Medina v. Public Health Trust, 98-1374.
| Decision Date | 10 March 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 98-1374.,98-1374. |
| Citation | 743 So.2d 541 |
| Parties | Patricia MEDINA and Gabriel Medina, her husband, Appellants, v. The PUBLIC HEALTH TRUST d/b/a Jackson Memorial Hospital, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Karen Gievers, Tallahassee; John B. Ostrow; James C. Blecke, Miami, for appellants.
Robert A. Ginsburg, County Attorney, and Maria Arista-Volsky, Assistant County Attorney, for appellee.
Before LEVY, GREEN and SHEVIN, JJ.
Plaintiffs Patricia and Gabriel Medina appeal an order dismissing their medical malpractice complaint for failure to comply with statutory pre-suit requirements. We reverse. Patricia Medina was admitted to Jackson Memorial Hospital for elective neck surgery. She was discharged more than three months later with both feet amputated. The Law Offices of Sheldon J. Schlesinger, P.A., requested Medina's medical records. Schlesinger readily agreed to pay the copy charges. Schlesinger received the x-rays approximately one month after the request, and he received copies of the medical records more than two months later. Medina mailed Notices of Intent to Initiate Medical Malpractice Litigation to The Public Health Trust d/b/a Jackson Memorial Hospital and to the University of Miami School of Medicine, as required by section 766.203, Florida Statutes (1997). The Notices asserted that because of defendants' failure "to comply with their obligations to produce the pertinent medical records as required by section 766.204, prospective defendants had waived the requirement of written medical corroboration...." The University agreed to arbitration, eventually settling with the plaintiffs. Medina sued the hospital. The hospital did not raise Medina's failure to attach a corroborating medical affidavit to her notice of intent until its second amended answer, eight months after the complaint was filed. Finding that the hospital had not waived the corroboration requirement, the trial court dismissed the complaint.
Section 766.204(2), Florida Statutes (1997), provides that failure to provide copies of medical records within 10 days "shall waive the requirement of written medical corroboration" by the party requesting the copies. As the hospital far exceeded the section 766.204(1) ten-day deadline in providing Schlesinger with the requested records, under section 766.204(2) the hospital waived the corroborating affidavit requirement. See Escobar v. Olortegui, 662 So.2d 1361 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995)
. See also Otto...
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...in accordance with this opinion. Reversed and remanded. NESBITT, SHEVIN and SORONDO, JJ., concur. 1.See also Medina v. Public Health Trust, 743 So.2d 541 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999). 2. Sanctions, as we use the term, do not include imposition of attorney's fees, which the Fourth District in Nolan v.......
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...10 days `shall waive the requirement of written medical corroboration' by the party requesting the copies." Medina v. Pub. Health Trust, 743 So.2d 541, 542 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999). Mr. Anderson asserts that Dr. Wagner waived his right to a medical expert opinion by failing to supply him with his......
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Martin Memorial Medical Center v. Herber
...the necessity of providing a corroborating affidavit under section (2). Escobar, 662 So.2d at 1364; see also Medina v. Jackson Mem'l Hosp., 743 So.2d 541 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999). Martin Memorial, by its own admission received the request for records on January 17, 2005 and mailed the records on ......
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Yocom v. Wuesthoff Health Systems, Inc., 5D03-2847.
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