STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE CO., APPELLANT,
v.
JOSEPH H. GANZ ET AL., APPELLEES
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State Farm appeals a procedural ruling regarding compliance with Florida Appellate Rules governing the format of briefs and appendices. The court holds that appellant State Farm adequately complied with Rule 3.7(f)(5) by including page references to separately-bound trial testimony within its brief itself, rather than in the appendix.
The court holds that Rule 3.7(f)(5) does not require page references to be set out in the appendix; rather, references to the pages of transcript testimony within the brief itself constitutes sufficient compliance with the rule when the testimony is bound and paged separately.
“If the transcript of the testimony is bound and paged separately it shall be sufficient to refer to the pages of the transcript appellant desires the court to read without copying the same in the appendix.”
The text of Rule 3.7(f)(5) Florida Appellate Rules, which is the central rule at issue in the motion.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceState Farm filed an appeal with a brief and appendix. The trial testimony had been transcribed, bound separately, and paged with an index. State Farm'…
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The appellee Ganz has filed a motion to strike the brief of the appellant in this cause and the same has been orally argued before the court. The question presented by the appellee’s motion is whether Rule 3.7, subd. f(5) Florida Appellate Rules, 31 F. S.A., requires the appendix accompanying a brief to contain references to the pages of the transcript of testimony where the testimony is bound and paged separately.
In this instance, the testimony adduced at the trial was transcribed, bound and paged separately with an index. The appellant filed its brief, together with an appendix, but the appendix contained no references to the pages of the transcript of testimony that the appellant desired the court to read. The appellant's brief, however, did contain page references to the transcript of testimony of various witnesses whose testimony was referred to in the brief.
Rule 3.7, subd. f(5) Florida Appellate Rules, as it is pertinent to the motion here under consideration provides:
“ * * * If the transcript of the testimony is bound and paged separately it shall be sufficient to refer to the pages of the transcript appellant desires the court to read without copying the same in the appendix.”
The appellee contends that the rule obviates the necessity of copying the testimony verbatim in the appendix, but requires that the references to the pages of the transcript of testimony shall be included in the appendix to the brief and that the appellant in this instance failed to include in its appendix a reference to the pages of the testimony which it desired the court to read.
We conclude that the appellant has complied with the spirit as well as the practical application of the rule by referring in its brief to the specific pages of the transcript of testimony of the witnesses whose testimony is treated or relied upon. The rule does not require that a reference to the pages of the transcript of testimony be set out in the appendix but only that such testimony as is set out in question and answer form shall be included in the appendix. The appellant has referred the court, in its brief, to the pages of the transcript of testimony, in this instance separately bound and indexed, and that, we conclude, is sufficient compliance with the rule to withstand the appellee’s motion.
*593In passing, we suggest for the benefit of the bar, that in those instances where it is intended or contemplated that the testimony will not be included verbatim in an appendix filed with a brief, difficulty could be obviated by directing the clerk of the trial court to bind, page and index separately the transcript of the testimony which is to be brought to the appellate court so that court’s attention may be thereafter directed, by appropriate notation in the brief, to the specific pages of the transcript of testimony that counsel desires the court to read. We do not intend, nor should this opinion be so construed, to indicate that this court is amending, modifying or eliminating any of the requirements of the Florida Appellate Rules as they apply to the contents and form of appendices.
Accordingly, the motion to strike is denied.
CARROLL, CHAS., C. J., and HORTON and PEARSON, JL, concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Morris v. Rabara, 145 So. 2d 265 (Fla. 2d DCA 1962)…in the appendix.” Appellant has complied with this quoted part of the Rule and, therefore, it was unnecessary for the appellant to include any part of the testimony in his appendix. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Ganz, Fla.App.1959, 112 So. 2d 591. Appellee also filed her motion to quash and affirm upon the ground that this appeal was frivolous. We point out again that in such a motion the burden is upon the movant to point out clearly and concisely the exact matter on which he bases his con…
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State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Ganz, 119 So. 2d 319 (Fla. 3d DCA 1960)
Authorities Cited
- State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Ganz, 111 So. 2d 91 (Fla. 3d DCA 1959)