Almost two years after a jury awarded the family at the center of the “Take Care of Maya” case more than $261 million against Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, an appellate court has reversed the entire verdict and cleared the pathway for a new trial.
The Second District Court of Appeals released its opinion on Wednesday, Oct. 29, reversing the entire verdict, including the $208 million in compensatory and punitive damages, and cleared a path for a new trial on a limited number of claims, including Maya Kowalski’s intentional-infliction-of-emotional-distress (IIED) claim, and the remaining false imprisonment, battery and medical-negligence claims.
The appeal’s court found that the trial court erred in not granting the hospital’s direct verdicts and faulted Sarasota Circuit Court Judge Hunter Carroll for allowing emotionally charged testimony and arguments that blurred legally immune acts with potential torts…