Florida Slip and Fall Injury Settlement Case Updated

Slip and Fall Injury Settlement Updated

Injured person Horn appeals the trial court's final judgment as to partial summary
judgment1 as to the causation element of her premises liability claim for damages
against Tandem Health Care of Florida, Inc. (Tandem). In her amended complaint,
Horn, who was employed by one of Tandem's contract vendors, alleged that she slipped
and fell on the wet floors of Tandem's health care facility on March 25, 1997. She
immediately complained of problems with her right knee and sought medical attention.
Dr. Lance Sisco performed surgery to repair a torn meniscus in Horn's right knee on
May 15, 1997. Although Horn also complained of pain in her left knee, similar repair
surgery on that knee did not occur until April 19, 2001. Because of continuing pain in
both of her knees, Horn underwent total knee replacement surgeries in 2005 and 2006.
Prior to trial, Tandem moved for partial summary judgment, arguing that
no genuine issue of material fact existed as to the cause of Horn's injury and her
resulting bilateral knee replacement procedures. In its motion Tandem maintained that
the need for Horn's total knee replacement surgeries was caused by degenerative
osteoarthritis that predated her fall at Tandem. In support of its position, Tandem

The trial court entered its final judgment as to partial summary judgment after
granting Tandem's motion for partial summary judgment. Because the trial court
concluded that Horn had failed to prove the alleged accident was the cause of her
alleged permanent injury, the trial court's final judgment was dispositive of her
complaint.

quoted two of Horn’s medical witnesses, who stated that the knee replacement
procedures were necessitated by the osteoarthritic condition found in both of Horn’s
knees in 2005.

The trial court granted Tandem's motion for partial summary judgment
and, in its final judgment, concluded that "the record evidence does not show a triable
issues [sic] as it relates to the legal causation issues within a reasonable degree of
medical certainty between the knee replacement of 11/29/2005 (right knee) and
03/07/2006 (left knee) and the trauma incident of 03/25/1997 upon which this premises
liability case is predicated."

Based on the deposition testimony of Drs. Barden and Cherry, we
conclude that the trial court erred in granting Tandem's motion for partial summary
judgment on the issue of causation. "It is settled law that where injuries aggravate an
existing ailment or develop a latent one[,] the person whose negligence caused the
injury is required to respond in damages for the results of the disease as well as the
original injury." C. F. Hamblen, Inc. v. Owens, 172 So. 694, 696 (Fla. 1937).
Furthermore, Florida Standard Civil Jury Instruction 5.1(a) advises that the defendant's
negligence is the legal cause of the injury or damage if "it directly and in natural and
continuous sequence produces or contributes substantially to producing" the injury or
damage.

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Florida Second District Court of Appeals

http://www.2dca.org/opinions/Opinions_Yearly_Links/2008/nov_08.shtml