Case Name: Joel P. TAYLOR, Jr., Appellant, v. GUNTER TRUCKING CO., INC., and Tyrone Alex Peoples, Appellees
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1988-02-04
Citations: 520 So. 2d 624
Docket Number: No. BO-239
Parties: Joel P. TAYLOR, Jr., Appellant, v. GUNTER TRUCKING CO., INC., and Tyrone Alex Peoples, Appellees.
Judges: BARFIELD, J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 520
Pages: 624–627

Head Matter:
Joel P. TAYLOR, Jr., Appellant, v. GUNTER TRUCKING CO., INC., and Tyrone Alex Peoples, Appellees.
No. BO-239.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.
Feb. 4, 1988.
Rehearing Denied March 16, 1988.
Ferrin C. Campbell, Sr., Crestview, for appellant.
T. Harrison Duke, of Bell, Hahn & Schuster, Pensacola, for appellees.

Opinion:
THOMPSON, Judge.
This is an appeal from a partial summary final judgment in favor of the defendants on plaintiff's claim for punitive damages. We affirm.
The appellant contends the trial court erred in granting a summary final judgment in favor of both defendants on his claim for punitive damages. With respect to both the corporate and individual defendants, the trial judge correctly entered summary judgment on the plaintiff's punitive damage claim because there is insufficient evidence to support an award of punitive damages to the plaintiff. Whether the facts of a particular case will bring the case within the rule allowing punitive damages is for the court, and only when there is evidence that punitive damages could properly be awarded must the issue be sent to the jury. The following decisions of the Florida Supreme Court support the trial judge's entry of a summary judgment in favor of the defendants on the punitive damage claim. Como Oil Co., Inc. v. O'Loughlin, 466 So.2d 1061 (Fla.1985); White Construction, Co., Inc. v. Dupont, 455 So.2d 1026 (Fla.1984); Carraway v. Revell, 116 So.2d 16 (Fla.1959); and Thompson v. State, 146 So. 201 (Fla.1933).
In Thompson the court reversed a manslaughter conviction. Thompson had a flat tire and parked his truck in his lane of travel on a two-lane highway at night without lights. In order to avoid colliding with Thompson's truck, another vehicle was required to swerve into the opposite lane, where it collided with a third vehicle, resulting in two deaths. Although Thompson had a flat tire, there was no evidence why his truck could not have been pulled off of the road onto the shoulder, leaving both lanes of the highway clear. In the instant case, instead of a two-lane highway with traffic totally blocked in one direction, there was another traffic lane, as well as a turn lane, in which vehicles could proceed safely avoiding both the parked truck and oncoming vehicles. The evidence in this case shows that at least two vehicles traveling in the right lane in which the truck was parked had safely avoided the truck and were not required to move into the oncoming lane. In addition, in the instant case the truck was in a 35 mile per hour speed zone in an urban area, and not on a highway with higher speed limits.
With respect to corporate defendant Gunter Trucking Co., Inc., there is not one iota of evidence in the record that there was any negligence or fault on the part of the corporate defendant and "in the absence of some fault on the part of the corporate employer, it is not punitively liable for the willful and wanton misconduct of its employees." Mercury Motors Express, Inc. v. Smith, 393 So.2d 545, 547 (Fla.1981). Furthermore, the facts in this case do not bring it within the exception to the Mercury Motors rule. The only evidence in the record regarding the relationship of the defendant Peoples to the defendant Gunter is that he was a truck driver, a mere employee. There is no evidence that he was president, primary owner, managing agent of the corporation or that he held any other position with the corporation which might result in his acts being deemed the acts of the corporation.
Accordingly, the partial summary final judgment in favor of the defendants/appel-lees is AFFIRMED.
BARFIELD, J., concurs.
ZEHMER, J., dissents.