that the jury verdict be reinstated in this cause.

REVERSED; REMANDED.

GOSHORN and PETERSON, JJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw