PAUL WEDMORE
v.
KEVIN PAUL O' CONNOR AND FRAN O' CONNOR
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.
Attorney's fees awarded under section 768.79 are affirmed, but costs must be remanded for the trial court to exclude expert witness fees lacking reasonableness testimony and to recalculate medical record copy costs at rates compliant with Florida Administrative Code Rule 64B8-10.003(2).
[1] An award of attorney's fees pursuant to an offer of judgment under section 768.79, Florida Statutes, will be affirmed if the trial court's decision is supported by the re…
[2] A trial court must take testimony concerning the reasonableness and necessity of expert witness fees before awarding them as costs, especially when timely objected to.
Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe trial court awarded Kevin and Fran O'Connor attorney's fees and costs pursuant to an offer of judgment under section 768.79, Florida Statutes. The…
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 Award Of Costs cases and more on FLexlaw
PER CURIAM.
In the order on appeal, the trial court awarded Kevin and Fran O'Connor attorney's fees and costs pursuant to an offer of judgment made under section 768.79, Florida Statutes (2013). We affirm the award of attorney's fees without comment. We reverse the costs award in two respects. First, as the O'Connors correctly concede, the trial court made a mistake by awarding costs for expert witness fees absent testimony concerning the reasonableness and necessity of the fee—which it was required to take upon Mr. Wedmore's timely objection. See Field Club, Inc. v. Alario, 180 So. 3d 1138, 1141 (Fla. 2d DCA 2015). Second, the order incorrectly assessed costs for medical record copies at a rate in excess of the reasonable rate set by Florida Administrative Code Rule 64B8-10.003(2). We remand with instructions for the trial court to (1) as the O'Connors suggest, deduct the expert witness fees from the award of costs, see Alario, 180 So. 3d at 1142, and (2) determine a reasonable amount of costs for copies of medical records and include only those reasonable costs in the cost award, see Rodriguez v. Campbell, 720 So. 2d 266, 268 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998).
Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded with instructions.
LaROSE, C.J., and SILBERMAN and SALARIO, JJ., Concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Rodriguez v. David Campbell, M.D., 720 So. 2d 266 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998)
- The Field Club, Inc. v. Alario, 180 So. 3d 1138 (Fla. 2d DCA 2015)