Case Name: HEINTZELMAN'S TRUCK CENTER, INC., and Ken Kaatz, Appellants, v. D. Leroy GIBSON, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1981-10-21
Citations: 409 So. 2d 1060
Docket Number: No. 80-86
Parties: HEINTZELMAN’S TRUCK CENTER, INC., and Ken Kaatz, Appellants, v. D. Leroy GIBSON, Appellee.
Judges: ORFINGER and FRANK D. UP-CHURCH, Jr., JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 409
Pages: 1060–1061

Head Matter:
HEINTZELMAN’S TRUCK CENTER, INC., and Ken Kaatz, Appellants, v. D. Leroy GIBSON, Appellee.
No. 80-86.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
Oct. 21, 1981.
Rehearing Denied Feb. 22, 1982.
R. L. Russell, of Van Den Berg, Gay & Burke, P.A., Orlando, for appellants.
Daniel J. Roberson, of Roberson & Roberson, Deland, for appellee.

Opinion:
SHARP, Judge.
Heintzelman's Truck Center, Inc. (Heint-zelman's) and Kaatz appeal from a final judgment awarding damages to appellee, Gibson. Gibson sued appellants for the conversion of a truck he purchased from Heint-zelman's. The trial judge directed a verdict in favor of Gibson on the issue of liability and awarded Gibson compensatory damages against Heintzelman's and Kaatz (jointly and severally) of nineteen thousand one hundred eighty-one dollars fifty cents ($19,-181.50). The jury awarded Gibson nineteen thousand dollars ($19,000) in punitive damages against Heintzelman's.
After a careful review of the record we find no reversible error occurred with regard to the compensatory damage award. Accordingly, it is affirmed. However, the punitive damage award against Heintzel-man's is not sustainable under the dictates of Mercury Motors Express, Inc. v. Smith, 393 So.2d 545 (Fla. 1981). It is therefore reversed.
AFFIRMED IN PART; REVERSED IN PART.
ORFINGER and FRANK D. UP-CHURCH, Jr., JJ., concur.