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Beverly Health And Rehabilitation Services12/27/2000
The Petitioners, Beverly Health and Rehabilitation Services, Inc.; Vantage Health Care Corporation; and Petersen Healthcare, Inc., authorized to operate Cambridge Convalescent Center (Cambridge Convalescent Center), request certiorari review of a trial court order granting leave to amend the complaint of Rugenia A. Meeks, as personal representative of the Estate of Mary Meeks Young (the plaintiff), to include a claim for punitive damages. We have jurisdiction, but our scope of review is limited to a determination of whether the trial court adhered to the procedural requirements associated with section 768.72, Florida Statutes (1999). See Globe Newspaper Co. v. King, 658 So. 2d 518, 519 (Fla. 1995). We deny the petition.
Mary Meeks Young allegedly was a resident at the Cambridge Convalescent Center from December 4, 1992, until her death on September 4, 1997. The plaintiff's complaint is not a wrongful death action, but rather a survival action for negligence. It alleges that the Cambridge Convalescent Center violated various rights enumerated in section 400.022, Florida Statutes (1997), and claims that Ms. Young suffered bedsores, infections, dehydration, malnourishment, and other injuries as a result of these violations.
In early October 1999, several months after the filing of the initial complaint, the plaintiff filed a bare bones motion for leave to amend the complaint to add a claim for punitive damages. The motion contains no factual basis to support the claim for punitive damages, but merely "contends that there exists a reasonable basis" for these damages. The plaintiff scheduled the motion for a 45-minute hearing to take place on November 9, 1999.
Cambridge Convalescent Center responded to the motion on October 6, 1999, by filing a request for production of all information "which will be submitted to the Court" to substantiate the punitive damages claim. It also filed punitive damages interrogatories to determine this information. Finally, it filed an objection to the motion, arguing the plaintiff had not complied with the requirement of Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.100(b) that a motion state with "particularity" the grounds for any requested order.
On the day of the scheduled hearing, the plaintiff filed an objection to the interrogatories, a very general response to the request for production identifying such items as "all sworn testimony," and a memorandum in support of its motion. Attached to the memorandum were approximately 200 pages of exhibits, which the plaintiff used as its "proffer" to support the punitive damages claim. Thus, Cambridge Convalescent Center did not receive the information supporting the claim for punitive damages until the day of the hearing.
The trial judge properly criticized the "gamesmanship" occurring in his courtroom. We do not question that the trial court had authority to deny this motion to amend as facially insufficient, or to cancel the hearing because of the last-minute disclosure of the proffered exhibits. The trial judge, however, attempted to salvage the 45-minute hearing. He told defense counsel: "I'm going to let you respond to the extent that you can and if you need leave to further respond I'm going to grant that." The hearing then proceeded with both sides discussing the exhibits. The transcript establishes that defense counsel was familiar with many, if not all, of these documents.
At the close of the hearing, the trial judge commended defense counsel on his ability to "get up to speed fairly quickly" and described in detail the order that should be prepared granting this motion. The trial judge indicated that he did not need any further response on this issue, and defense couns
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