St. Mary's Hospital, Inc. v. Phillipe
| Decision Date | 29 June 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. SC91934., No. SC91895, No. SC91894, No. SC91896 |
| Citation | 769 So.2d 961 |
| Parties | ST. MARY'S HOSPITAL, INC., et al., Petitioners, v. Charles PHILLIPE, etc., Respondent. Charles Phillipe, etc., Petitioner, v. St. Mary's Hospital, Inc., et al., Respondents. Dirk Franzen, M.D. et al., Petitioners, v. Henry E. Mogler et al., Respondents. Henry E. Mogler et al., Petitioners, v. Dirk Franzen, M.D. et al., Respondents. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Joseph H. Lowe of Winitz, Minkin & Lowe, Miami, Florida, for St. Mary's Hospital, Inc.
Theodore Babbitt and Joseph R. Johnson of Babbitt and Johnson, P.A., West Palm Beach, Florida; and Jane Kreusler-Walsh, West Palm Beach, Florida, for Charles Phillipe, etc.
Claudia B. Greenberg of Grossman and Roth, P.A., Miami, Florida, for Florida Academy of Trial Lawyers, Amicus Curiae.
Kristy c. Brown of Fisher, Rushmer, Werrenrath, Wack & Dickson, P.A., Orlando, Florida, and Fail Leverett Parenti, Falk & Waas, P.A., Coral Gables, Florida, for Florida Defense Lawyers Association, Amicus Curiae.
Bobo, Spicer, Ciotoli, Fulford, Bocchino, Debevoise & Le Clainche, West Palm Beach, Florida; and Ralph Anderson and Ila J. Klion of Hicks & Anderson, Miami, Florida, for Dirk Franzen, M.D. et al.
Lake Lytal, Jr. and Joe Reiter of Lytal, Reiter, Clark Fountain & Williams, West Palm Beach, Florida; and Jane Kreusler-Walsh, West Palm Beach, Florida, for Henry E. Mogler et al.
We have before us St. Mary's Hospital, Inc. v. Phillipe, 699 So.2d 1017 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997), and Franzen v. Mogler, 699 So.2d 1026 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997), which we have consolidated for review. These are medical malpractice wrongful death cases in which the defendants conceded liability. The parties voluntarily chose to use a statutorily created binding arbitration process as an alternative to litigation to provide a faster, more efficient, and less costly means of resolving the issue of damages. Under this process, the parties waived the right to a jury trial and agreed to have the damages restricted in accordance with the statutory process. Following arbitration, the plaintiffs in these cases were awarded various amounts of both economic and noneconomic damages.
Three issues are raised in this proceeding. First, the district court certified an unframed question of great public importance regarding whether the express provisions of section 766.212(2), Florida Statutes (1997), unconstitutionally infringe upon Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.310. Section 766.212(2) limits the ability of a medical malpractice defendant to stay an arbitration award, whereas rule 9.310 expressly provides for the automatic stay of a money judgment upon the posting of a sufficient bond. Phillipe, 699 So.2d at 1020.
Second, the district court certified the following question:
WHEN THE ALLEGED MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE RESULTS IN THE DEATH OF THE PATIENT, DOES THE CAP ON NONECONOMIC DAMAGES OF $250,000 PER INCIDENT IN A VOLUNTARY ARBITRATION UNDER § 766.207 APPLY TO EACH BENEFICIARY UNDER THE WRONGFUL DEATH ACT, OR DOES THE $250,000 CAP APPLY IN THE AGGREGATE TO INCLUDE ALL WRONGFUL DEATH ACT BENEFICIARIES?
Third, in addition to these certified questions, we have been requested to address whether the elements of economic damages awardable in the statutorily created voluntary binding arbitration of a medical malpractice wrongful death claim are controlled by the provisions establishing the arbitration process set forth in the Medical Malpractice Act or by the provisions controlling the elements of damages set forth in the Wrongful Death Act. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const.
The facts of the first case are as follows. Juslin Phillipe died while giving birth to her daughter, Ecclesianne. Ecclesianne was born severely brain damaged. Charles Phillipe, Juslin's husband and the personal representative of her estate, brought a medical malpractice wrongful death action against St. Mary's Hospital on behalf of himself and the decedent's four surviving children.
The parties in this case chose to proceed under the statutory alternative dispute process for medical malpractice claims set forth in section 766.207, Florida Statutes (1997). St. Mary's conceded liability and the case proceeded under that arbitration process on the issue of damages. It is important to note that the independent personal injury action of the brain-damaged child, Ecclesianne, was not part of the arbitration process.
After a hearing, the arbitrators awarded the following damages: $250,000 in noneconomic damages to both Charles, the husband, and Ecclesianne, the daughter; $175,000 in noneconomic damages to each of the remaining children; $2,284,804 to the family in economic damages for loss of services; $943,000 in economic damages for loss of special services to Ecclesianne; $3,398 in funeral expenses; and $510,632 in attorneys' fees. The total amount of the arbitration award was $4,766,834.
St. Mary's appealed the award and filed a motion to stay the award pending review pursuant to section 766.212(2). That provision prohibits an arbitration panel or circuit court from staying an arbitration award, but it allows a district court of appeal to stay such an award if necessary to prevent manifest injustice. The motion to stay was denied by the district court, and the trial court entered a final judgment ratifying the arbitration award. St. Mary's appealed the final judgment and attempted to post a supersedeas bond in the trial court under rule 9.310 in an attempt to obtain an automatic stay from the execution of the judgment. The trial court declined to stay the execution and directed the sheriff to levy on St. Mary's assets. St. Mary's subsequently paid Phillipe over two million dollars, the amount of the judgment that had become due.
On appeal, St. Mary's argued that, because the limited stay provision under section 766.212(2) abrogates the automatic stay provision of rule 9.310, the statute unconstitutionally infringes on this Court's exclusive authority to regulate appellate practice and procedure. The district court disagreed, holding that section 766.212 "created a modified right to judicial review of arbitration awards" and "an equally substantive right to payment of the award during review." Phillipe, 699 So.2d at 1019. The district court also held that the trial court properly refused to enter a stay under section 766.212(2) because it was not manifestly unjust to require St. Mary's to promptly pay the award. The district court certified to this Court the question of the constitutionality of section 766.212(2).
St. Mary's next argued that the arbitrators' total award of noneconomic damages in the amount of $1,025,000 exceeded the $250,000 cap set forth in section 766.207(7)(b). That provision provides that "[n]on-economic damages shall be limited to a maximum of $250,000 per incident." St. Mary's asserted that the term "per incident" reflected that the limit applies in the aggregate to all claimants, rather than separately to each wrongful death beneficiary. The district court agreed with St. Mary's. The court concluded that the plain language of the statute indicates that "there can be no more than $250,000 in non-economic damages awarded by the arbitrators under section 766.207, no matter how many different people may have a direct benefit in the award, or the source of their entitlement to share in the award." Id. at 1025. Accordingly, the district court reversed the arbitration award of noneconomic damages, remanded for the reduction of such damages to $250,000 in the aggregate, and certified the second question for our review.
In its final claim, St. Mary's argued that the award of economic damages for the decedent's loss of earning capacity was improper because such damages are not available under the Wrongful Death Act. The district court disagreed, holding that the elements of economic damages available in a voluntary binding arbitration of a medical malpractice claim are controlled by the Medical Malpractice Act rather than the Wrongful Death Act and that sections 766.202(3) and 766.207(7)(a) of the Medical Malpractice Act permit the award for loss of earning capacity.
Michael Mogler, a minor, died following treatment from Dr. Dirk Franzen. Henry and Donna Mogler, the parents of Michael Mogler, brought a medical malpractice wrongful death claim on behalf of themselves and their son's estate against Franzen. As in Phillipe, the parties voluntarily chose to proceed under the voluntary statutory arbitration process. Franzen conceded liability, and the issue of damages proceeded to arbitration. After a hearing, the arbitrators awarded the following damages to Henry Mogler: $250,000 in past and future noneconomic damages; $9,125 for past medical expenses; $29,750 for future medical expenses; and $7,950 for past and future loss of services. The arbitrators awarded the following damages to Donna Mogler: $250,000 in past and future noneconomic damages; $46,593 for past medical expenses; $46,000 for future medical expenses; $57,636 for past wage loss; $304,189 for future wage loss; and $7,950 for past and future loss of services. The Estate of Michael Mogler was awarded the following damages: $3,078 for funeral expenses; $5,084 for medical expenses; and $388,272 for lost wages. The arbitrators also awarded attorneys' fees and costs in the amount of $210,844. The total amount of the arbitration award was $1,616,471. Following its decision in Phillipe, the district court reversed the award of noneconomic damages and affirmed the award of economic damages.
ISSUE I. STAY PENDING REVIEW OF MEDICAL MALPRACTICE ARBITRATION AWARD
As noted above, this case presents three issues. The first issue involves the certified question of whether the express provisions in section 766.212(2), which limit the ability of a medical malpractice defe...
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