State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company v. Health and Wellness Services, Inc.

District Court, S.D. Florida·Decided August 10, 2020·No. 1:18-cv-23125·Unknown

Opinion

United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida

State Farm Mutual Automobile ) Insurance Company and State Farm ) Fire & Casualty Company, Plaintiff, ) ) Civil Action No. 18-23125-Civ-Scola v. ) ) Health and Wellness Services, Inc. ) and others, Defendants. )

Omnibus Order On March 5, 2020, the Court (1) granted, in part, Plaintiffs State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company and State Farm Fire & Casualty Company’s (together, “State Farm”) partial motion for summary judgment (ECF No. 184); (2) denied Defendants Beatriz Muse, Lazaro Muse, and Noel Santos (collectively the “Muse Family”) and Medical Wellness Services, Inc.’s (together with the Muse Family, the “Muse Defendants”) joint motion for summary judgment (ECF No. 172); and (3) denied Dr. Jesus Lorites’s motion for summary judgment (ECF No. 205). (Order, ECF No. 321.) In response, the Muse Defendants and Dr. Lorites, separately, ask the Court to reconsider that part of the order that granted State Farm’s motion for summary judgment. Dr. Lorites additionally asks the Court to reconsider that part of the order that denied his motion for summary judgment. After careful review, the Court denies both motions for reconsideration (ECF Nos. 330, 331). 1. Legal Standard “[I]n the interests of finality and conservation of scarce judicial resources, reconsideration of an order is an extraordinary remedy that is employed sparingly.” Gipson v. Mattox, 511 F. Supp. 2d 1182, 1185 (S.D. Ala. 2007). A motion to reconsider is “appropriate where, for example, the Court has patently misunderstood a party, or has made a decision outside the adversarial issues presented to the Court by the parties, or has made an error not of reasoning but of apprehension.” Z.K. Marine Inc. v. M/V Archigetis, 808 F. Supp. 1561, 1563 (S.D. Fla. 1992) (Hoeveler, J.) (citation omitted). “Simply put, a party may move for reconsideration only when one of the following has occurred: an intervening change in controlling law, the availability of new evidence, or the need to correct clear error or prevent manifest injustice.” Longcrier v. HL-A Co., 595 F. Supp. 2d 1218, 1247 (S.D. Ala. 2008) (quoting Vidinliev v. Carey Int’l, Inc., No. CIV.A. 107CV762-TWT, 2008 WL 5459335, at *1 (N.D. Ga. Dec. 15, 2008)). However, “[s]uch problems rarely arise and the motion to reconsider should be equally rare.” Z.K. Marine Inc., 808 F. Supp. at 1563 (citation omitted). Certainly, if any of these situations arise, a court has broad discretion to reconsider a previously issued order. Absent any of these conditions, however, a motion to reconsider is not ordinarily warranted. 2. The Muse Defendants’ Motion for Reconsideration The Muse Defendants complain, generally, that the Court’s order resulted in manifest injustice because the Court failed to appreciate various factual disputes presented by the record and misapprehended various standards and legal concepts. They group their grievances into six categories: (1) the Court made errors in its four critical findings “as a matter of law”; (2) the Court ignored or misapprehended Local Rule 56.1(a)(2) and improperly applied Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c)(1)(A); (3) the Court failed to take into account record evidence cited by the Muse Defendants; (4) the Court improperly considered evidence supporting a theory that State Farm never pleaded; (5) the Court erred in finding Beatriz, Lazaro, and Santos liable individually; and (6) the Court improperly found Lazaro and Beatriz liable when Lazaro denied any liability and Beatriz sold Defendant Clinic Health and Wellness Services, Inc., eight years before the complained of billings. For the reasons that follow, the Muse Defendants’ arguments are unavailing. A. The Muse Defendants have failed to set forth support for their contention the Court erred in concluding the Defendant Clinics provided services that were unlawfully rendered and non- compensable. First, the Muse Defendants complain the Court erred in finding the Clinics’ licensed massage therapists performed non-compensable services. In support, they argue (1) there is no proof in the record that the Clinics’ licensed massage therapists did not perform any massage; (2) prior to 2013, massage therapists did not need to be supervised by a medical doctor; (3) after 2013, medical doctors could either directly or indirectly supervise a massage therapist; (4) based on the record, a factfinder could conclude the Muse Family members were operating, at worst, under a misapprehension of the law but not with the intent to defraud or deceive; and (5) “the Court overlooked that the law on the scope of modalities that court be performed by LMTs changed in 2013.” (Muse Defs.’ Mot. at 5.) The bulk of the Muse Defendants’ presentation regarding the Clinics’ massage therapists lacks sufficient legal support or analysis to allow the Court to fully discern, never mind evaluate, their position. Nor are their contentions sufficiently linked to errors that were outcome determinative. For example, as to their fourth point, the Muse Defendants complain: “[A] jury could have found that the Muse Defendants . . . were operating under mistake or misapprehension of the law, and while that would not [sic] establish some type of liability, it sure isn’t intent to defraud or deceive as a matter of law, much less on this record.” (Muse Defs.’ Mot. at 5 (emphasis in original).) The Court is not entirely sure what the Muse Defendants’ point here is; but to the extent their focus is on intent, it is irrelevant. Neither claims under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act nor claims sounding in unjust enrichment require a showing of intent. See, e.g., In re Schurtenberger, 12- 17246-BKC-AJC, 2014 WL 92828, at *5 (Bankr. S.D. Fla. Jan. 9, 2014) (holding an action “[u]nder FDUTPA, . . . does not depend on . . . the seller’s intent to deceive”); Golden v. Woodward, 15 So. 3d 664, 670 (Fla. 1st DCA 2009) (noting that, where a claim is based on unjust enrichment, a plaintiff need not establish the defendant’s fraud or misconduct). Further, the Muse Defendants’ argument that the Clinics’ massage therapists performed authorized massage services misses the point: the Court found the Defendants “submitted bills to State Farm seeking reimbursement for non-compensable physical therapy services . . . being performed by massage workers unlicensed to do so.” (Order at 17.) Nothing the Muse Defendants have presented shows that finding was in error. Next, the Muse Defendants object “[a] fact question exists on whether the medical clinics had compliant record keeping and whether, if not, the individual Muse Defendants are liable by osmosis.” (Muse Defs.’ Mot. at 6.) In finding that the Defendant Clinics failed to comply with their recordkeeping requirements the Court, in granting summary judgment in State Farm’s favor, found as follows: Lazaro was permitted to review patient medical records at all the Clinics despite any evidence or indication from the record that he was in any way authorized to do so: he is not a healthcare practitioner or involved in the patients’ care or treatment; there is no evidence any patient authorized Lazaro’s inspection of the records; and there is no evidence Lazaro satisfied any of the statutory exceptions that would allow him access to the records. (See Pls.’ Stmt. of Facts at ¶¶ 43, 48, 54.) Additionally, none of the Clinics’ records documented the results of patient x-rays or, accordingly, whether the results of the x-rays were ever used in prescribing or developing the patient’s treatments. (Id. at ¶¶ 45, 49, 57.) Moreover, the treatment plans for the pat

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State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company v. Health and Wellness Services, Inc., (S.D. Fla. 2020).

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