{"id":25708,"date":"2025-10-29T21:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T21:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/25708\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T21:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T21:39:07","slug":"appeals-court-overturns-verdict-against-johns-hopkins-all-childrens-hospital-in-kowalski-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/25708\/","title":{"rendered":"Appeals court overturns verdict against Johns Hopkins All Children\u2019s Hospital in Kowalski case"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WWSB<\/a>) \u2013 On Wednesday, October 29, Florida\u2019s Second District Court of Appeals overturned a high-profile verdict against Johns Hopkins All Children\u2019s Hospital and ordered a new trial.<\/p>\n

Court documents said the trial court \u201cmisinterpreted and misapplied section 39.203(1)(a), Florida Statutes, which provides immunity for good\u2011faith child\u2011abuse reporting and good\u2011faith participation in Chapter 39 dependency proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED STORY | Hospital found liable in \u2018Take Care of Maya\u2019 trial<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe final judgment in favor of the Kowalskis is reversed. On remand, only the IIED claim brought on behalf of Maya and the remaining false imprisonment, battery, and medical negligence claims may be retried,\u201d Judge Black wrote for the court.<\/p>\n

It was determined that the hospital had the authority to detain Maya Kowalski between Oct. 7 and Oct. 13, 2016, under section 39.395, which defeated that false\u2011imprisonment claim as a matter of law.<\/p>\n

The opinion also decided that the claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress should not have gone before a jury, as there was a lack of evidence.<\/p>\n

Maya\u2019s emotional distress claim will be retried due to the trial court\u2019s allowance of immunized conduct and evidence supporting the claim.<\/p>\n

RELATED STORY | Attorney\u2019s for Johns Hopkins All Children\u2019s Hospital plan to file appeal in Maya Kowalski case<\/a><\/p>\n

The court further found insufficient evidence for punitive damages on the remaining torts and insufficient proof for fraudulent billing, concluding those issues should not have been submitted to the jury. <\/p>\n

Ethen Shapiro<\/a> of Hill Ward Henderson, who represented All Children\u2019s Hospital, said in a statement, \u201cAfter careful, rigorous review of the case and the law, the Second District Court of Appeals delivered a resounding opinion in support of Johns Hopkins All Children\u2019s Hospital, vacating the full $213 million judgment. This opinion sends a clear and vital message to mandatory reporters in Florida and across the country that their duty to report suspicions of child abuse and, critically, their good faith participation in child protection activities remain protected. The facts and the law have always prioritized protecting children, the most vulnerable among us. We look forward to vigorously defending our doctors, nurses, and staff in a fair trial on the few remaining claims after rigorous and proper application of immunity. We thank the judges for their time and attention to this matter, and we appreciate that they understood what many did not: that a one-sided movie is no substitute for a fair judicial process.\u201d <\/p>\n

What\u2019s next: The case returns to Sarasota County Circuit Court for a new trial limited to Maya\u2019s IIED and the remaining false imprisonment, battery, and medical negligence claims, with proper application of section 39.203(1)(a) and exclusion of immune conduct as a basis for liability.<\/p>\n

Read the Second District Court of Appeal opinion here:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 WWSB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WWSB) \u2013 On Wednesday, October 29, Florida\u2019s Second District Court of Appeals overturned a high-profile…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[19422,19420,19361,19287,19421,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-25708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-child-abuse-reporting-immunity","tag-florida-appeals-court","tag-johns-hopkins-all-childrens-hospital","tag-maya-kowalski-case","tag-medical-malpractice-trial","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}