Herrera v. JFK Med. Ctr. Ltd. Partnership — Apr. 2016 (Summary)

CLASS ACTION – FEES

Herrera v. JFK Med. Ctr. Ltd. Partnership
No. 15–13253 (11th Cir. Apr. 26, 2016)

The United States Court of appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed the decision of a federal district court to deny class certification to motor vehicle owners who sued three Florida hospitals for alleged deceptive and unfair trade practices related to unreasonable fees charged for radiological services.

The vehicle owners obtained personal injury protection (“PIP”) insurance policies of $10,000, as required by Florida law. After insurance pays the $10,000 policy limit, the insured is responsible for any remaining expenses. The vehicle owners claim the hospitals took advantage of these insurance policies by charging vehicle owners radiological service fees as much as 65 times higher than the usual, customary fees charged to non-PIP patients for similar radiological services.

The court of appeals held it would be “premature” to find, at the pleadings stage, that liability issues would not be common to a class. Although factual differences existed between the vehicle owners’ claims, the court of appeals noted that it would be “relatively easy” to determine that these rates were unreasonable across the board during discovery, the theory of liability alleged by the vehicle owners. Additionally, the court of appeals held that although damage calculations would vary between class members, the present lawsuit was not an “extreme case” where the damage calculation for each individual would be so “complex, fact-specific and difficult” that the burden on the court would be “intolerable.”