Office of Attorney General Pam Bondi
Appellate Alert
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Date issued: 11/25/2014
Editor: Betsy Stupski
Clicking the icon following the number of each case cited below will link you directly to the cited opinion. In addition, full texts of recent slip opinions are available by clicking "VIEW" at the top of your screen, then "SLIP OPINIONS." AGOs are available in the separate AGO database.
Appellate Alert 2014-14
November 25, 2014
Florida Supreme Court
Special v. West Boca Medical Center SC11-2511
11/13/2014
The beneficiary of an error at trial must prove that there is no reasonable possibility that the error complained of contributed to the verdict in order for a finding of harmless error.
Plaintiff sued for wrongful death when his wife died following the delivery of their son. During the trial, the court excluded certain testimony. The Plaintiff objected and then requested a new trial which the trial court denied. The Plaintiff appealed and the Fourth District found that the trial court had made a harmless error in excluding the testimony.
The question before the Florida Supreme Court was what the appropriate test for harmless error was. In a detailed analysis, the Court held that the test for harmless error requires the beneficiary of the error to prove that the error complained of did not contribute to the verdict. “Alternatively stated, the beneficiary of the error must prove that there is no reasonable possibility that the error complained of contributed to the verdict.” Because there was a reasonable possibility that some of the errors by the trial court contributed to the verdict, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded the case for a new trial.
Citrus County Hospital Board v. Citrus Memorial Health Foundation, Inc. SC13-411
11/13/14
Special law affecting hospital district and its hospital foundation violated the Florida constitutional provision prohibiting impairment of contract rights.
The Florida Legislature created the Citrus County Hospital Board as a special district charged with operating a public hospital. Many years later the Board turned over the operation of the hospital to the Citrus Memorial Health Foundation. The transfer of management allowed the hospital the flexibility of operating as a non public corporation. At first the Board maintained a fair amount of control over the activities of the Foundation. Then relations between the Board and the Foundation broke down and the Board began to lose control over decisions of the Foundation. Eventually the Legislature got involved with the disputes and passed a law in 2011 which gave the Board significant control of the Foundation’s activities. The Foundation brought a declaratory action asking the court to find the special law to be a impairment to contract rights. The circuit court found in favor of the Hospital Board. The First District reversed the trial court and found that the special law did violate the Florida Constitution as an impairment of contract rights.
The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the district court, concluding that the contract clause of the Florida Constitution applies to the Foundation’s contracts and that the special law violated contract rights. The Court said, “Section 16 of the Hospital Board’s charter as enacted in section 3 of the special law meets our definition of impairment. It eliminates the Foundation’s ability to operate and manage the hospital as it has contracted to do by turning the Foundation’s governance over to the Hospital Board in disregard of the Foundation’s status as a separate legal entity.”
SC13-411
Circuit Court, 18th Judicial Circuit in and for Brevard County
Ellis v. Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast 05-2013-69095
4/3/14
Records of private entity were subject to public disclosure because they were performing a delegated government function.
Ellis, the Clerk of Court, sued to get public records from the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast (EDC), a private entity. In its analysis the court determined that promoting economic development is a traditional and long-accepted function of government. The circuit court went on to find that the documents in possession of the EDC as a private entity must be produced as public records because Brevard County has delegated a statutorily authorized function to the EDC, and the records generated by the EDC’s performance of that duty are public records.