William G. Hyland Jr. (Deland, FL) (Premises Liability) obtained a Voluntary Dismissal after filing a Motion for Summary Judgment for the Florida Department of Children and Families. It was alleged by the plaintiff that our client, DCF, held a SNAP hurricane relief event at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida, which is owned by the Co-Defendant, County of Volusia. Plaintiff was a patron and/or business invitee at the Ocean Center and was transported in a golf cart from the front East side of the event center to the West side of the event. It was alleged that the golf cart stopped and then abruptly accelerated before Plaintiff cleared the cart causing Plaintiff to fall out and be injured.
The defense argued in their Motion for Summary Judgment that the undisputed facts show that the plaintiff does not know: 1) who owns the golf cart in question or 2) who the driver was employed by (see filing of plaintiff’s redacted deposition), but 3) confirmed the incident happened in the Ocean Center parking lot. (DCF) does not own the premises, or the golf cart in question. Thus, DCF has no duty to plaintiff, nor breached any duty to the Plaintiff and Final Summary Judgment is appropriate. The Defense contended in their motion that if no duty was owed and as a result breached, then no negligence can be found, and Summary Judgment should be granted in favor of the defendant. See e.g., Cassel v. Price, 396 So. 2d 258 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981).
The Plaintiff filed a Notice of Voluntary Dismissal as to DCF.