City of Stuart v. Lynn

Florida District Courts of Appeal
City of Stuart v. Lynn, 705 So. 2d 1073 (1998)
1998 Fla. App. LEXIS 1829; 1998 WL 75047
Farmer, Klein, Warner

City of Stuart v. Lynn

Opinion of the Court

PER CURIAM.

Appellee was arrested by the Stuart police and his truck was seized. The city subsequently decided not to charge appellee or forfeit his vehicle; however, the city did not return the vehicle to appellee, which ultimately resulted in the bank repossessing it. Appellee sued the city alleging that it had a policy under these circumstances of not returning vehicles to the owners, but rather to the lien holders, which violated his constitutional rights without due process. A jury awarded him damages for lost earnings and injury to his reputation which included an impairment of his credit rating.

The city challenges the proof sufficient to support the claim for lost earnings. We would agree.that if that portion of the award were only for lost earnings due solely to the loss of the vehicle, the city’s argument would be well taken; however, this particular item of damages could also have included damages for impairment of appellee’s credit rating. We have considered the other issues and find them to be without merit.

Affirmed.

WARNER, FARMER and KLEIN, JJ., concur.

Reference

Full Case Name
The CITY OF STUART v. Van C. LYNN
Cited By
1 case
Status
Published