Perkins v. Pare
| Decision Date | 12 August 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. 76-1755,76-1755 |
| Citation | 352 So.2d 65 |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
| Parties | Shirley F. PERKINS and Virgil Perkins, Appellants, v. Robert H. PARE, M.D., and Martin Memorial Hospital Association, Inc., a non-profit Florida Corporation d/b/a Martin Memorial Hospital, Appellees. |
Dennis J. Hightower of Whitaker & Koepke & Associates, Orlando, for appellants.
Michael B. Davis of Walton, Lantaff, Schroeder & Carson, West Palm Beach, for appellee Pare.
We treat as a petition for a common law writ of certiorari an interlocutory appeal seeking review of an order extending time for mediation hearing in a medical malpractice action. We grant certiorari, and quash the order.
Petitioner submitted a claim for medical malpractice against Robert H. Pare, M.D., in the Circuit Court for Martin County, Florida, in September 1975. Upon failure of the clerk to select a mediation panel and set a hearing date, respondent on June 9, 1976 filed a motion requesting the judicial referee and clerk to select a panel and set the cause for hearing prior to July 17, 1976 so as not to deny respondent his right to a hearing pursuant to § 768.44, Florida Statutes (1976), which contains a ten-month limitation of jurisdiction. On June 23, 1976 a circuit judge acting as a judicial referee entered an order directing the clerk of the circuit court to proceed with the selection of arbitrators and schedule a hearing before the mediation panel on July 7, 1976.
Petitioner moved to dismiss or alternatively, strike the hearing date on the grounds that more than 120 days elapsed since the filing of the claim without selection of a mediation panel, or without setting the claim for hearing, or good cause for extension being shown. Petitioner also alleged the scheduled hearing date of July 7, 1976 violates Florida Rules of Civil Procedure for failure to give thirty days notice of the trial date.
The motions to strike and dismiss came on for hearing and were denied except as to striking the hearing date, which was later to be re-set with proper notice upon completion of selection of panel members. The clerk of the circuit court, pursuant to the order of June 23, 1976, distributed a list of potential mediators on June 24, 1976. Petitioner filed objections to the selection of the panel members. Respondent filed a waiver of all challenges to proposed panel members, and requested an order requiring petitioners to select their choices of panel members. Respondent also filed a motion for extension of time to hear the mediation claim, allegedly to avoid prejudice to his right to a hearing before the mediation panel.
The motions came on for hearing, and an order was entered denying respondent's motion to require designation and selection of a hearing panel, and denied all but one of petitioner's objections to the proposed arbitrators. Subsequently, the judicial referee determined it was not possible to hold a hearing on the claim prior to expiration of the time set forth in § 768.44, Florida Statutes (1976), i. e., ten months, at which time jurisdiction would terminate. Notwithstanding, the judicial referee expressed his belief that the hearing procedure began by selection of...
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Aldana v. Holub
...and in some instances, jurisdiction terminated as a result of administrative or judicial error. 11 For example, in Perkins v. Pare, 352 So.2d 65 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977), the parties were unable to conclude mediation within ten months solely because the clerk failed to select a mediation panel a......
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Hubacher v. Landry
...no other adequate legal remedy to cure such a fundamental error. Cole v. Wallace, 354 So.2d 885 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977); Perkins v. Pare, 352 So.2d 65 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977). The same cannot be said of non-jurisdictional issues which may arise during the course of the medical mediation proceeding ......
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Glass v. Camara, KK-343
...within 60 days after termination of the mediation panel's jurisdiction. Section 768.44(4), Florida Statutes (1977); Perkins v. Pare, 352 So.2d 65 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977). Construing Section 95.11(6), Florida Statutes (1973), this court held that the two-year limitation period on a wrongful deat......
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Love v. Jacobson, 77-2208
...Section 768.44, Florida Statutes (1977). We have jurisdiction to entertain the petition. Art. V, § 4(b)(3), Fla.Const.; Perkins v. Pare, 352 So.2d 65 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977). The issue presented for review is whether a medical mediation panel has jurisdiction to hear a medical malpractice claim......