Opinion ID: 1822772
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Majority's Approval of Breach of Statutory Duty Necessarily Giving Rise to Civil Liability

Text: By answering the question as certified, approving the decision below, and concluding that the district court was correct in its conclusion, the majority's opinion leaves the impression that this Court is validating the Second District's interpretation of this Court's precedent. Majority op. at 205. Relying primarily on Gracey, the Second District determined that a breach of the duty of care imposed by section 381.004(3)(f) gives rise to tort liability. It concluded that [w]hen a statute creates a clear duty of care, the violation of that duty can `generate[ ] a viable cause of action in tort.' Abril, 884 So.2d at 209 (quoting Gracey, 837 So.2d at 353, and citing deJesus v. Seaboard Coast Line R.R. Co., 281 So.2d 198 (Fla.1973), as well as Lewis v. City of Miami, 127 Fla. 426, 173 So. 150 (1937)). The Second District reached this conclusion without any examination of legislative intent, particularly the efficacy of the express statutory remedies. [8] The effect of that decision was to add a new tort remedy to the administrative and criminal remedies the Legislature provided for breaches of the duty in section 381.004(3)(f). The majority applies the same basic analysis. Indeed, in answering the question as certified, the majority seems to agree with the Second District that, irrespective of legislative intent, the law in Florida after Gracey is that [w]hen a statute creates a clear duty of care, the violation of that duty can `generate[ ] a viable cause of action in tort.' Id. [9] The majority's apparent agreement with the Second District's outdated analysis is exacerbated by the breadth of its holding. The majority holds that an entity that negligently and unlawfully violates a patient's right of confidentiality and privacy in disclosing the results of HIV testing of the patient may be held responsible in a civil negligence action for damages caused to the patient by the unlawful disclosure. Majority op. at 203. This holding represents a significant change in Florida tort law. Previously, a cause of action for breach of confidentiality or invasion of privacy had been limited to the province of intentional torts. See, e.g., S. Baptist Hosp. of Fla., Inc. v. Welker, 908 So.2d 317, 320 (Fla.2005) (categorizing invasion of privacy claims as within the gamut of intentional torts); Rowell v. Holt, 850 So.2d 474, 478 n. 1 (Fla.2003) (same). By approving a cause of action for a nonintentional, negligent breach of a duty of confidentiality, the majority expands breach of confidentiality or invasion of privacy actions to the much broader realm of general negligence. In doing so, the majority recedes from this Court's prior decisions sub silentio. Simply stated, the majority's broad holding effectively modifies or abrogates the common law by recognizing a new common law cause of action for the negligent breach of the duty of confidentiality created by section 381.004(3)(f).