Court Opinion

ID: 9865465
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 17:59:08.09636+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:48:24.944747
License: Public Domain

*293On Petition for Rehearing.
Per Curiam.
At common law the principle was well settled that an action for personal injuries dies with the injured party. Assuming that under the common law a willfully or wantonly inflicted personal injury necessarily carried with the right to recover compensatory damages the further or incidental right to recover punitive damages as well, and assuming that punitive damages were thus permitted to be recovered against the wrongdoer, because of the law’s desire to protect society, the same rule of the common law which caused the principal right of action to die with the injured party also caused to die with the action the incidental right to punitive damages. The common law right to recover punitive damages having accrued as an incident to the right of the injured party to recover from the tortious injury inflicted in this case, the death of such injured party caused both the right of action and the incidents to it to die at the same time. And having once died, our holding is that the language of the statute creating a new statutory action for wrongful death, affirmatively negatives the idea that punitive damages are to be. considered as an incident to the damages allowed for the new statutory cause of action.
The default admitted the cause of action but not the damages, claimed in the punitive damage count of the declaration. St. Lucie Estates, Inc. v. Palm Beach Plumbing Sup. Co., 101 Fla. 205, 133 Sou. Rep. 841; Russ v. Gilbert, 19 Fla. 54; Watson v. Seat, 8 Fla. 446.
Rehearing denied.
Davis, C. J., and Whitfield, Terrell, Brown and Buford, J. J., concur.