Federal Court Victory
Liability Attorney Ashley Leasure Secures Dismissal in Case Involving Allegations Against Hospital
Tampa Liability Attorney Ashley Leasure, who handles complex motions and appeals, recently achieved a major victory in federal court, securing the dismissal of a complex case involving a broad range of federal and state law claims against a Florida hospital including allegations of sex and religious discrimination, due process violations, and general negligence.
In the First Amended Complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the plaintiffs asserted that the hospital conspired with the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to wrongfully remove their newborn and two-year-old child. The newborn arrived at the hospital with severe bruising and blistering on her buttocks and genitalia, requiring ten days of NICU treatment. Based on the concerns about these suspicious injuries, the hospital called DCF. After visiting the children, DCF made the decision to remove the children from the parents’ care to further investigate the injuries.
Attorney Leasure filed a motion to dismiss, asserting that the hospital was immune from liability under Florida’s mandatory reporter statutes which requires a hospital report to DCF anytime there is a reasonable cause to suspect abuse (sections 39.201, .203, Florida Statutes), and that the plaintiffs failed to state any valid causes of action—both state and federal.
In a decisive 36-page omnibus ruling the federal court judge granted the hospital’s motion to dismiss in its entirety. The court ruled that the hospital’s statutory immunity under Florida law protected it from liability for reporting suspected child abuse to DCF. Even if immunity did not apply, the court found that the plaintiffs failed to adequately allege valid causes of action. On the federal claims, the court concluded that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that the hospital was a state actor under any of the tests required for a § 1983 claim. Specifically, it found that reporting suspected abuse to DCF could not transform the hospital into a state actor. Additionally, the court dismissed the plaintiffs’ § 1557 claim, ruling that the allegations did not support a finding of discrimination and that the hospital’s actions were more plausibly explained by lawful hospital procedures.
