State Supreme Court rules malpractice cap unconstitutional
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A slim majority of the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed an appellate court decision that overturned a 2003 cap on medical malpractice awards in personal injury cases.
The 4-to-3 decision, stemming from a Broward County case, found that limiting pain-and-suffering damages in medical malpractice claims violated the Equal Protection Clause of the state Constitution.
The law was enacted amid medical profession assertions that high damage awards were making malpractice insurance premiums unaffordable for physicians. Failure to limit awards could result in the state facing a doctor shortage, physicians told lawmakers. Plaintiffs attorneys opposed capping awards on grounds injured patients would be unfairly affected.
The majority opinion concluded that caps on noneconomic damage awards “arbitrarily reduce damage awards for plaintiffs who suffer the most drastic injuries.”
The opinion further concluded that because no evidence exists of a continuing medical malpractice insurance crisis, no relationship exists between the caps and “alleviating this purported crisis.”
The case began in 2007, when a Broward County woman underwent surgery at what is now Broward Health Medical Center to fix carpal tunnel syndrome in her wrist. As she was given anesthesia, a tube placed in her throat perforated her esophagus, the court ruling states. She awoke complaining of pain in her chest and neck and was discharged with a drug for the chest pain.
After being found unresponsive at her home the next day, she underwent lifesaving surgery to repair her esophagus and was in a drug-induced coma for several weeks. She underwent additional surgeries and intensive therapy to begin eating again. She testified that she continues to suffer from pain in the upper half of her body and from serious mental disorders resulting from the procedure.