TALLAHASSEE - A man who died while a $5 million verdict in his favor in a wrongful death suit was still out on appeal recovers nothing, a Florida appeals court ruled, refusing to adopt a looser definition of the term “final judgment.”
Steven Hamblen sued the Flying J after his daughter Samantha Hamblen died in a car crash on the highway next to one of the company’s truck stops. A jury awarded him $200,000 a year for 25 years as compensation for his mental pain and suffering over the death. Lawyer Jimmy Fasig convinced the jury Flying J was to blame because it had a confusing sign that led a truck to try to pull into the car entrance instead of the truck entrance, temporarily blocking the highway.
The trial judge reduced the verdict to account for the negligence of others and Flying J appealed. While Flying J’s motion was pending, Steven Hamblen died. The trial judge then lowered the verdict to $0, citing a Florida statute that limits wrongful death recoveries for plaintiffs who die before a final judgment is entered to “lost support and services,” neither of which Hamblen claimed in his lawsuit.
Hamblen’s estate appealed, arguing the trial court should have determined a final judgment occurred before his death. But the First District Court of Appeal refused, ruling in a Feb. 26 decision that “final judgment” in the wrongful death statute means after all appeals have been exhausted.
The appeals court acknowledged the statute doesn’t have a definition of final judgment. But the law states its purposes as to to shift the costs associated with a person’s death from descendants to the person who caused it.
“When a person would receive compensation for future mental anguish, but never suffers that anguish, there are no losses to shift,” the court said.
Hamblen’s estate argued the trial court’s judgment should be treated as final if the plaintiff dies thereafter but the appeals court disagreed.
“To recover on a claim for mental pain and suffering, a survivor must be alive at the time of final judgment,” the court ruled. “And neither the verdict nor the judgment entered reflecting it are final when a motion for a new trial is pending.”