Nationwide Mut. Fire Ins. Co. v. Darragh

Nationwide Mut. Fire Ins. Co. v. Darragh

Opinion

 [*898]  LAWSON, J.

Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Company appeals from a final judgment entered following a $3.99 million jury verdict entered in favor of Nationwide's insured, Mark W. Darragh. Nationwide provided uninsured motorist coverage in the amount of $200,000 to Darragh. We agree with Nationwide that the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury to reduce future economic damages to present value in rendering its verdict. See Dupuis v. Heider, 113 Fla. 679, 686, 152 So. 659 (Fla. 1934); Florida East Coast Ry. Co. v. Young, 104 Fla. 541, 140 So. 467 (1932); Florida East Coast Ry. Co. v. Lassiter, 58 Fla. 234, 50 So. 428 (1909). Milton v. Reyes, 22 So. 3d 624, 624-25 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009); Howell v. Woods, 489 So. 2d 154, 155 (Fla. 4th DCA 1986); Seaboard Coast Line R.R. Co. v. Burdi, 427 So. 2d 1048, 1050 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983); Seaboard Coast Line R.R. Co. v. Garrison, 336 So. 2d 423, 425 (Fla. 2d DCA 1976);  [**2] Norman v. Mullin, 249 So. 2d 733, 734 (Fla. 2d DCA 1971).¹ Accordingly, we reverse the portion  [*899]  of the verdict awarding future economic damages, and remand for a new trial as to future economic damages only. See, e.g., Milton, 22 So. 3d at 625. We find no error in the trial court's decision to allow testimony of the full amount of Darragh's past medical bills pursuant to section 768.76, Florida Statutes (2009) and Goble v. Frohman, 901 So. 2d 830 (Fla. 2005). The trial court properly treated the lesser amount negotiated for payment by Darragh's private health insurer as a collateral source set-off to be made by the judge after trial. See Nationwide Mut. Fire Ins. Co. v. Harrell, 53 So. 3d 1084 (Fla. 1st DCA 2010).

For the benefit of the parties and the trial court on retrial, we address one other evidentiary issue relating to Darragh's future economic damages claim. Over Nationwide's many and various objections, Darragh was allowed to personally testify as to the value of future pension benefits that he claims to have lost from the United States military as a result of injuries sustained in the underlying automobile accident. It appears that Darragh based this testimony exclusively on information he gleaned from websites maintained by the United States government. Copies of pages from these websites were also introduced into evidence over Nationwide's objections. We agree with Nationwide that the trial court erred in permitting this testimony and admitting printed copies of the website pages into evidence, on this record.

Full case includes Shepard's, Headnotes, Legal Analytics from Lex Machina, and more.