rejecting contention that statutory prohibition against calling panel members to testify renders admissibility provision unconstitutional, on grounds that panel finding is not conclusive evidence and parties remain free to present at trial the same witnesses and exhibits that the panel considered
How later courts described this case
- rejecting contention that statutory prohibition against calling panel members to testify renders admissibility provision unconstitutional, on grounds that panel finding is not conclusive evidence and parties remain free to present at trial the same witnesses and exhibits that the panel considered
- reviewing the treatment by the federal courts of state statutory malpractice procedures similar to Maryland’s, and concluding that such a procedure must be applied in diversity
- holding that Florida is free to require pre-suit mediation for any medical malpractice case
- whether by substance-procedure test, outcome-determinative test, or discouragement-of-forum-shopping test, Florida statutory requirement that medical malpractice claimant participate in mediation before bringing suit must be enforced in diversity case
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
RONEY, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the result reached by Judge Tjoflat on the ground that the Florida plan for handling medical malpractice claims meets the rational relationship standard required for constitutionality, which all parties here agree to be the proper test. Once that standard is met, neither the federal Government nor this Court should concern itself with the wisdom of the plan. A state program can be both good and bad, or either, and still be rational so as to hurdle the constitutional obstacles of equal protection and due process. The success of a program, or lack thereof, does not provide the key to constitutionality, only rationality or the lack thereof.