Case ID: so2d_504/html/0521-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM. DAUKSCH, Judge,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Dwight David GODWIN, Appellant, v. The FELDSPAR CORPORATION, Appellee.
    No. 86-776.
    District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
    March 26, 1987.
    Alan B. Fields, Jr., of Dowda and Fields, Chartered, Palatka, for appellant.
    Lauchlin T. Waldoch, of Dell, Graham, Willcox, Barber, Henderson & Cates, P.A., Gainesville, for appellee.
   PER CURIAM.

AFFIRMED.

UPCHURCH, C.J., and SHARP, J., concur.

DAUKSCH, J., dissents with opinion.

DAUKSCH, Judge,

dissenting.

I respectfully dissent.

Appellant filed suit against appellee for injuries he suffered in a motorcycle accident. After the jury verdict established his damages at $20,000 and his comparative negligence at 60% and that of the appellee at 40% he was entitled to receive $8,000 from appellee. After trial and before judgment appellee, for the first time, raised an issue regarding a previous settlement with another party regarding the same accident. In that matter appellant received an $8,000 settlement. No release or covenant not to sue was given to appellee or anyone as a result of that settlement. The trial judge permitted appellee to amend its pleadings to seek a setoff or credit against the amount it was required to pay ($8,000) in the amount of the other settlement (also $8,000). The trial judge first allowed an amendment to the pleadings and then evidence of the settlement. All after the case was over. I would reverse for that error and because of the other procedural errors which caused substantive damage to appellant.