METROPOLITAN DADE COUNTY, Russell Fischer, Richard Fry and al Wessner, Jr., Appellants,
v.
Jonas BRILL and Lorraine Mary Brill, Appellees.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.
Robert A. Ginsburg, Dade County Atty., and Ralph C. Rocheteau, Asst. County Atty., John Flynn, Miami, for appellants.
Colson & Hicks and Mary Friedman, Miami, for appellees.
Before SCHWARTZ, NESBITT and FERGUSON, JJ.
FERGUSON, Judge.
Metropolitan Dade County and police officers appeal from a jury verdict for plaintiff entered on a complaint alleging excessive or unnecessary force in subduing a person who had abducted plaintiff, resulting in serious injury to plaintiff. Appellants contend that an instruction given the jury constitutes reversible error.
Where jury in a civil action is given an incorrect instruction or one not applicable to the facts, together with correct instructions, reversal is not mandated unless the error results in a miscarriage of justice; a miscarriage of justice occurs where instructions may reasonably have confused or misled the jury. Florida Power & Light Company v. McCollum,
In this case the instruction on a duty of a private citizen to retreat before using deadly force, clearly not applicable, was given along with the instruction that a law enforcement officer need not retreat and *627 may use any force believed reasonably necessary in making an arrest. The series of instructions, considered as a whole, correctly stated the law. Edwards v. Poe,
On the cross-appeal we hold that plaintiff was not entitled to payment of costs under waiver of sovereign immunity statute where verdict exceeded the statutory recovery limit. Godoy v. Dade County,
Affirmed.
NOTES
Notes
[1] Decisions in other jurisdictions conflict with Berek, supra and Godoy, supra, by holding that statutory limitation does not apply to costs, which may be taxed as if agencies were private individuals. Compare State, Dep't of Transp. v. Knowles,
