Case Name: George SHEEHAN and Ruth M. Sheehan, his wife, Appellants, v. Renne Emsley ALLRED, John L. Lee and Mahalie Lee, his wife, Appellees
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1962-11-15
Citations: 146 So. 2d 760
Docket Number: No. D-144
Parties: George SHEEHAN and Ruth M. Sheehan, his wife, Appellants, v. Renne Emsley ALLRED, John L. Lee and Mahalie Lee, his wife, Appellees.
Judges: CARROLL, DONALD IC., C. J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 146
Pages: 760–767

Head Matter:
George SHEEHAN and Ruth M. Sheehan, his wife, Appellants, v. Renne Emsley ALLRED, John L. Lee and Mahalie Lee, his wife, Appellees.
No. D-144.
District Court of Appeal of Florida. First District.
Nov. 15, 1962.
Rehearing Denied Dec. 10, 1962.
Emerson L. Parker, of Parker, Parker & Battaglia, Madeira Beach, and Gilman M. Hammond, Pinellas Park, for appellants.
A. Frank O’Kelley and H. O. Pemberton, ■of Keen, O’Kelley & Spitz and W. K. Whitfield, Tallahassee, for appellees.

Opinion:
WIGGINTON, Judge.
This appeal by the plaintiffs in an automobile negligence action is from a final judgment entered upon a jury verdict rendered in favor of the defendants. The prin•cipal point on appeal questions the correctness of the trial court's ruling which denied plaintiffs' motion for a directed verdict on the issue of liability at the conclusion of all evidence.
The complaint charges defendants with the negligent operation of their respective •motor vehicles on an open state highway whereby defendant Allred's vehicle struck defendant Lees' vehicle from the rear, causing the latter to be propelled into the rear of plaintiffs' vehicle at a time when all three vehicles were traveling in a northerly direction on the highway. Defendants' respective answers to the complaint interpose the defenses of general denial and of con-tributory negligence.
At the time plaintiffs moved the court for a directed verdict in their favor on the issue of liability, the evidence considered in a light most favorable to defendants revealed 'the following factual situation. Plaintiff wife was driving her automobile in a northerly direction along a two lane state highway. She was followed by the vehi•cle owned by defendant John L. Lee then being operated by his wife, Mahalie Lee. Following both of these vehicles was the vehicle owned and operated by defendant Allred. Allred was driving at a faster rate of speed than were the two forward vehicles and as he approached from the rear he attempted to pass them. He turned Tiis vehicle to the left side of the highway •preparatory to passing the slower moving •vehicles without sounding any warning of his approach and just as he reached the rear of the Lee vehicle the latter likewise attempted to pass plaintiffs' vehicle which was traveling at a slow rate of speed, or had actually come to a stop in the highway. The right front side of the Allred vehicle struck the left rear of the Lee vehicle causing the latter to be propelled into and upon plaintiffs' vehicle resulting in the damages alleged in the complaint. Allred testified he was not forewarned that Lee intended to pass plaintiff, and that had not the Lee vehicle turned to the left and into Allred's lane of traffic the latter would have been able to pass both forward vehicles without difficulty or incident. Mrs. Lee testified that before turning to her left in an attempt to pass plaintiffs' vehicle she looked into her rear view mirror, but did not observe any vehicle approaching from the rear. She stated that had her vehicle not been struck by Allred's vehicle at the moment she attempted to pass plaintiffs' automobile she would have been able to accomplish her intended purpose without difficulty or incident. A disinterested witness, one Metcalf, testified that he was following the Allred car by some three or four hundred .yards when he saw Allred move to the left side of the highway to pass the two slower moving vehicles then in the lane of traffic. Metcalf said he saw the brake light on the Sheehan car illuminate some thirty seconds prior to the collision, but that it never came to a halt until after it was struck. He estimated that Allred was some four car lengths behind the Lee vehicle when the latter pulled out of the lane of traffic to pass the Sheehan automobile.
It was on the foregoing state of the evidence that plaintiffs made a "motion for a directed verdict in their favor on the issue of liability, submitting to the jury for its determination the question of which of the defendants was guilty of negligence that proximately caused the collision, or whether both defendants were jointly guilty of such negligence." This motion was denied by the trial judge, which denial forms the principal point of this appeal.
Appellees earnestly contend that this court is precluded from considering the foregoing point on appeal for the reason that appellants failed to move for a new trial and procure a ruling thereon, prior to filing their notice of appeal. They cite as authority in support of this position those decisions which hold that assignments of error directed to a verdict or to a judgment entered on or pursuant to a verdict cannot support questions involving consideration of the sufficiency or weight of the evidence unless such questions have first been presented to the trial judge by a motion for new trial and an adverse ruling entered thereon. We do not consider that the principle of law urged by appellees is applicable to the facts in this case. Appellants do not question the weight of the evidence to support the verdict and judgment. It is their position that there is in this record a complete absence of any evidence from which the jury could have lawfully concluded that the collision in question proximately resulted from any contributory negligence of plaintiffs. This was a point which was raised by plaintiffs' motion for directed verdict on the issue of liability. In ruling adversely to plaintiffs on this, motion, the trial judge at that time considered the evidence which had been adduced during the trial and concluded as a matter of law that there was sufficient evidence in the record to support a verdict favorable to defendants. Under these circumstances it was not necessary for plaintiffs to have filed a motion for new trial in order to have the court's ruling on this motion reviewed on appeal. In the Furr case this court considered the correctness of a trial court's order granting a directed verdict at the conclusion of the evidence despite the fact that no motion for new trial had been filed by appellant subsequent to the entry of the verdict. In that case this court said:
"On the other hand, when the trial judge has this opportunity in his consideration of a motion for a directed verdict at the close of all of the evidence and exercises the power of directing a verdict on the basis of a legal conclusion as to the sufficiency or insufficiency of the evidence, then his ruling can be reviewed without the necessity of an intervening motion for a new trial.
"The rule appears to be clear that when a trial judge passes upon a motion for a directed verdict at the close of all the evidence he thereby arrives at a conclusion of law rather than of fact. In other words, his judgment is grounded on the proposition that viewing the evidence in its aspects most favorable to the party against whom the verdict is directed, it necessarily follows as a matter of law that such party could not be successful if the evidence were submitted to the jury. The conclusion reached by the trial judge under such circumstances is a conclusion of law resulting from the presence of a state of facts which permits of no other legal result. Warner v. Goding, 91 Fla. 260, 107 So. 406; Greenberg v. Post, 155 Fla. 135, 19 So.2d 714."
Appellees contend that our ruling in the Furr case is not applicable here for the reason that in Furr the motion for directed verdict was granted, whereas in this case it was denied. We do not perceive that this distinction alters the applicability of the rule to the facts in this case. If it were appellants' contention that the verdict is contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence and the justice of the cause, the sufficiency and weight of such evidence could not be reviewed on this appeal in the absence of a motion for new trial by appellants, and an order denying the same. It is not appellants' position that they should have a new trial because of the foregoing reason, but that the court erred in denying their motion because there is no evidence present in the record which can lawfully support the verdict rendered by the jury in favor of defendants.
We have carefully reviewed the record but fail to find any evidence of negligence attributable to plaintiffs which could have been lawfully found by the jury to be the proximate cause of the collision. Ap-pellees invite attention to the conflicting evidence which tends to show that plaintiff brought her vehicle to a stop on the highway directly in the lane of traffic, thereby making it necessary for each of the defendants to pass her. It is suggested that plaintiff's act of stopping her vehicle in the highway is a violation of the statute and constitutes an act of negligence which bars recovery. Even should plaintiff's act of stopping her vehicle in the highway constitute negligence, the evidence affirmatively establishes that such negligence, if any, was not the proximate cause of the collision and the ensuing damages suffered as a result thereof. The Lees testified that they were several hundred feet from plaintiffs' vehicle when they thought it had come to a stop in the highway. They testified that had not their vehicle been struck by Allred from the rear, they would have been able to pass plaintiffs' automobile without difficulty. Of similar import was the testimony adduced by Allred. The jury could not have lawfully concluded that plaintiffs' negligence, if any, contributed to or was the proximate cause of the collision. The only function which the jury could have properly performed under the evidence in this record was to determine whether Allred or Lee, or both, were guilty of the negligent act which proximately caused the collision out of which plaintiffs' damages arose. We reach this conclusion based upon an analysis of the evidence which affirmatively establishes that the collision in question resulted exclusively from an act of negligence committed either by Allred or Lee, or both. The evidence is not susceptible of the con-elusion that the collision did or could have been the result of unavoidable accident.
In the Budgen case this court said:
"Where there is some substantial evidence to support a verdict for one party, a directed verdict for the other party should not be granted merely because a preponderance of the evidence favors the movant. Furthermore, a party who moves for a directed verdict admits not only the facts proved by the evidence adduced, but also admits every conclusion favorable to the adverse party that the jury might fairly and reasonably infer from the evidence. And, when there is room for a difference of opinion between reasonable men as to the existence of evidentiary facts from which an ultimate fact is sought to be established, or when there is room for such difference as to the inferences which might reasonably be drawn from conceded facts, the court should submit the case to the jury for its finding. It is the jury's conclusion that should prevail in such case, and not the views of the judge."
We further held, however, that if no evidence is introduced upon which the jury may lawfully find a verdict for one party, then a verdict may be directed for the opposite party.
Reverting to the question presented for our decision can it be said that the trial judge erred in denying the motion made by plaintiff for a directed verdict on the issue of liability, leaving it to the jury's determination as to which defendant, or whether both defendants jointly committed the act of negligence which was the sole proximate cause of the collision. The answer to this question involves a determination as to whether a trial judge may properly grant a motion for directed verdict on the issue of liability in favor of a plaintiff without at the same time designating the defendant or defendants against whom the verdict shall be directed.
The directed verdict as now employed is a mere fiction in that when a motion therefor is granted, there is in truth no verdict but merely the determination of the court on a question of law. The purpose of such a motion is to enable the court to determine whether there is any question of fact to be submitted to the jury on any of the issues involved in the case, and whether any verdict other than the one directed would be erroneous as a matter of law. The motion has been variously characterized as a request for a directed verdict, a peremptory instruction or an affirmative charge. By whatever name it is called, it is essentially a procedural device by which an issue made by the pleadings is withdrawn from the jury's consideration when the evidence establishes without conflict that the moving party is entitled to judgment on the issue as a matter of law. It is designed to save the time and trouble involved in a lengthy jury determination. The established rule is that where the evidence of a claimant is clear, uncontradicted, self-consistent, and unimpeached, the jury will not be allowed to disbelieve his witnesses, even though they may be interested, and a directed verdict should be granted in his favor.
Where, as in the case we now review, the evidence affirmatively establishes that plaintiff is free of any negligence which could be held to have been the proximate cause of or contributed to the collision out of which her damages arose, there is no reason why this issue should be submitted to the jury to be considered in light of the defenses of contributory negligence and general denial. In response to plaintiff's motion the trial judge properly should have granted it on the issue of liability insofar as any claimed or alleged negligence on the part of plaintiff was concerned. The court could not, however, properly direct the verdict against either or both of the defendants under the evidence revealed by this record. Under one view of the evidence which the jury might properly have taken it could have found that the defendant Lee was guilty of an act of negligence which proximately caused the collision, in which event a verdict against Lee and in favor of defendant Allred would have been justified. Under another view which the jury may have taken of the evidence, it could have found that it was Allred's negligence which proximately caused the collision, in which event the verdict could have been against him and in favor of Lee. The evidence is furthermore susceptible of a third view which the jury could have lawfully taken and found that both Lee and Allred were guilty of negligent acts which jointly contributed to and were the proximate cause of the collision in which event a verdict, against both defendants would be proper.. We perceive of no sound reason why the issue of plaintiff's negligence should not have been withdrawn from the jury's consideration in pursuance of its motion for a. directed verdict on this issue, and the case-submitted to the jury for the sole purpose-of determining liability between the defendants and fixing the amount of damages to-which it might find the plaintiffs entitled. The action of the trial judge in submitting this issue of law to the jury for its consideration along with the other disputed factual issues involved in the case could have no effect other than to confuse the jury and deprive the plaintiff of a fair trial. It is therefore our view that the trial judge erred in denying plaintiffs' motion for directed verdict and in submitting the case to the jury on all issues raised by the pleadings. The judgment appealed is accordingly reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial consistent with the views expressed, herein.
Reversed.
CARROLL, DONALD IC., C. J., concurs.
STURGIS, J. dissents.
. Red Top Cab & Baggage Co. v. Grady (Fla.App.1958), 99 So.2d 871.
. Furr v. Gulf Exhibition Corporation (Fla.App.1959), 114 So.2d 27.
. Ruth v. Sorensen (Fla.1958), 104 So.2d 10.
. F.S. Section 317.44, F.S.A.; Byrd v. Connelly (D.C.), 117 F.Supp. 820.
. Budgen v. Brady (Fla.App.1958), 103 So.2d 672.
. F.S. Sec. 317.29(2), F.S.A.
. F.S. Sec. 317.29(3), F.S.A.; F.S. Sec. 317.62(1), F.S.A.