Opinion
No. 90-1884.
December 31, 1991. Rehearing Denied February 18, 1992.
An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Dade County; Sam I. Silver, Judge.
Holland Knight and Daniel S. Pearson and Amy D. Ronner, Miami, for appellants.
Howard D. Dillman; Leesfield Blackburn, Hicks, Anderson Blum and Mark Hicks and Ralph O. Anderson, Miami, for appellee.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen. and Craig B. Willis, Asst. Atty. Gen., for State of Fla.
McCormack Siboni Knoblock, Miami, for Lockheed Aircraft Corp.
Herzfeld and Rubin and Edward T. O'Donnell, Miami, for Product Liability Advisory Council, Inc., as amicus curiae.
Osborne, McNatt, Shaw, O'Hara Brown Obringer and Jack W. Shaw, Jr., Jacksonville, for Florida Defense Lawyers Ass'n, as amicus curiae.
Roy D. Wasson, Miami, for Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers, as amicus curiae.
Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and LEVY and GERSTEN, JJ.
As a matter of law, the record is insufficient to establish that the present defendants-appellants, managing officers of the decedent's corporate employer, were guilty of "gross negligence" which was a cause of the death in question so as to render them liable, notwithstanding the workers' compensation immunity defense, under the version of section 440.11, Florida Statutes (1989) in effect at the time of the accident. Hoyt v. Corbett, 559 So.2d 98 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990), review denied, 569 So.2d 1278 (Fla. 1990); Merryman v. Mattheus, 529 So.2d 727 (Fla. 2d DCA 1988); see Streeter v. Sullivan, 509 So.2d 268 (Fla. 1987).
Accordingly, the defendants' motion for directed verdict should have been granted. The judgment below for the plaintiff is therefore reversed and the cause remanded with directions to enter judgment for the appellants.
Reversed.