VIVIAN JONES, APPELLANT,
v.
BUDGET RENT-A-CAR SYSTEMS, INC., APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 1999-01-13
No. 98-1455
Before JORGENSON, LEVY and SHEVIN, JJ.
723 So. 2d 401 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1999) Positive Treatment
Cited by 6 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

Jones was injured when a car rented from Budget crashed into her home due to an alleged intentional act by an unknown assailant. The trial court improperly allowed the unknown intentional tortfeasor to appear on the verdict form, reducing Jones's recovery based on comparative fault principles that do not apply to intentional conduct. The appellate court reversed, holding that comparative fault statutes do not permit allocation of fault between negligent and intentional tortfeasors.


Holding

The trial court erred in permitting both the negligent tortfeasor (Budget) and the intentional tortfeasor to appear on the verdict form. Section 768.81 does not apply to cases involving intentional conduct and does not permit a negligent tortfeasor to reduce its liability based on an intentional tortfeasor's actions. The final judgment must be reversed and judgment entered for the full amount of jury damages.


Headnotes

[1] A jury verdict form may not include an alleged intentional tortfeasor when determining the percentage of fault of a negligent tortfeasor.

[2] Florida Statutes section 768.81 does not permit the allocation of fault between negligent and intentional tortfeasors.

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Key Quotes

“section 768.81, Florida Statutes, does not permit allocation of fault between both negligent and intentional tortfeasors”

States the core legal principle that comparative fault statutes do not apply when both negligent and intentional tortfeasors are involved

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Facts & Procedural History

Vivian Jones was injured when a vehicle rented from Budget Rent-A-Car, driven by Hirotaka Sakamoto, crashed through the wall of her home. Sakamoto cla…

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Opinion of the Court
SHEVIN, Judge.

SHEVIN, Judge.

Vivian Jones appeals a final judgment reducing her jury award and awarding defendant, Budget Rent-A-Car Systems, Inc., attorney’s fees pursuant to section 768.79(6)(a), Florida Statutes. We reverse.

Jones was injured when a car driven by Hirotaka Sakamoto, rented from Budget, crashed through the wall of her home, throwing her to the ground. Sakamoto claimed that an unknown assailant approached the vehicle, struck it with a hammer, and grabbed the wheel. Sakamoto lost control of the vehicle, and careened into Jones’s wall. Jones sued Budget. Budget filed an offer of judgment for $35,001. Budget asserted, as an affirmative defense, that the negligence of the unknown assailant was the superseding, intervening cause .of the injuries. The court placed the unknown assailant on the verdict form.

The jury found Budget 30% at fault; the unknown assailant was found 70% at fault. The total damages were $41,914, reduced to $18,814 based on Budget’s percentage of fault. Jones filed a motion for new trial asserting that under the holding in Merrill Crossings Assoc. v. McDonald, 705 So. 2d 560 (Fla.1997), the court erred in placing the intentional tortfeasor on the verdict form. The court denied the new trial motion. Budget filed a motion for attorney’s fees asserting that the plaintiffs judgment was at least 25% less than the amount of its offer. § 768.79(6)(a), Fla. Stat. (1997). The court granted the motion and assessed fees against Jones.

We reverse the final judgment because the trial court erred in denying Jones’s motion for new trial. The motion properly asserted that pursuant to the holding in Merrill Crossings, the verdict form should not have included the name of an alleged third party intentional tortfeasor. In this case, as argued in Merrill Crossings and Stellas v. Alamo Rent-A-Car, Inc., 702 So. 2d 232 (Fla.1997), Budget seeks to offset its negligence by shifting liability to the intentional tortfeasor. As the Florida Supreme Court explained in Merrill Crossings, section 768.81, Florida Statutes, does not permit allocation of fault between both negligent and intentional tortfeasors. See Wal-Mart v. Coker, 714 So. 2d 423 (Fla.1998); Merrill Crossings. See also Wyke v. Polk County School Bd., 137 F. 3d 1292 (11th Cir.1998).

In Stellas, the car rental company attempted to apportion fault between itself and an unknown intentional tortfeasor who attacked the rental vehicle and occupants. Rejecting the rental company’s argument, the supreme court explained that it was error to permit both the negligent tortfeasor and the intentional tortfeasor to appear on the verdict. “By its very terms, [section 768.81(4)(b) ] simply does not apply to cases involving intentional conduct — either as a vehicle for an intentional tortfeasor to reduce his liability because of the negligence of a third party, or as in this case, for a negligent tortfeasor to reduce his liability because of [the] intentional tortuous act of a third party.” Stellas v. Alamo Rent-A-Car, Inc., 673 So. 2d 940, 945 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996)(Jorgenson, J., dissenting), quashed, 702 So. 2d 232 (Fla.1997).

The analogy Budget attempts to draw between the present case and Fabre v. Marin, 623 So. 2d 1182 (Fla.1993), was addressed and rejected by the Merrill Crossings court when it explained that Fabre addressed the combined negligence of two drivers. The supreme court has explained that “negligent acts are fundamentally different from intentional acts.” Merrill Crossings, 705 So. 2d at 562. The latter will not serve to reduce the liability of a negligent tortfeasor. See id.

Based on this result, we hold that section 768.81 is inapplicable in this case. Accordingly, we reverse the final judgment and remand with directions to enter judgment in plaintiffs favor for the full amount of the damages awarded by the jury.1

Reversed and remanded with directions.

. The remaining point raised by appellant lacks merit.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Palafrugell Holdings, Inc. v. Marwin S. Cassel, 825 So. 2d 937 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001)
    …v. General Motors Corp., 734 So. 2d 437 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999)(“[I]t was error for the drunk driver, an intentional tortfeasor, to appear on the same verdict form as General Motors, the negligent tortfeasor ... ”); Jones v. Budget Rent-A-Car Sys., Inc., 723 So. 2d 401 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999). Palafrugell’s allegations regarding Hernandez sound in fraud and conversion, .which are intentional torts. Palafrugell’s allegations against B & C, on the other hand, are for negligence.1 Therefore, Hernandez is not an indispensa…
  • Clark v. Polk Cnty., 753 So. 2d 138 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000)
    …a basis for the court’s decision. If Nash requires a defendant literally to furnish the name of the nonparty tortfeasor, it is curious that this requirement was not mentioned or applied in McDonald. See also Jones v. Budget Rent-A-Car Systems, Inc., 723 So. 2d 401 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999) (identity of nonparty tort-feasor unknown, but case decided on other ground); Hasburgh v. WJA Realty, 697 So. 2d 219 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997) (concluding that record adequately gave notice that [*143] apportionment was at issue notwith…
  • Vantran Indus. v. Ryder Truck Rental, Inc., 890 So. 2d 421 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004)

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