Until the March 2014 Florida Supreme Court decision in Estate of McCall v. United States(1), there were limitations on non-economic damages for the negligence of healthcare providers in medical negligence actions.(2) In McCall, a wrongful death case, the caps were found to be unconstitutional. The plurality opinion suggested that the unconstitutionality stemmed from the aggregate limitation on non-economic damages, intimating that caps applied on a per claimant basis (without an aggregate limit) would be constitutional.(3)After McCall, Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal issued a ruling reinstating the full amount of damages awarded by a jury, failing to apply the caps on a per claimant basis.(4) Based on this decision, there are no caps in wrongful death cases period, irrespective of the number of claimants. None of the other District Courts have issued opinions post-McCall, and therefore, the Shoemaker decision is binding precedent trial courts statewide.
Almost one year later, there is still uncertainty as to whether other District Courts will uphold the application of caps on a per claimant basis, whether the statutory caps still apply in non-wrongful death cases(5), and how the likely lack of caps across the board (presumed to be coming post-Miles) will affect the healthcare industry going forward. After McCall, there was unease that all medical negligence cases would be more expensive to resolve and that without caps, case filings would increase, thereby increasing malpractice insurance premiums for healthcare providers.
However, in the past year since McCall, despite the lack of caps and ambiguity, nothing has really changed. The number of claims and cases overall appears to be on the decline. Cases, including wrongful death with multiple survivors, are resolving just as they did pre-McCall. The bottom line: although there is still some apprehension in light of the current caps decisions and potential future decisions, if the past year is any indication, there is no need to panic. Healthcare providers should maintain the status quo, vigorously defending claims, settling only the bad ones, and taking the cases where the doctors and nurses met the standard of care to trial.
