NORTH BROWARD HOSPITAL v. STATE AGENCY FOR HEALTH CARE ADMINISTRATION (2015)

NORTH BROWARD HOSPITAL d/b/a Broward General Medical Center and North Broward Medical Center, Appellants, v. STATE of Florida, AGENCY FOR HEALTH CARE ADMINISTRATION, Appellee.
Orlando Health, Inc., v. State of Florida, Agency for Health Care Administration, Appellee.
Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare Inc. d/b/a Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, Appellant, v. State of Florida, Agency for Health Care Administration, Appellee.
Shands Teaching Hospital and Clinics, Inc., Appellant, v. State of Florida, Agency for Health Care Administration, Appellee.
South Broward Hospital District d/b/a Memorial Regional Hospital and Memorial Hospital Miramar, Appellants, v. State of Florida, Agency for Health Care Administration, Appellee.
Shands Jacksonville Medical Center, Inc., Appellant, v. State of Florida, Agency for Health Care Administration, Appellee.
Jackson Memorial Hospital, Appellant, v. State of Florida, Agency for Health Care Administration, Appellee.

Nos. 1D14–5568, 1D14–5570, 1D14–5571, 1D14–5572, 1D14–5574, 1D14–5575, 1D15–0661.

Decided: August 07, 2015

Joanne B. Erde, Donna Holshouser Stinson, and Harvey W. Gurland, Jr. of Duane Morris, LLP, Miami, for Appellants North Broward Hospital District, Orlando Hospital, Inc., Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare, Inc., Shands Teaching Hospital and Clinics, South Broward Hospital District, and Shands Jacksonville Medical Center, Inc.; R.A. Cuevas, Jr., Miami–Dade County Attorney, Christopher C. Kokoruda, James J. Allen, and Eugene Shy, Jr., Assistant County Attorneys, Miami, for Appellant Jackson Memorial Hospital. Joseph M. Goldstein and Amy M. Wessel of Shutts & Bowen, LLP, Fort Lauderdale, Stephen T. Maher of Shutts & Bowen, LLP, Miami, and Daniel E. Nordby of Shutts & Bowen, LLP, Tallahassee; Tracey Cooper George, Chief Appellate Counsel, Agency for Health Care Administration, Tallahassee, for Appellee.

Before us in these consolidated appeals are final orders the Agency for Health Care Administration (Agency) entered in section 120.57(1) proceedings, after an Administrative Law Judge in the Division of Administrative Hearings had remanded the cases to the Agency, and appellants had withdrawn their petitions for formal hearing.

Our jurisdiction to entertain an administrative appeal from a final closing order is clear. See Hill v. Div. of Ret., 687 So.2d 1376, 1377 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997) (“A final order may or may not dismiss a petition for hearing or some other pleading. Its finality depends on whether it has brought the administrative adjudicative process to a close.”); see also Altee v. Duval Cnty. Sch. Bd., 990 So.2d 1124, 1124–25 (Fla. 1st DCA 2008) (granting petition for review of closing order, even though the closing order was deemed non-final agency action, on grounds immediate review was necessary to provide an adequate remedy).

In addition to closing the cases, the final orders went on to discuss the possibility of future petitions, proceedings or challenges, challenges we were told at oral argument no party has thus far sought to bring. The legal effect of any such possible petitions, proceedings or challenges was not, in any event, at issue before the Agency when the final orders were entered. Accordingly, in affirming the orders under review, we decline to address the Agency's speculative obiter dicta.

AFFIRMED.

PER CURIAM.

BENTON and OSTERHAUS, JJ., and LESTER, DON H., Associate Judge, concur.

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