An appeals court has reversed a civil jury trial decision that resulted in a $208 million judgment against St. Petersburg’s Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in the case made famous by the “Take Care of Maya” Netflix documentary.
In a 48-page ruling issued Wednesday, a three-judge panel for Florida’s 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that the lower court erred in its interpretation of a Florida statute that protects people and organizations required by law to report suspected child abuse.
Judges also found fault with Circuit Judge Hunter Carroll’s decision not to give the hospital a new trial or a directed verdict, where a judge — not a jury — decides a case.
The ruling comes almost two years after a nine-week civil trial resulted in a jury awarding damages against All Children’s for falsely imprisoning and battering a 10-year-old Venice girl and contributing to her mother’s suicide.
Beata Kowalski took her life in 2017, three months after a judge sheltered her then 10-year-old daughter, Maya Kowalski, at All Children’s, where doctors had reported the mother for suspected medical child abuse.
The court’s decision, however, leaves open the option for the family to seek a new trial over whether the hospital was guilty of intentional infliction of emotional distress in its treatment of Maya. Counts of false imprisonment, battery and medical negligence of Maya could also be retried, the ruling states.
The case generated worldwide headlines after it was turned into a documentary called “Take Care of Maya.” Released on Netflix in 2023, it was viewed almost 14 million times in the first two weeks after its June release.
All Children’s attorney Ethen Shapiro of law firm Hill Ward Henderson said the ruling will protect those required by law to report possible child abuse to the state’s hotline.
“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,” he said in an email. “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.”
The decision is a hammer blow for the remaining Kowalski family, who fought for five years to win damages for the death of Beata Kowalski and the hospital’s treatment of Maya during a three-month period she was sheltered there.
Their 2018 lawsuit accused the hospital of blocking the family from leaving the hospital with their child prior to a judge approving the state’s request to remove her from her family.
The hospital’s report to the state abuse hotline was based on concerns that the child, who had been diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome, was being prescribed high doses of ketamine.
The lawsuit also detailed doctors placing the girl in a room equipped with video surveillance for one 48-hour period to try to prove she was faking her symptoms. On another occasion, she was told to strip her down to her shorts and training bra and was photographed without permission from her parents or a court. A hospital social worker sometimes kissed and hugged the girl and had her sit on her lap.
The jury’s initial award of $261 million was later reduced by roughly $50 million by the trial judge, who also dismissed the hospital’s calls for a new trial.
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