Supreme Court of Florida

In a federal wrongful-death suit brought against the government by the estate of a man killed in the 2001 anthrax-mailing attacks, upon a question certified by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the court answers that, under Florida law, a laboratory that manufactures, grows, tests or handles ultra-hazardous materials owes a duty of reasonable care to members of the general public to avoid an unauthorized interception and dissemination of the materials.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/30/2008
• Published 10/30/2008

Judges

• ANSTEAD, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of Florida

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Peter D. Keisler, Assistant Attorney General, Jeffrey S. Bucholtz, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Jonathan F. Cohn, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, and Douglas Letter and H. Thomas Byron III, Staff Attorneys, United States Department of Justice, and Tami Lyn Azorsky of McKenna, Long and Aldridge, LLP, Washington, D.C.;  R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Kathleen M. Salyer, Deputy Chief, Appellate Division, and Dexter A. Lee, Senior Litigation Counsel, Civil Division, United States Attorney's Office, Miami, FL;  and Martin B. Woods and Marissa D. Kelley of Stearns, Weaver, Miller, Weissler, Alhadeff and Sitterson, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, FL, for Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Phillip M. Burlington and Bard D. Rockenbach of Burlington and Rockenbach, P.A., and Richard Schuler of Schuler, Halvorson and Weiser, P.A., West Palm Beach, FL, for Appellee.