Carolyn Hoskins and Lolita E. Johns, her wife v. Jenna Harrison, D.O., and Women's Care Florida, LLC

Summary

The Florida Second District Court of Appeal dismissed a petition for writ of certiorari challenging an order dismissing, without prejudice, a medical malpractice direct-liability claim for failure to satisfy presuit notice requirements. The court held that the petitioners had not established the jurisdictional prerequisite of irreparable harm because the order did not terminate the action, bar the claim, or deny access to the courts.

Holdings

1. A petitioner seeking common-law certiorari must establish legally recognized irreparable harm that cannot be corrected on postjudgment appeal; litigation expenses and the need to restart presuit procedures ordinarily do not satisfy that requirement.
2. A district court must dismiss a certiorari petition for lack of jurisdiction when the petitioner fails to establish the jurisdictional irreparable-harm requirement, without reaching whether the interlocutory order departed from the essential requirements of law.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the circuit court's without-prejudice dismissal and stay based on an alleged deficiency in medical-malpractice presuit notice caused legally recognized irreparable harm sufficient to confer certiorari jurisdiction.
2. Whether the district court could reach the merits of Petitioners' challenge to the presuit-notice ruling without first finding the jurisdictional prerequisites for certiorari review.

Disposition

dismissed