District Court of Appeal of Florida

Although Florida law does not currently recognize an implied nondelegable duty on the part of a hospital to provide competent medical care to its patients, it does recognize that such a duty can be undertaken pursuant to an express contract. A directed verdict in favor of a hospital in a medical malpractice suit is reversed and remanded where an express contract existed between plaintiffs and hospital, and there remained an unresolved issue concerning the scope of the express contract, which may have given rise to a duty to provide non-negligent neonatal care to plaintiffs' baby.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/06/2006
• Published 10/06/2006

Judges

• GRIFFIN, J.

Court

• District Court of Appeal of Florida

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• James B. Tilghman, Jr., and Gary D. Fox, of Stewart, Tilghman, Fox & Bianchi, P.A., Miami, and Kenneth M. Sigelman, M.D., J.D., of Kenneth M. Sigelman & Assoc., San Diego, CA, for Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Sylvia H. Walbolt and Annette M. Lang, of Carlton Fields, P.A., St. Petersburg, and Richard Schwamm and Eugene Pettis, of Haliczer, Pettis & Schwamm, P.A., Orlando, for Appellees.