Case Name: PALM SPRINGS GENERAL HOSPITAL, INC., Appellant, v. Amauri VALDES, M.D., Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2001-03-07
Citations: 784 So. 2d 1151
Docket Number: Nos. 3D99-1543, 3D99-771
Parties: PALM SPRINGS GENERAL HOSPITAL, INC., Appellant, v. Amauri VALDES, M.D., Appellee.
Judges: Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and JORGENSON, and FLETCHER, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 784
Pages: 1151–1156

Head Matter:
PALM SPRINGS GENERAL HOSPITAL, INC., Appellant, v. Amauri VALDES, M.D., Appellee.
Nos. 3D99-1543, 3D99-771.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.
March 7, 2001.
Rehearing En Banc Denied May 30, 2001.
White & Case and Charles C. Kline and Beth D. Jarrett, Miami, for appellant.
Alice E. Warwick, Miami, for appellee.
Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and JORGENSON, and FLETCHER, JJ.

Opinion:
FLETCHER, Judge.
Palm Springs General Hospital, Inc. [Hospital] appeals a final. judgment entered in an action for damages arising from the denial of staff privileges to Amau-ri Valdes, M.D. Dr. Valdes cross-appeals a post-trial order reducing the jury award by the amount of a settlement between another defendant and Dr. Valdes. For the reasons which follow, we affirm.
Dr. Valdes first obtained staff privileges in radiology at the Hospital in 1972. Each year thereafter Dr. Valdes routinely reapplied for and was granted reappointment for the following medical staff year. On August 10, 1995, some three months into the 1995-1996 medical staff year to which he had already been reappointed and without any prior written notice of termination, Dr. Valdes was advised that he could no longer provide radiology services at the Hospital and was asked to leave the premises. The reason given by the Hospital for its action was that it had entered into an exclusive contract with a new group of radiologists which did not include Dr. Valdes.
Since the early 1980s, Dr. Valdes had been practicing in partnership with Drs. Kaul and Eisenberg. The new group of radiologists, with which the Hospital allegedly contracted to provide exclusive service after August 10, 1995, consisted of Dr. Valdes' former partners, Drs. Kaul and Eisenberg, and a third physician. According to the Hospital's administrator and its president, their decision to go with the new group was based on the Hospital's need for radiologists with greater experi ence in interventional or invasive radiology procedures. However, before effectively terminating Dr. Valdes' privileges and entering into the contract with the new radiology group, the Hospital president had indicated that he wanted Dr. Valdes out because he believed that a missed finding by Dr. Valdes on an X-ray had resulted in the death of a patient.
After unsuccessful attempts to obtain reappointment at the Hospital or to find equivalent employment with another hospital, Dr. Valdes sued the Hospital and his former partners for damages. The claims against the Hospital were based on violation of section 395.0191, Florida Statutes (1995) and the Hospital's own bylaws which require prior written notice, a hearing before the medical staff executive committee, and an appeals process before termination of medical staff privileges by the board of directors — to all of which procedures Dr. Valdes would have been entitled if his termination or the denial of his privileges was predicated upon his ostensible X-ray error.
Dr. Valdes settled the claims against his former partners for $60,000, and the case proceeded to trial only on the claims against the Hospital. The trial lasted five days and included the admission, over objection, of discovery deposition testimony of an expert regarding damages, as well as testimony from Dr. Kaiser, a member of the medical staff executive committee of Jackson Memorial Hospital, who explained the standards required for appointment determinations under the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). The jury returned a verdict in favor of Dr. Valdes in the amount of $168,000. On the Hospital's motion, this amount was subsequently reduced by the $60,000 settlement between Dr. Valdes and his former partners.
On appeal, the Hospital claims various errors in the trial court's denial of its motion for directed verdict and post-trial motion for new trial. The Hospital argues that it was entitled to a directed verdict because Dr. Valdes failed to prove any wrongdoing on the part of the Hospital which led to his damages. As well, the Hospital challenges the admission of the expert testimony on the JCAHO standards and the introduction of the expert discovery deposition at trial. On cross-appeal, Dr. Valdes claims error in the set-off of the amount of the settlement reached between Dr. Valdes and his framer partner, arguing that setoffs are not allowed against non-economic damages where the defendants are severally liable.
The Hospital does not dispute that where disciplinary action is taken against a doctor resulting in the suspension of privileges, the doctor is entitled to notice, hearing and due process as set forth in the hospital bylaws and in section 395.0193, Florida Statutes (1995), which entitlements Dr. Valdes was not accorded. The Hospital contends, however, that these procedures are not implicated in the context of a hospital's administrative decision to terminate an exclusive-service provider contract and enter into another, as it alleges was the case here. Although we are not prepared to concede that Florida law en dorses this view, the Hospital's argument totally disregards substantial competent evidence which was presented to the jury and which if believed supports Dr. Valdes' claim that the real reason for the decision to terminate him was the Hospital administrator's mistaken notion that a missed finding by Dr. Valdes on an X-ray had resulted in the death of a patient. This evidence created an issue of fact as to the Hospital's motive in terminating Dr. Valdes' privileges which was properly left to the jury for determination. See Lake Hospital & Clinic, Inc. v. Silversmith, 551 So.2d 538 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989) (evidence that privileges were terminated after a physician made deficiencies in hospital's operations publicly known created jury question as to whether hospital officials acted in good- faith and without malice in terminating the physician's privileges).
We find no merit to the Hospital's remaining points. As to the JCAHO standards the trial court was within its discretion in admitting the expert testimony after determining that the standards would help the jury understand the Hospital's obligations in dealing with physicians' privileges. See Carida v. Holy Cross Hosp., Inc., 427 So.2d 803 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983) (JCAHO established the procedural requirements to be used by all hospitals). As to the expert deposition testimony it was admissible at trial pursuant to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.390(b) which provides that any expert witness deposition may be used at trial. As to the award of prejudgment interest, the trial court properly awarded Dr. Valdes prejudgment interest from the date of his effective dismissal from the hospital. See Broward County v. Finlayson, 555 So.2d 1211 (Fla.1990); Ulano v. Anderson, 703 So.2d 1149 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997); Broward County v. Sattler, 400 So.2d 1031 (Fla. 4th DCA 1981).
Finally, we reject Dr. Valdes' contention on cross-appeal that the damages awarded by the jury should not have been set off by the amount of his settlement with his former partners. There is nothing in the record to indicate that the damages Dr. Valdes claimed against the Hospital differed from those claimed against his former partners. Whether caused by the Hospital's sole wrongdoing or in conjunction with wrongdoing on the part of his former partners, Dr. Valdes suffered the same damages, i.e., his lost wages. Section 46.015, Florida Statutes, directs that a court set off the proceeds of any settlement with "any person in partial satisfaction of the damages sued for." Because Dr. Valdes did not plead or prove separate or distinct damages against his former partners, we must assume that the amount paid by them was intended to compensate Dr. Valdes in part for his lost wages. The trial court properly set off this amount against the full amount of damages determined by the jury. See Lauth By and Through Gadansky v. Olsten Home Healthcare, Inc., 678 So.2d 447 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996); Designs for Vision, Inc. v. Amedas, Inc., 632 So.2d 614 (Fla. 2d DCA 1994); Crown Cork & Seal Co. v. Vroom, 480 So.2d 108 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985); compare John Caddell Constr. Co. v. Mendez, 742 So.2d 425 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999).
We therefore affirm the judgment entered below in all respects.
JORGENSON, J., concurs.
. The medical staff year runs from May 1 through April 30.
. See J. Sternberg, S. Schulman & Assocs., M.D., P.A. v. Hospital Corp. of America, 571 So.2d 1334, 1337 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989) (Polen, J., dissenting) (where hospital decides to award exclusive contract for radiology services, former radiologists nevertheless entitled to a hearing before termination of their privileges); Lawler v. Eugene Wuesthoff Mem. Hosp. Ass'n, 497 So.2d 1261 (Fla. 5th DCA 1986) (holding that a breach of a hospital's bylaws in terminating a doctor's staff privilege was a sufficient basis for a breach of contract claim); Palm-Beach Martin County Med. Ctr., Inc. v. Panaro, 431 So.2d 1023 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983) (finding conflict in bylaws which provided that loss of a contract was cause for termination of medical staff mem bership while requiring a recommendation of medical staff and that decision to terminate not be arbitrary or capricious); Spunberg v. Columbia/JFK Med. Ctr., Inc., No. 97-8937 AH, 1997 WL 868607 (Fla.Cir.Ct. Dec.23, 1997), (determining that statutory criteria for revoking a physician's clinical privileges may not be abrogated by exclusive contract), affirmed, 719 So.2d 298 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998).