Collier v. Dade County

DANIEL S. PEARSON, Judge.

In 1956, Elizabeth Collier, a paying patient at Dade County-owned Kendall Hospital, underwent surgery. Twenty years later, she discovered that a hemostat had been left in her body during this surgery and, understandably, sued the County and the surgeon, Dr. Mixson. The trial judge entered summary judgment in favor of the defendants, holding that the defense of sovereign immunity was a bar to Collier’s action against the County and Mixson, who, the trial court found, operated under the County’s aegis.1

Collier’s claims, while not discovered until 1976, are controlled by…