Case Name: STATE of Florida, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Appellant, v. WEGGIES BANANA BOAT, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1990-12-21
Citations: 576 So. 2d 722
Docket Number: No. 89-02908
Parties: STATE of Florida, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Appellant, v. WEGGIES BANANA BOAT, Appellee.
Judges: RYDER, A.C.J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 576
Pages: 722–726

Head Matter:
STATE of Florida, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Appellant, v. WEGGIES BANANA BOAT, Appellee.
No. 89-02908.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.
Dec. 21, 1990.
Rehearing Denied April 4, 1991.
Gregory G. Costas and Robert I. Scanlan of Dept, of Transp., Tallahassee, for appellant.
Michael W. Gaines and James A. Helinger, Jr., of James A. Helinger, Jr., P.A., Clearwater, and Alan E. DeSerio of Brigham, Moore, Gaylord, Wilson, Ulmer, Schuster & Sachs, Tampa, for appellee.

Opinion:
FRANK, Judge.
The condemnation dispute between Weggies Banana Boat and the Department of Transportation (DOT) was first before this court upon the trial court's sua sponte order directing a mistrial as a result of two jurors having impeached the verdict immediately following its rendition. We reversed the trial court, treated the mistrial order as one granting a new trial, and "remand[ed] this matter [for] the trial court to reinstate the verdict and enter judgment consistent with the jury's verdict." Florida Department of Transportation v. Weggies Banana Boat, 545 So.2d 474 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989) (Weggies I). Our opinion was issued on June 21,1989. On or about June 30, 1989, prior to the expiration of the rehearing period provided in Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure 9.330, Weg-gies' counsel filed a motion in the trial court seeking a new trial. Thereafter, our mandate issued. Weggies' new trial motion was amended on or about August 29, 1989 and supplemented on or about September 8, 1989. The June 30 motion was confined to a new trial of the jury's zero award of business damages. The amendment to that motion expanded the issues to be retried to severance damages and the value of the land taken by the DOT, each such element having been compensated in the jury verdict. The supplement to the amended motion again attacked the zero award of business damages and added an issue arising from DOT'S alleged misrepresentations to condemnees as to the nature of the changes in the roadway. On September 19, 1989, the trial court, without seeking the permission of this court, entered an order directing a new trial which for the most part is grounded upon a "shocked" judicial conscience. After our initial consideration of this matter, we determined to relinquish jurisdiction to permit the trial court to enter a revised new trial order limited to business damages. We have reviewed that order, but before explicating our reasons for rejecting it, we find it appropriate to comment first upon the procedural cloud surrounding this lawsuit from a time shortly following publication of our opinion in Weggies I.
We need not burden this opinion with extensive reference to authority in exposition of the dignity to be accorded a mandate. After remand "[a] trial court is without authority to alter or evade the mandate of an appellate court absent permission to do so." Blackhawk Heating & Plumbing Co., Inc. v. Data Lease Financial Corp., 328 So.2d 825, 827 (Fla.1975) (quoting Cone v. Cone, 68 So.2d 886 (Fla.1953)). As is noted above, such permission was never requested from this court. In short, "[t]he trial court lacked authority to deviate from our mandate by granting the motion for new trial. It was limited by our direction to the task of reinstating the verdicts." Waltman v. Prime Motor Inns, Inc., 461 So.2d 120, 120-121 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1984). See also Stirling v. Sapp, 238 So.2d 697 (Fla. 2d DCA 1970).
We recognize, of course, that the trial court's sua sponte order impeaching the jury verdict foreclosed Weggies from seeking review of the verdict in Weggies I. The verdict was rendered on August 19 and the mistrial order was entered on August 22. That order effectively vacated the verdict. Weggies, however, did nothing to bring to the trial court's attention the defect in its sua sponte order, obviously content with the result. Weggies accordingly ran the risk of the very result reached in Weggies I. The DOT, on the other hand, attempted to persuade the trial court m a motion for rehearing that the juror's impeachment of the verdict would not sustain a post-verdict mistrial. In sum, Weggies had an adequate opportunity to join with the DOT in pointing out the trial court's mistake, to accord it an opportunity to correct the error and, simultaneously, to seek a new trial within the remainder of the period prescribed in rule 1.530 of the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure. Based upon the foregoing, we would have been wholly warranted in simply reversing the post-verdict order granting a new trial and again directing. the trial court to reinstate the jury verdict. In the interest of justice, we chose to review the order granting Weggies' motion for new trial. That order was deficient. The trial court's failure to provide us with its view of the evidence, supported by the record, justifying its second determination to award a new trial, confronted us with the precise disadvantage the supreme court intended in Wackenhut Corporation v. Canty, 359 So.2d 430 (Fla.1978), to obviate — an order granting a motion for new trial that fails to articulate reasons we can consider in fulfilling our responsibility to determine whether judicial discretion has been abused. We, however, relinquished jurisdiction and provided the trial court another opportunity to fashion a new trial order conforming to the requirements of not only rule 1.530(f) of the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, but also the directions expressed in Wackenhut.
Upon review of the court's most recent and specific order granting a new trial, after permitting the parties to file supplemental briefs, we find no basis for overriding the jury verdict. Before turning to the one area upon which we have focused, the business damage claim, it is appropriate to note without detailed discussion that our canvas of the record has not been to test the soundness of the verdict awarding damages for severance and taking of the land. The compensatory amounts determined by the jury as to those elements of injury fall within the range the jury was permitted to consider.
We are persuaded from our evaluation of the record that the jury was fully able to conclude that Weggies was not entitled to compensation for claimed business damages. Weggies asserted that the DOT's modification of the highway adjacent to its place of business resulted in a 23 foot wall and a roadway obliterating the visual and physical accessibility of motorists passing its premises. "The loss of the most convenient access is not compensable where other suitable access continues to exist." Palm Beach County v. Tessler, 538 So.2d 846, 849 (Fla.1989). The jury was accorded a view of the site. Coupled with that fact was the competing testimony of two certified public accountants, one of whom stated that Weggies would suffer no economic detriment from the altered highway and the other asserting that it would. It remained a jury function to weigh the evidence and reach a verdict:
For a verdict to be found against the manifest weight of the evidence, the evidence must be "clear, obvious and indisputable." McNair v. Davis, 518 So.2d 416 (Fla. 2d DCA 1988); Perenic v. Castelli, 353 So.2d 1190 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977), cert. denied, 359 So.2d 1211 (Fla.1978). Where the evidence is conflicting, the weight to be given to that evidence is in the province of the jury and, as the fourth district noted in Perenic, "[t]o allow the court to invade this province of the jury would violate the right to a jury trial." 353 So.2d at 1192. See also Harper v. City of Tampa, 374 So.2d 1385 (Fla. 2d DCA 1979).
Hawk v. Seaboard System Railroad, Inc., 547 So.2d 669, 671 (Fla.2d DCA 1989). Furthermore, any decrease in visibility or increased circuity of access Weggies suffered as a result of the overall design of the project is not compensable. Division of Administration, State of Florida Department of Transportation v. Ness Trailer Park, Inc., 489 So.2d 1172 (Fla. 4th DCA 1986). Even were these matters com-pensable, the jury could have calculated them into its severance damages award. See Mulkey v. Division of Administration, State of Florida, Department of Transportation, 448 So.2d 1062 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984). Indeed, damages relating to access and visibility are more akin to severance damages than to business damages, which are "in the nature of lost profits attributable to the reduced profit-making capacity of the business." Mulkey, 448 So.2d at 1066.
The jury's zero verdict is within the range of the expert's testimony and cannot be set aside. Roadway Express, Inc. v. Dade County, 537 So.2d 594 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988); Stewart v. Alachua County, 320 So.2d 33 (Fla. 1st DCA 1975). From our review of the record in its totality, we are convinced that the trial court merely reweighed the evidence and attached a different value to it as if it were sitting as a juror, thus abusing its discretionary power in granting the motion for new trial. See Andrews v. Tew By And Through Tew, 512 So.2d 276 (Fla. 2d DCA 1987).
Reversed and remanded with directions that the jury's verdict be reinstated and a judgment for the DOT be entered upon it.
RYDER, A.C.J., concurs.
ALTENBERND, J., concurs specially.