Baptist Hosp. of Miami, Inc. v. Demario
| Decision Date | 04 December 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 96-1563,96-1563 |
| Citation | 683 So.2d 641 |
| Parties | 21 Fla. L. Weekly D2556 BAPTIST HOSPITAL OF MIAMI, INC., Petitioner, v. Michael DEMARIO, Respondent. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Isicoff & Ragatz, P.A. and Eric D. Isicoff, Miami, for petitioner.
Lyons & Farrar, P.A. and Marsha L. Lyons, Coral Gables, for respondent.
Before GERSTEN, GREEN and FLETCHER, JJ.
Petitioner, Baptist Hospital seeks certiorari review of an order denying its motion for protective order. We grant certiorari and quash the discovery order under review.
This represents the third time that these parties have appeared before this court in this matter. The facts of this case have been sufficiently outlined in this court's first opinion in Baptist Hospital of Miami, Inc. v. Demario, 661 So.2d 319 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995) and will not be rehashed here. Suffice it to say, in that opinion, we affirmed a default judgment entered in respondent Michael DeMario's favor and against petitioner Baptist Hospital on the issue of liability. Notwithstanding the fact that Baptist's liability to DeMario was thus established, DeMario subsequently sought to continue to serve as a class representative for unnamed "others" who had not similarly had liability established in their favor in this action.
Baptist moved for the entry of summary judgment as to the class action brought by DeMario in his representative capacity and to stay discovery. Initially, the lower court stayed all discovery pending its disposition of the summary judgment motion. At the hearing on the motion for summary judgment, however, the court declined to entertain the question of DeMario's standing to serve as a class representative until the hearing on the motion to certify the class. The trial court subsequently lifted its stay of the discovery in this case. In response, Baptist filed a petition for writ of certiorari with this court seeking to have us: 1) quash the lower court's order lifting the stay of discovery; 2) direct the lower court to determine DeMario's standing to serve as a class representative; and 3) direct the lower court to continue the stay of discovery pending its resolution of the standing issue. In an order dated April 16, 1996, this court determined, among other things, that Baptist had filed no motion for protective order in response to the discovery sought by DeMario. Accordingly, as to the order lifting the stay, we dismissed the petition for certiorari without prejudice to Baptist to seek any appropriate review on any order entered on a motion seeking discovery protection pursuant to Florida Rules of Civil Procedure 1.280(c). See Baptist Hospital, Inc. v. Demario, 682 So.2d 1106 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996).
Following our April 16, 1996 order, Baptist filed its motion for protective order in response to DeMario's discovery of the hospital's records of other Baptist patients over a five year period. It was Baptist's position that DeMario was seeking this discovery to locate an...
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