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NEWS
News and Press Releases
THE WAIT IS FINALLY OVER.
FLORIDA SUPREME COURT DECISION
SIGNIFIES HUGE VICTORY FOR THE NURSING HOME INDUSTRY
On December 16, 2004, the Florida Supreme
Court finally rendered its decision in the case of Knowles
vs. Beverly Enterprises d/b/a Washington Manor holding
that the Personal Representative of the Estate of a
deceased resident can only bring a cause of action pursuant
to Chapter 400 when the resident's death resulted from
the deprivation or infringement of the resident's rights.
QPWB attorneys George Quintairos and Edward Prieto obtained
a complete defense verdict at the trial court level
and argued the case all the way up to the Supreme Court
of Florida.
The Knowles case proved to be a long and
arduous ordeal with the Supreme Court taking over three
years to finally render its decision. The trial of this
cause occurred in October, 1997. Prior to trial the
court granted our motion for partial summary judgment
after QPWB successfully argued that the Plaintiff could
not maintain her Chapter 400 action because the Complaint
did not allege that the violation of the deceden't resident
rights caused the death. The trial proceeded on a negligence
and negligence per se count and the jury returned a
defense verdict. After the trial but before the Plaintiff's
motion for new trial was heard, the Fourth District
Court of Appeal in an unrelated case (Greenfield) held
that a Personal Representative could sue a nursing home
for the violation of the decedent's resident rights
regardless of whether the violation caused the resident's
death. (This language was completely contrary to the
clear language in the statute). Based on the Greenfield
decision, the trial court had no alternative but to
grant Plaintiff's Motion for New Trial.
We immediately appealed the trial court's
decision to the Fourth District Court of Appeals arguing
that the decision in Greenfield was wrong, but the court's
three judge panel ruled against us by a 3-0 margin.
We then filed a Motion for Re-Hearing and/or Re-Hearing
En Banc which the entire thirteen member court agreed
to hear. Three months after submitting briefs, the En
Banc court unanimously ruled in our favor and reversed
its decision in Greenfield. In short, all 12 judges
(one Judge recused himself) held that the language of
the statute was clear and unambiguous in that the personal
representative can only bring a cause of action when
the death resulted from the violation of the resident's
rights.
Plaintiff then petitioned the Fourth DCA
to certify the question to the Florida Supreme Court
as a question of great public importance. The matter
was briefed to the Supreme Court and oral arguments
occurred on August 31, 2001. The Fourth DCA had certified
the following question as one of great public importance:
MAY A PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE BRING A
STATUTORY CAUSE OF ACTION UNDER §400.023(1) ON
BEHALF OF A DECEASED RESIDENT OF A NURSING HOME FOR
ALLEGED INFRINGEMENT OF THE RESIDENT'S STATUTORY RIGHTS
PROVIDED BY §400.022 WHERE THE INFRINGEMENT HAS
NOT CAUSED THE RESIDENT'S DEATH?
The Florida Supreme Court answered the
question in the negative and approved the En Banc unanimous
decision of the Fourth DCA. In other words, the Florida
Supreme Court finally validated what we had been arguing
for years: the personal representative of a deceased
nursing home resident can bring a cause of action pursuant
to Chapter 400.023(1) only when the death of the resident
resulted from the care and treatment provided by the
nursing home.
As you know, Chapter 400 was amended on
May 15, 2001, to allow a personal representative to
bring a cause of action without regard to whether the
violation of resident rights caused the death. As such,
this opinion will only affect those cases where the
cause of action accrued prior to May 15, 2001. Nevertheless,
this opinion did and will continue to have a significant
impact on all pre-amendment cases by substantially reducing
the value of those cases because this opinion essentially
extinguishes all survival claims brought by the personal
representative pursuant to Chapter 400.
Hugh L. Wood, Jr.
Managing Partner
Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A.
9200 So.Dadeland Blvd., Suite PH-825
Miami, Florida 33156
(305) 670-1101 (office)
(305) 670-1161 (fax)
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