Leonetti v. Boone

Summary

The Florida Supreme Court affirmed an order granting a new trial in a personal injury action arising from a motor vehicle collision. The court held that the statutory presumption of an owner's liability based on vehicle ownership and operation vanished when uncontradicted evidence showed that the driver lacked the owner's consent and agency, and that the jury had been improperly instructed that the defendant retained the burden of disproving consent. The court also held that the appellee's challenge to the denial of a directed verdict was not properly presented on an appeal from the order granting a new trial.

Holdings

1. Under section 51.12, Florida Statutes 1951, the presumption that a person driving another's motor vehicle has the owner's consent shifts the burden of producing evidence, not the ultimate burden of proof. Once competent evidence rebutting the presumption is introduced, the presumption vanishes, and the plaintiff must prove the driver's rightful possession and the owner's liability as though the presumption had never existed.
2. On an appeal from an order granting a new trial, the appellate court may not consider grounds or cross assignments beyond those specified by the trial judge as the basis for granting the new trial.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial court properly granted Boone a new trial based on an instruction that treated the statutory presumption of owner consent as continuing after rebutting evidence was introduced.
2. Whether Leonetti could obtain review on cross-appeal of the trial court's refusal to rule affirmatively on Boone's motion for directed verdict after the jury verdict.

Disposition

affirmed