A southern Florida appeals court this week affirmed that the state’s limits on punitive damages in certain medical malpractice cases do not violate the state constitution’s guarantees of equal protection.
In a decision written by Judge Vance Salter, a three-judge panel of Florida’s 3rd District Court of Appeal partially reversed a circuit court ruling in the case of Taylor Poole, M.D., et al., vs. Deborah DeFranko, et al. Wednesday’s decision reduced a jury award to DeFranko from $450,000 to $350,000.
“The statutes presently under review ... are within a voluntary arbitration remedy that was not considered by the Florida Supreme Court or subject to the holdings” in two previous cases, Judge Salter wrote in his decision.
An attorney who co-authored an amicus brief filed in the case on behalf of the Florida Defense Lawyers Association said the appeals court decision would help keep the lid on future medical malpractice court costs.
““The current medical malpractice arbitration process is effective and efficient by reducing attorney’s fees, litigation costs and delay,” Kansas Gooden of Boyd & Jenerette P.A. told the Florida Record in an email. “It creates reciprocal statutory obligations and benefits for both parties and is fair. The 3rd District Court of Appeal’s decision correctly upheld its constitutionality and ensured its continued existence.”
In previous years, the Florida Supreme Court rejected limits on non-economic damages imposed by the state legislature in certain situations, but Mark Delegal, an attorney with Holland & Knight in Tallahassee, said this week’s decision may signal the court system is changing course.
"Physicians of our state and hospitals ought to be optimistic about the future jurisprudence in the area of medical professional liability insurance,” Delegal told the Record.
The decision indicates that future court decisions will better respect the will of the state legislature on medical liability abuses, he said. This week’s decision’s effect, however, will be relatively limited because it deals strictly with the remedy of arbitration, in which the defendant admits liability and offers to enter into negotiations over damages, according to Delegal.
“We've had 10 years of bad decisions out of the Supreme Court and then in January 2019 things changed,” he said.
Under Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was sworn into office Jan. 8, the Florida Supreme Court has become decidedly more conservative. At the outset of his new administration, he had the opportunity to pick replacements for three outgoing liberal justices on a bench of seven.
Delegal said he helped draft an amicus brief in the DeFranko case for the Florida Justice Reform Institute, in which plaintiffs sought to use recent legal cases to invalidate older ones. The appeals court, however, rejected that position in cases that involved the arbitration system, he said.