Summary
noting the time allotted by the trial court for closing arguments is reviewed under an abuse of discretion standard
Summary of this case from Tower Hill Prime Ins. Co. v. BermudezOpinion
May 7, 1954.
Appeal from the Circuit Court, Broward County, George W. Tedder, J.
C.L. Chancey, Fort Lauderdale, and Macfarlane, Ferguson, Allison Kelly, Tampa, for appellants.
Fleming, O'Bryan Fleming, Fort Lauderdale, for appellee.
This appeal is from a judgment based on a jury verdict of $35,000 for damages sustained in an automobile collision. The credibility of witnesses and the weight of the evidence are jury questions. The evidence is ample to support the verdict. The appellants complain that counsel were limited to 45 minutes each in final argument to the jury. This is a matter within the discretion of the trial judge, and he did not abuse his discretion. The trial judge is to be commended for exercising a firm control of the trial.
The only question presented which merits even a brief discussion concerns insurance. Apparently the defendants carried no insurance and they tried at several points to present this to the jury beginning with questions on the voir dire. The trial judge consistently refused to permit this. Several of the refused requested charges told the jury that the question of insurance was irrelevant and should be disregarded. In other words, the defendants' counsel recognized that the subject of insurance was irrelevant. He wished to set up a straw man and then knock him down. The trial judge was right in excluding this irrelevancy from the beginning. The reason the subject is worth mentioning at all is to point out that this case decides no more than the facts justify — that to exclude as irrelevant the fact of the non-existence of insurance is not error. Whether it is error and, if so, under what circumstances, to permit a defendant to show that he is not indemnified by insurance, is not here decided.
Affirmed.
ROBERTS, C.J., and TERRELL and MATHEWS, JJ., concur.