JAMES P. COCHRAN, APPELLANT,
v.
F. RAY ABERCROMBIE, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 1960-02-10
No. 1287
ALLEN, C. J., and WHITE, JACK F., Associate Judge, concur.
118 So. 2d 636 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1960) Negative Treatment
Cited by 28 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

This appeal addresses whether a property owner owes a higher duty of care to a social guest injured by the owner's active negligence than the traditional Florida rule limiting liability to willful or wanton conduct. The court affirmed dismissal, holding that Florida does not recognize a distinction between active and passive negligence for licensees.


Holding

Florida recognizes only the traditional duty owed to licensees to refrain from willful or wanton injury, and does not adopt the distinction between active and passive negligence recognized in other jurisdictions. Therefore, ordinary negligence in actively starting a motor causing injury to a licensee does not create liability absent willfulness or wantonness.


Key Quotes

“The duty owed a licensee is to refrain from wanton negligence or wilful misconduct which would injure him, or to refrain from intentionally exposing him to danger.”

Establishes the standard duty owed to licensees under Florida law, which the court applies to reject the plaintiff's claim.

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Facts & Procedural History

The plaintiff went to the defendant's home to discuss a fishing trip. The defendant asked plaintiff to look at the car motor in the carport. While pla…

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Opinion of the Court
SHANNON, Judge.

SHANNON, Judge.

This is an appeal from a final judgment dismissing the appellant-plaintiff’s second amended complaint in an action sounding •in tort. Plaintiff’s second amended complaint alleges that plaintiff went to the defendant’s residence for the purpose of *637discussing a proposed fishing trip, and while there the defendant requested plaintiff to step over to the carport for the purpose of looking over the motor of defendant’s automobile. The defendant raised the hood, and, while leaving plaintiff in front of the car observing the motor, which was not then running, the defendant opened the car door and engaged the starter of the car which was in forward gear. The car lurched forward toward the plaintiff, injuring him. The complaint alleged that the defendant’s act of starting the motor under these circumstances was done negligently and without warning.

By his final order the trial judge took the position that under the allegations in the complaint the plaintiff was a licensee and that under the case law in Florida the standard of care owed to a licensee is to refrain from wilfully or wantonly causing him injury. As authority the court cited Goldberg v. Straus, Fla., 45 So.2d 883; Stewart v. Texas Co., Fla., 67 So.2d 653, and McNulty v. Hurley, Fla., 97 So.2d 185.

In his brief and on oral argument the plaintiff strongly urges us to reverse this case by distinguishing between active and passive negligence, and he also calls attention to the fact that Florida has not ruled upon this particular phase of the law.

Florida has, as have many other states, frequently set forth the duties owed by the occupier or possessor of property to another who comes on it. As to the duty of the possessor to each class, the case of McNulty v. Hurley, Fla.1957, 97 So.2d 185, 187, states:

“The duty owed by the owner or occupant of premises to each class of persons is also distinct. The duty owed by the owner or occupant to the trespasser is to refrain from committing a wilful or wanton injury against him with the rule being softened after discovery by the landowner of peril to the trespasser. Byers v. Gunn, Fla.1955, 81 So.2d 723.
“The duty owed a licensee is to refrain from wanton negligence or wilful misconduct which would injure him, or to refrain from intentionally exposing him to danger. City of Boca Raton v. Mattef, Fla.1956, 91 So.2d 644. There may be a further duty to the licensee to warn him of a defect or condition known to the owner or occupant to be dangerous when such danger is not open to ordinary observation by the licensee. Goldberg v. Straus, Fla.1950, 45 So.2d 883; 65 C.J. S. Negligence § 35g; Prosser, Torts, Sec. 77, p. 450; Restatement, Torts, Sec. 342, Comment d.
“A greater duty is owed to an invitee than to either of the other class of persons above mentioned. The owner or occupant owes an invitee the duty of keeping the premises in a reasonably safe condition, and, as plaintiff contends, also to guard against subjecting such person to dangers of which the owner or occupant is cognizant or might reasonably have foreseen. First Federal Sav. & Loan Ass’n of Miami v. Wylie, Fla.1950, 46 So.2d 396 and Messner v. Webb’s City, Inc., Fla. 1952, 62 So.2d 66.”

A “licensee” has been broadly defined as “a person who enters upon the property of another for his own convenience, pleasure, or benefit.” Stewart v. Texas Co., Fla. 1953, 67 So.2d 653, 654. “An invitee is normally considered to be one who enters upon the premises of another for purposes connected with the business of the owner or occupant of the premises.” City of Boca Raton v. Mattef, Fla. 1956, 91 So.2d 644, 647. That the plaintiff was a licensee on the facts stated has been determined by the trial court, and this, we think, is well supported by the cases collected in 25 A.L.R.2d 598, notwithstanding the fact that at the time of *638his injury he was carrying out a request by the defendant. The courts of various jurisdictions have held that incidental motives of the visit of a social guest, other than purely social ones, will not be sufficient to characterize the visitor as an "invitee.” These cases also indicate that minor services performed by the guest for the host during the visit will not be sufficient to change his status from licensee to invitee or business visitor.

Of the three cases cited by the trial court in the final judgment, all involved primarily the condition of the premises as opposed to a negligent act by the possessor. In Goldberg v. Straus, supra, the plaintiff was injured when she stepped in a hole in the possessor’s yard. In her complaint she charged that the possessor should have known of the hole and that he was negligent in allowing it to remain open. Our Supreme Court, in holding that the complaint failed to state a cause of action, did so on the ground that the plaintiff was a licensee and should take the premises as she found them, subject to the exception that the host will be held liable for injuries “caused to his guest by a natural or artificial condition on the premises, where the host has actual knowledge of the condition and realizes that it involves an unreasonable risk to his guest and has reason to believe that the guest will not discover the condition or realize the risk, by the exercise of reasonable care.” [45 So.2d 885.]

Stewart v. Texas Co., supra, involved a plaintiff who slipped on some accumulated grease which was wet from a recent rain. The plaintiff had entered the filling station property to obtain change for a $10 bill. The court held that she was at most a mere licensee “to which the operator of the establishment owed no duty except not intentionally to expose her to danger.”

McNulty v. Hurley, supra, concerned injuries to ,a churchgoer who fell while descending the church steps because of being jossled by other churchgoers. In holding the churchgoer to be a licensee the court stated that the duty of the defendant in that case was to “refrain from wanton negligence or wilful misconduct which would injure him, or to refrain from intentionally exposing him to danger.”

While no Florida cases have been found which distinguish between “active” and “passive” negligence, courts of other states do distinguish between the two. The Restatement of Torts, § 341 states:

“A possessor of land is subject to liability to licensees, whether business visitors or gratuitous licensees, for bodily harm caused to them by his failure to carry on his activities with reasonable care for their safety, unless the licensees know or from facts known to them, should know of the possessor’s activities and of the risk involved therein.”

Many jurisdictions follow the rule that the possessor is under a duty to both licensees and trespassers to abstain from “active” as opposed to “passive” negligence. Some of the cases clearly distinguish this rule from the “wilful and wanton injury” rule. Other cases combine the two rules without distinction. In support of the classification of active and passive negligence the plaintiff has called our attention to the annotation which appears in 156 A.L.R. at page 1228, where the annotator has cited cases decided by the U. S. Courts of Appeal and the Courts of California, District of Columbia, Nevada, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

While no Florida cases have been cited in the briefs of either plaintiff or defendant where the facts are similar to those in the instant case, we feel that the case of Pensacola, St. Andrews & Gulf S. S. Co. v. Austin, 1912, 63 Fla. 241, 58 So. 611, 613, precludes our adopting the “active” and “passive” negligence theory which is urged by the plaintiff. In that *639case the negligence of the defendant can he classified as “active”, although the words “active” and “passive” were not used to distinguish the types of negligence. The negligence involved in the instant case would undoubtedly be held in the jurisdictions which have adopted the “active” and “passive” negligence theory to be “active” negligence. Following the reasoning in the Pensacola, St. Andrews & Gulf S. S. Co. v. Austin case, supra, then, we must decline to adopt from other jurisdictions the “active” and “passive” negligence theory.

In the Pensacola, St. Andrews & Gulf S. S. Co. v. Austin case, supra, plaintiff sought to recover damages for personal injuries alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the defendant steamship company when she was struck by a barrel of rosin which fell through the open door of a box car while the car was being pushed forward in the usual manner. Plaintiff had gone to the freight dock of defendant, “a most unusual place for ladies or passengers, or the public generally to go,” to pick up a package which plaintiff’s mother had sent to her by one of defendant’s employees — not in his official capacity, but merely as a friend. The lower court had refused to direct a verdict for the defendant, and the jury trial resulted in a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff. In reversing the judgment, our Supreme Court said:

“ * * * We have given all the evidence a most careful reading, and fail to find any wantonness or willfulness, or even gross negligence, on the part of the defendant toward the plaintiff, who was there ‘as a trespasser, or at most a licensee,’ as the trial court instructed the jury. This being true, we are of the opinion that the trial court erred in refusing to direct a verdict for the defendant. * * *«

It necessarily follows that in not adopting the “active” and “passive” theory we will have to affirm the judgment of the lower court.

Affirmed

ALLEN, C. J., and WHITE, JACK F., Associate Judge, concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By (12 total)

  • HIX v. Billen, 284 So. 2d 209 (Fla. 1973)
    …told her not to and the flames burst forth. She contends he told her to turn on the ignition. This was a factual dispute for the jury. Her alleged negligence has no relationship to the premises. Conflict is most direct with Cochran v. Abercrombie, 118 So. 2d 636 (Fla.App.2d 1960), involving strikingly similar facts regarding the starting of an automobile which the defendant landowner left in forward gear so that it leaped forward and struck the plaintiff who was standing in front of it, which he was doing i…
  • Crutchfield v. Charles W. and Bessie Adams, 152 So. 2d 808 (Fla. 1st DCA 1963)
    …hout exercising reasonable care to make the condition reasonably safe, or to warn the guest of the condition and the risk involved therein [citing numerous authorities].” See also McNulty v. Hurley, 97 So. 2d 185 (Fla.1957); Cochran v. Abercrombie, 118 So. 2d 636, 79 A.L.R.2d 986 (Fla.App.1960); and Lowery v. Rosenberg, 147 So. 2d 321 (Fla.App.1962). On the other hand, if the injured person is legally classified as a licensee or trespasser, a different rule of liability may be applicable. These distinctions…
  • Lowery v. Rosenberg, 147 So. 2d 321 (Fla. 1st DCA 1962)
    …2, 42 N.Y.S.2d 592; Comeau v. Comeau, 285 Mass. 578, 189 N.E. 588, 92 A.L.R. 1002.' In several subsequent Florida cases the courts have recognized the above exception to the rule. McNulty v. Hurley, 97 So. 2d 185 (Fla.1957). Cochran v. Abercrombie, 118 So. 2d 636, 79 A.L.R.2d 986 (Fla.App. 1960). In the judgment appealed from herein the Circuit Court expressly invoked and applied the exception to the rule as set forth in the Goldberg case. We think that the court was correct in doing this. The evidence at t…

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