Like a gavel echoing for a second time, a Florida appeals court on Monday refused to revisit its decision undoing a $213 million verdict against a St. Petersburg hospital in the closely watched case tied to the Netflix documentary “Take Care of Maya.”
The Florida Second District Court of Appeal denied a request from Maya Kowalski to reconsider its October ruling that reversed the massive judgment against Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. The earlier decision wiped away a jury award that had favored the Kowalski family, who say hospital staff’s handling of Maya during a three-month stay beginning in late 2016 contributed to the suicide of her mother, Beata Kowalski.
Appeals Court Holds the Line
Immunity Ruling at the Core
In its October opinion, the appellate court concluded that the trial court properly granted the hospital immunity under Chapter 39 of Florida law, which protects good-faith reports of suspected child abuse. But the panel said the trial veered off course when jurors were exposed to what it called “significant and inflammatory testimony” about restrictions imposed by the dependency court after Maya was removed from her parents’ custody and required to remain at the hospital.
While the court acknowledged that statutory immunity does not shield bad-faith conduct, it said the record contained no evidence showing the hospital carried out the dependency court’s orders in anything other than good faith.
“We agree that the trial court’s rulings on Section 39.203(1)(a) immunity permeated the entire trial,” the court wrote in October, ordering a new trial on all claims not otherwise resolved by its opinion.
