Title: Seaboard Air Line Railroad Co. v. Strickland
Citation: 88 So. 2d 519
Docket Number: N/A
State: Florida
Issuer: Florida Supreme Court
Date: May 23, 1956

88 So. 2d 519 (1956)
SEABOARD AIR LINE RAILROAD COMPANY, APPELLANT,
v.
JOHN B. STRICKLAND, APPELLEE.

Supreme Court of Florida, Special Division B.
May 23, 1956.
Rehearing Denied July 19, 1956.
Fleming, Scott &amp; Botts, Charles R. Scott, Jacksonville, and James B. McDonough, Jr., Norfolk, Va., for appellant.
Nichols, Gaither, Green, Frates &amp; Beckham and William Frates, Miami, for appellee.
PARKS, Associate Justice.
In the original appeal the defendant-appellant, Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company, presented two questions, the first dealing with negligence vel non, and the second *520 dealing with the admissibility and discussion by counsel of certain evidence. This court reversed the judgment, deciding that the defendant was not guilty of negligence and as to the second question said "because of the view which we entertain as to this question [negligence vel non], it is unnecessary to refer to or answer the other question propounded by the defendant." See Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company v. Strickland, Fla., 80 So. 2d 914, 915.
On review by the United States Supreme Court that court reversed our judgment by its order of November 14, 1955 in the following language:
Thereafter, the defendant petitioned this court to consider its second question prior to the issuance of our mandate, because that question had been excluded from our consideration in our former opinion and judgment. The original appeal contained two questions, and pursuant to the mandate of the Supreme Court of the United States, the first question is controlled by the pronouncement of that Court in Bailey v. Central Vermont Ry., 319 U.S. 350, 63 S. Ct. 1062, 87 L. Ed. 1444. The mandate from the Supreme Court of the United States ordered "that this cause be, and the same is hereby, remanded to the Supreme Court of Florida for proceedings not inconsistent with the opinion of this Court." (Italics supplied.) Since the second question was not determined by this court and, therefore, not reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States, we do not deem it to be contrary to the order of that Court to review the second question at this time, and particularly since the defendant has not yet had its day in a reviewing court on the points of law posed in the second question.
Involved in defendant Railroad's second question in its brief are the factors of whether or not the letters of the "Brittingham correspondence" were admissible in evidence over the objections of defendant and further, even though admissible, whether or not the remarks of counsel concerning these letters and other matters in his presentment and argument of the case to the jury were so prejudicial as to require a reversal of the judgment and the granting of a new trial.
The Brittingham correspondence consists of three letters, one written May 19, 1953, by defendant's senior general attorney of its claim department, Smith R. Brittingham, Norfolk, Virginia, to Dr. Thomas Ryon, medical practitioner with offices in Miami who was under contract with the defendant Railroad to examine and treat employees for injuries received in the course of their employment with the company; attached to this letter was one dated May 1st written by B.H. Silverstone of the Veterans Administration of Coral Gables, addressed to J.E. Pierce, Grand Lodge Chairman of the Brotherhood of Railroad Carmen of America (this letter had been delivered to the senior counsel by Pierce); the reply letter of Dr. Ryon of May 22nd. Omitting the headings and signatures, these letters read as follows:
Counsel for plaintiff-appellee in the trial court contended that this correspondence was admissible on the ground that "it showed the way this man (plaintiff) was kicked around by the Seaboard and the conduct of the Seaboard Air Line in handling this matter". In his argument and brief in this court he shifts to the ground that the letters were admissible to repudiate Dr. Ryon's claim that plaintiff's trouble was in his mind rather than in his back, also that they furnished good cause for plaintiff (who had no knowledge of the letters until the trial) to distrust Dr. Ryon and the Railroad Company and think that they were not rightly trying to help him. Dr. Ryon, in January 1953, examined plaintiff's condition with reference to injuries suffered and for which this suit is brought. To support these grounds he argues that Railroad counsel, Dr. Ryon and Pierce, the Union official, all conspired together to defeat plaintiff's claim and at the trial tried to prove that plaintiff was a psychological neurotic because he trusted neither the Railroad nor Dr. Ryon. Neither of these contentions are supported by the letters or by the evidence in the record. There is no evidence that defendant had any connection with the writing of the Veterans Administration letter or its subject matter. Nor is there any evidence in the record of conspiracy by anyone connected with defendant to hinder or defeat plaintiff's claim or suit against it. The inter-departmental letters of Brittingham and Dr. Ryon contained no evidence tending to prove or disprove plaintiff's case or any phase of it, nor did they aid or rebut the defense. It must be also noted that plaintiff made Dr. Ryon his witness. There was no foundation in the evidence for admitting the letters and it was error to admit them over objection of defendant. They were, however, obviously prejudicial to the defense of the cause and furnished a basis for numerous prejudicial remarks of plaintiff's counsel in the trial of the case. Among such remarks, on re-direct examination of Dr. Jarrett, plaintiff's witness, the following appears:
Among the damaging remarks in his opening argument to the jury at the close of trial, referring to the Brittingham correspondence, counsel stated:
Giving his version of the accident in which plaintiff was injured and while speaking of a demonstration of it staged during the trial at the place of its happening in the yards of the defendant Railroad, counsel in his argument to the jury in effect gave the following testimony:
There are other remarks of the same character in the record, some of little consequence and others trivial, all of which must be considered as a part of the course of conduct indulged in the handling of the trial. None was in recrimination of conduct of defense counsel. To many of counsel's prejudicial remarks, occurring during the taking of the testimony, objections were made. In a few instances some of the objections were sustained and in one or two instances a mild rebuke to counsel was administered. To some of the remarks during the trial no objections were made nor were objections made to counsel's argument before the jury.
While we are committed to the rule that in the ordinary case, unless timely objections to counsel's prejudicial remarks are made, this court will not reverse the judgment on appeal, however, this ruling does not mean that if prejudicial conduct of that character in its collective impact of numerous incidents, as in this case, is so extensive that its influence pervades the trial, gravely impairing a calm and dispassionate consideration of the evidence and the merits by the jury, this court will not afford redress. In this state of the record, even though the Brittingham correspondence was admissible, the prejudicial remarks of counsel, including the statements made in argument amounting to testimony in the case, require a new trial. Courts are conscious of the fact that without partisan zeal for the cause of his client, counsel in many instances could have little success in properly representing litigants in sharply contested cases, but his conduct during the cause must always be so guarded that it will not impair or thwart the orderly processes of a fair consideration and determination of the cause by the jury.
Finally, plaintiff's counsel complains that defendant's counsel in their brief make a personal attack on him, listing twenty-one items appearing in the brief. An examination of this brief fails to sustain any personal or professional attack on him or his firm.
The principles above mentioned are supported by precedent. Seaboard Air Line Ry. v. Smith, 53 Fla. 375, 43 So. 235; Tampa Transit Lines, Inc., v. Corbin, Fla., 62 So. 2d 10. In both cases, conduct of counsel, much less offensive than in this case, was condemned by this court. Objections are not required where the conduct complained *524 of runs through the trial. New York Central R. Co. v. Johnson, 279 U.S. 310, 49 S. Ct. 300, 303, 73 L. Ed. 706, wherein Justice Stone speaking for the court said:
To the same effect is Robinson v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 214 F.2d 798, 802, Third Circuit Court of Appeals:
To the same effect is the holding in United States v. American Die &amp; Instrument Works, Inc., 3 Cir., 213 F.2d 731.
It is the responsibility of the trial court to protect litigants against such interference by counsel with the orderly administration of justice and the protection of the right of the litigant to a verdict "uninfluenced by the appeals of counsel to passion or prejudice."
The judgment is reversed and a new trial granted.
It is so ordered.
DREW, C.J., and TERRELL and ROBERTS, JJ., concur.