Case Name: Michael B. SMALL and Ann S. Small, his wife, Appellants, v. TOMASELLO, INC., Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1978-03-21
Citations: 356 So. 2d 869
Docket Number: No. 76-1276
Parties: Michael B. SMALL and Ann S. Small, his wife, Appellants, v. TOMASELLO, INC., Appellee.
Judges: ANSTEAD and MOORE, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 356
Pages: 869–870

Head Matter:
Michael B. SMALL and Ann S. Small, his wife, Appellants, v. TOMASELLO, INC., Appellee.
No. 76-1276.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
March 21, 1978.
Philip J. Gouze of Law Offices of Michael B. Small, West Palm Beach, for appellants.
Larry Klein, and George S. Okell, Jr., West Palm Beach, for appellee.

Opinion:
SCHWARTZ, ALAN R., Associate Judge.
The appellants-homeowners' terrazzo floor was allegedly cracked and damaged immediately upon the appellee-exterminator's activity in drilling holes to inject poison in a concrete slab adjacent to the home. The only significant point on this appeal from a judgment entered after a jury verdict for the exterminator challenges the trial judge's refusal to give the standard jury instruction, 4.6, on res ipsa loquitur. We have determined that the charge was properly declined and therefore affirm the judgment below on the basis of our conclusion that the circumstances of the incident in question do not reflect that "the occasion would not [in the ordinary course of events] have occurred in the absence of negligence, "Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. Hughes Supply, Inc., 336 So.2d 1221, 1223 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976), and that the res ipsa doctrine is therefore inapplicable. Cf. Stanolind Oil & Gas Co. v. Lambert, 222 S.W.2d 125, 126 (Tex.Civ.App.1949); V. N. Green & Co. v. Thomas, 205 Va. 903, 140 S.E.2d 635 (1965); Coalite, Inc. v. Aldridge, 285 Ala. 137, 229 So.2d 539 (1969).
Affirmed.
ANSTEAD and MOORE, JJ., concur.