Woodard v. Barkley
Woodard v. Barkley
Opinion of the Court
The appellants, Alvin Woodard, Barbara Woodard, and The Estate of Barbara Woodard, have appealed from a final judgment entered against them in this negligence action originating in a collision between Alvin Woodard’s pickup truck and appellee Michael Barkley’s motorcycle. We affirm.
Of the four points appellants have raised, each of which we have considered, only one merits discussion: whether the trial court properly instructed the jury on section 316.-085(2), Florida Statutes (1985), entitled “Limitations on Overtaking, Passing, Changing Lanes and Course.”
Unfortunately, the collision severely injured Barkley, rendering him permanently paraplegic. The jury awarded damages to Barkley in the amount of $1,100,000. It further found that he was seventy-five percent comparatively negligent. Thus, the court entered final judgment in favor of Barkley and against appellants in the amount of $275,000.
The primary thrust of the appellants’ argument is that section 316.085(2) is not applicable to a situation in which a person has slowed down on a two lane residential road, put on his turn signal and turned left into his own driveway. In our view, however, both the plain language of the statute and the scant number of cases commenting upon it support the conclusion that the jury instruction was proper.
Although everyday experience suggests that the statute was intended to apply to four lane highways, it literally prohibits the driver of a vehicle from moving from any lane on any highway until he has determined that another car is not passing and that the move can be safely effected. No exception exists for left-hand turns on resi
In both Ashton v. Castor, 220 So.2d 409 (Fla. 1st DCA 1969), and Parker v. Hofheinz, 181 So.2d 367 (Fla. 1st DCA 1966), cert. denied, 188 So.2d 807 (1966), the courts encountered no apparent difficulty in applying the statute to similar left-turn cases, although the facts in those cases may arguably be distinguished on the ground that the driver in each instance made a wide turn. That distinction, however, does not persuade us to a different result.
Based upon the foregoing, we affirm the judgment.
. Section 316.085(2) provides that:
No vehicle shall be driven from a direct course in any lane on any highway until the driver has determined that the vehicle is not being approached or passed by any other vehicle in the lane or on the side to which the driver desires to move and that the move can be completely made with safety and without interfering with the safe operation of any vehicle approaching from the same direction.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.