Wallace v. Dean

In this case, we review the decision of the Fifth District Court of Appeal reported as Wallace v. Dean, 970 So.2d 864 (Fla. 5th DCA 2007). Despite the plaintiff-petitioner’s repeated reliance upon the undertaker’s doctrine below, which is readily apparent from reading the Fifth District’s decision,1 that court failed to recognize a long line of Florida precedent applying this common-law doctrine to governmental actors and entities.2 Of particular significance is the First District’s decision in *1039Hartley v. Floyd, 512 So.2d 1022 (Fla. 1st DCA 1987), which applied the undertaker’s doctrine and…