Perhaps anxious to remember 2020 for some positive reason, the Florida Supreme Court closed out the year by issuing a New Year’s Eve decision that abandons Florida’s prior summary judgment standard and adopts the federal summary judgment standard established in the Celotex trilogy. The opinion, Wilsonart LLC v. Lopez, Case No. SC19-1336 (Fla. Dec. 31, 2020), was accompanied by a subsequently adopted proposed amendment to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.510, adopted in In Re Amends to Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.510, No. SC20-1490 (Fla. Dec. 31, 2020) which dictates that Florida’s adoption of the federal standard shall take effect on May 1, 2021.
The Wilsonart decision emerges from catastrophic car accident litigation where a man, Jon Lopez, lost his life. Counsel for the defendant in the circuit court, Wilsonart, LLC, had presented video dash cam evidence that their truck driver was not negligent in causing the accident that tragically killed Lopez. The defendant moved for summary judgment based on that evidence. To combat the video, Lopez presented evidence from a witness that stated that contrary to the video, the truck driver had encroached his lane at the time of the accident and as such, was negligent. The trial court granted summary judgment, but the Fifth District Court of Appeals reversed, stating that Florida’s existing summary judgment standard compelled reversal because of the fact dispute over encroachment of lanes between video evidence and an eyewitness.
On review, the Florida Supreme Court invited all interested parties, including members of the Florida Defense Lawyers Association, to weigh in on the question of whether Florida should adopt the federal summary judgment standard. Under that standard, a party moving for summary judgment is not required to overcome the extraordinarily reaching burden of negating any prospective fact dispute over the non-movant’s claim. Amicus briefs noted this would not only speed up litigation cycles in court, but it would also lead to more good-faith settlement and ultimately less expensive settlement negotiations, because plaintiffs would now need to show at the summary judgment stage that they have sufficient evidence for a jury to find in their favor, rather than simply enough evidence for a jury to prospectively find in their favor.
The decision, meant to “improve the fairness of Florida’s civil justice system,” particularly to defendants, requires Florida courts to abandon their expansive understanding of what constitutes a genuine issue of material fact. Specifically, the prior state standard for a genuine issue of fact (“slightest doubt”) is being replaced with the federal standard (whether a “reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party”). Id. at 4–5. As the court wrote, “metaphysical doubt” will not be enough to generate a genuine issue of material fact to avoid summary judgment. Id. at 4. The decision ultimately aligns Florida with 38 other states that have adopted the Celotex Standard. While the rule will be adopted in May, the Florida Supreme Court is accepting public comment on the new rule to be submitted by members of the Florida Bar. Those wishing to make public comment must file the same with the Court by March 2, 2021.