SABRA HEALTH CARE HOLDINGS I I I, L L C, ET AL
v.
THE ESTATE OF CAROL DESANTIS, ET AL
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
The appellate court denied a petition for certiorari review of an order denying a motion to dismiss. The court held that the claims against Sabra did not fall under a statute requiring specific prerequisites for negligence claims, as the allegations in the complaint did not sound in negligence.
No, the claims are not subject to section 400.023(3) because the allegations in the complaint do not sound in negligence. The court is confined to the allegations within the complaint itself when reviewing a motion to dismiss.
[1] In reviewing a motion to dismiss, a court must confine its analysis to the allegations within the four corners of the complaint and may not consider claims asserted in se…
Previewing 1 of 1 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“Granting this petition turns on whether the DeSantis Estate's claims against Sabra are subject to the requirements of section 400.023(3), Florida Statutes (2019).”
This quote frames the central legal question the court needed to address.
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceSabra sold a nursing home property to entities that operated Laurel Pointe. Carol DeSantis became a resident and allegedly suffered damages. Her estat…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Negligence Claim cases and more on FLexlaw
LABRIT, Judge. Sabra Health Care Holdings III, LLC; Sabra Health Care Limited Partnership; Sabra Health Care, LLC; and Sabra Health Care REIT, Inc. (collectively, "Sabra") seek certiorari review of an order denying their motion to dismiss the complaint filed by the Estate of Carol DeSantis. Granting this petition turns on whether the DeSantis Estate's claims against Sabra are subject to the requirements of section 400.023(3), Florida Statutes (2019).
We deny the petition because Sabra has not shown that the allegations in the complaint fall within this statute. Factual and Procedural Background While the DeSantis Estate filed a lengthy sixty-seven-page complaint against twenty-eight defendants below, the facts underlying this case are relatively simple. Sabra owned a nursing home property, and in 2015, it sold the property to the entities that operate Laurel Pointe nursing home.
In March 2016, Carol DeSantis became a resident of the Laurel Pointe nursing home, where she allegedly suffered various damages. Thereafter, the DeSantis Estate sued Sabra for aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty (count two) and civil conspiracy (count four), alleging that Sabra knowingly sold the property to a "sham" entity and knew that Laurel Pointe got its nursing home license "using false information and material misrepresentations." Sabra moved to dismiss these claims. Sabra asserted, among other things, that counts two and four fell under section 400.023
because these counts "appear[ed] to sound in negligence." Sabra contended, because the DeSantis Estate hadn't met the section 400.023(3) prerequisites to filing a negligence action, the DeSantis Estate's claims against it should be dismissed.
The trial court issued an unelaborated order denying Sabra's motion, and Sabra filed the instant petition. Standard of Review "To be entitled to certiorari review, the petitioners 'must establish (1) a departure from the essential requirements of the law, (2) resulting in material injury for the remainder of the trial (3) that cannot be corrected on postjudgment appeal.' " E. Bay NC, LLC v. Reddish, 306 So. 3d 1225, 1226 (Fla. 2d DCA 2020) (quoting Parkway Bank v. Fort Myers Armature Works, Inc., 658 So. 2d 646, 648 (Fla. 2d DCA 1995)). "We examine prongs two and three first to determine our certiorari jurisdiction." Cap. One, N.A. v. Forbes, 34 So. 3d 209, 212 (Fla. 2d DCA 2010). "If jurisdictional prongs two and three are not fulfilled, then we dismiss the petition rather than deny it." Id. Analysis
The parties agree that granting Sabra's petition turns on whether counts two and four are subject to section 400.023(3).
The parties also agree that section 400.023(3) only applies to claims of negligence and section 400.022 violations. In its petition, Sabra argues—once again—that counts two and four amount to negligence and section 400.022 violation claims. To support this theory, Sabra doesn't rely on the allegations in counts two and four. Instead, it points to a complaint from a different lawsuit where the DeSantis Estate sued Laurel Pointe for negligence and violating Ms. DeSantis's section 400.022 rights. Sabra argues, because the DeSantis Estate sued Laurel Pointe for negligence and section 400.022 violations in the other complaint, the DeSantis Estate's claims against Sabra in this action are "inextricably connected" to negligence and section 400.022 violations.
We disagree. Sabra's reliance on this other lawsuit is misplaced. As was the trial court, we are "confined to consideration of the allegations found within the four corners of the complaint" in reviewing an order on a motion to dismiss. Migliazzo v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 290 So. 3d 577, 578–79 (Fla. 2d DCA 2020). Because Sabra has not shown how the allegations in the underlying
complaint amount to negligence or section 400.022 claims, we have no reason to second guess the trial court's denial of Sabra's motion to dismiss. Cf. id. Petition denied. CASANUEVA and KHOUZAM, JJ., Concur. Opinion subject to revision prior to official publication.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Parkway Bank v. Fort Myers Armature Works, Inc., 658 So. 2d 646 (Fla. 2d DCA 1995)
- Rocco A. Migliazzo v. Wells Fargo Bank, 290 So. 3d 577 (Fla. 2d DCA 2020)
- E. BAY NC, LLC v. Reddish, 306 So. 3d 1225 (Fla. 2d DCA 2020)