Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Ass'n v. Florida Division of Administrative Hearings

948 So. 2d 705, 2007 Fla. LEXIS 2
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJanuary 11, 2007
DocketNos. SC04-227, SC04-666
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 948 So. 2d 705 (Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Ass'n v. Florida Division of Administrative Hearings) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Ass'n v. Florida Division of Administrative Hearings, 948 So. 2d 705, 2007 Fla. LEXIS 2 (Fla. 2007).

Opinions

BELL, J.

In this consolidated case, we review two decisions of the Second District Court of Appeal: All Children’s Hospital, Inc. v. Department of Administrative Hearings, 868 So.2d 450 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004), and Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Ass’n v. Ferguson, 869 So.2d 686 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004). In each case, the Second District certified conflict with decisions from the Third, Fourth, and Fifth District Courts of Appeal on an issue regarding the subject matter jurisdiction of administrative law judges under the Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Act as found in sections 766.301 through 766.316, Florida Statutes (1997 & Supp.1998) (NICA). See Univ. of Miami v. M.A., 793 So.2d 999 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001); Gugelmin v. Div. of Admin. Hearings, 815 So.2d 764 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002); Behan v. Fla. Birth-Related Neurological Injury Comp. Ass’n, 664 So.2d 1173 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995); O’Leary v. Fla. Birth-Related Neurological Injury Comp. Ass’n, 757 So.2d 624 (Fla. 5th DCA 2000).1

We frame the question in conflict as follows:

Does an administrative law judge (ALJ), when considering a NICA claim, have jurisdiction to determine whether or not a health care provider has complied with the “notice to obstetrical patients of participation in the plan” as required by section 766.316?

In the two cases before us, the Second District held that the NICA statute, as it existed prior to the 2003 amendment, did not give the ALJ any jurisdiction to determine this notice issue.2 The Third, Fourth, and Fifth Districts had reached the opposite conclusion; and, subsequent to the Second District’s certification of conflict, the First District issued an opinion aligning itself with the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Districts. See Tabb v. Fla. Birth-Related Neurological Injury Comp. Ass’n, 880 So.2d 1253 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004).

As explained below, we hold that when notice is raised as part of a claim filed under NICA, an ALJ has jurisdiction to make findings regarding whether a health care provider has satisfied the “notice to obstetrical patients” requirement of section 766.316, Florida Statutes (Supp.1998). In light of this holding, we quash the Second District’s decision in All Children’s Hospital, Inc. and remand that case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. However, because the conflict question has become moot in Ferguson, we dismiss that case.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

As stated, we have before us two decisions from the Second District. In All Children’s Hospital, Inc., Christopher Glenn and Anna Glenn, now Anna Lentini, [708]*708filed a civil suit in circuit court against All Children’s Hospital, Inc. (All Children’s) alleging that the medical malpractice of All Children’s neonatal nurses caused injuries to their newborn infant. 863 So.2d at 452.3 In Ferguson, Maria and Garry Ferguson brought a similar suit in circuit court against Morton Plant Mease Health Care Hospital (Morton Plant) and nurse Lenore V. McCall, the certified nurse midwife, alleging medical malpractice in the delivery of their infant. 869 So.2d at 687.

The relevant facts of each case are essentially the same. In each case, the infant’s parents filed a medical malpractice suit against the health care provider who assisted in the delivery of the infant.4 The defending health care provider responded by raising the affirmative defense that the civil suit was brought in violation of NICA’s exclusive remedy provision, section 766.303(2), Florida Statutes (1997). In each case, the respective circuit court abated the medical malpractice action and ordered the parents to file a claim for compensation under the injury compensation plan established by section 766.303, Florida Statutes (the NICA Plan). Claims under the NICA Plan are heard and determined administratively as set forth in sections 766.301-.316.

In each case, the parents complied with the circuit court’s order but did so under protest. They filed NICA claims but alleged that the health care providers had not provided them with the notice required by section 766.316, Florida Statutes (Supp. 1998). This statutorily mandated notice informs obstetrical patients of “the limited no-fault alternative for birth-related injuries” under the NICA Plan. Specifically, section 766.316, entitled “Notice to obstetrical patients of participation in the plan,” provides:

Each hospital with a participating physician on its staff and each participating physician, other than residents, assistant residents, and interns deemed to be participating physicians under s. 766.314(4)(c), under the Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Plan shall provide notice to the obstetrical patients as to the limited no-fault alternative for birth-related neurological injuries. Such notice shall be provided on forms furnished by the association and shall include a clear and concise explanation of a patient’s rights and limitations under the plan. The hospital or the participating physician may elect to have the patient sign a form acknowledging receipt of the notice form. Signature of the patient acknowledging receipt of the notice form raises a rebuttable presumption that the notice requirements of this section have been met. Notice need not be given to a patient when the patient has an emergency medical condition as defined in s. 395.002(8)(b) or when notice is not practicable.

If a health care provider complies with this notice provision, according to section 766.303, compensation under the plan is the exclusive remedy for the covered injuries. Therefore, in light of this allegation by the parents that the statutory notice was not provided, the health care provid[709]*709ers were allowed to intervene in the administrative proceedings.

After an administrative hearing in each case, the ALJ found that the required notice was not provided. Given this finding, the ALJ then ordered the parents to elect their remedy — either waive the notice issue and pursue an award under NICA or pursue the medical malpractice action in circuit court. In both cases, the health care providers appealed the ALJ’s order to the Second District Court of Appeal. The Second District reversed the ALJ’s orders because it determined that NICA did not give the ALJ jurisdiction to make findings regarding notice.

The procedural history of the two cases varied on appeal. All Children’s Hospital, Inc. was the first case decided by the Second District. 863 So.2d 450. All Children’s sought to challenge the substance of the ALJ’s findings regarding notice. The Second District never reached this substantive claim. Instead, as stated above, it held that NICA does not give an ALJ jurisdiction to make findings regarding notice. Specifically, the Second District wrote:

On appeal, All Children’s contends the ALJ erred in determining that its immunity from suit under NICA was dependent on notice from both the mother’s obstetrician and Bayfront. We decline to reach that issue, because we conclude that, under the governing statutory language, the ALJ’s jurisdiction was restricted to determining whether the claim was covered by NICA and did not extend to the issue of whether a provider is entitled to invoke the exclusive remedy provision of the statute.

All Children’s Hosp., Inc.,

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Bluebook (online)
948 So. 2d 705, 2007 Fla. LEXIS 2, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/florida-birth-related-neurological-injury-compensation-assn-v-florida-fla-2007.