Court Opinion

ID: 9562015
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:20:22.501357+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:10.404829
License: Public Domain

Eberhardt, Judge,
concurring specially. While I concur in the judgment of affirmance, I do so only because an examination of this record reveals that the plaintiff specifically pleaded all grounds of negligence upon which he relied, the rules of Florida law upon which he expected to rely, and itemized the special damages. This put the defendant on notice of the plaintiff’s contentions so that he should have been able to prepare his defense.
A pre-trial order here, however, would have saved a great deal of time in the trial of the ease. The transcript is replete with colloquies relative to the matter of depositions and their use, proof of the law of Florida and the manner of doing so, and other items which should have been settled at a pre-trial conference so that under the pre-trial order these matters would not arise. Pre-trial conferences and a resulting pre-trial order settling these collateral matters and specifying the issues to be *710tried are essential to an orderly and expeditious trial under the notice pleading system which has been adopted.
I do not think it likely that a different result would be achieved under a pre-trial order here, and consequently I do not insist upon a reversal because of the court’s failure to follow the mandates of the statute. It is my view, however, that when the pleadings generally follow the provisions of the Civil Practice Act, denial of a continuance when no pre-trial order has been made is harmful as a matter of law. Under our former system of pleading the issues were made and determined by the petition, demurrers, pleas and answer. In that fashion the defendant could prepare to meet the issues at the trial. But pleadings today do not generally outline the issues. These are left to discovery and in particular to the pre-trial order. Without the order one cannot know whether evidence is relevant or material, and thus often has no basis for objection. This results, not only in failure to conserve time in the progress of a trial, but allows parties to place a great deal of evidence before the jury which the rules of evidence would forbid were the issues known. How can the trial judge rule upon objections made when these issues are unknown? How will he formulate a charge to the jury? The order is the quid pro quo of the new liberal pleadings.
I am unwilling to go further than we go today on the matter of “harmless error” in the denial of a continuance until a pretrial order is made by the court. If the parties cannot or will not agree upon the provisions of a pre-trial order it is the business and duty of the court to make the order, by which they are to be bound in conducting the trial.