Winter Haven Hospital, Inc. v. Liles

MORRIS, Judge.

Winter Haven Hospital, Inc. (the Hospital), appeals a final judgment awarding Brandy Liles $500,000 in compensatory damages against the Hospital and $1,000,000 in punitive damages against the Hospital. We reverse the final judgment and remand for a new trial in accordance with this opinion.

I. Facts

Ms. Sutka, a forty-nine-year-old woman, was receiving treatment at the Hospital’s emergency room on March 26, 2005, for shortness of breath and abdominal pain. Early in the morning on March 27, Ms. Sutka passed away. Ms. Sutka’s daugh ter, Brandy Liles, requested an autopsy to…