## Facts

- Lucille Nash, a hospital employee, was assaulted in a hospital parking garage.
- Methodist Hospital contracted with Wells Fargo Guard Services, Inc. to provide security services at the hospital.
- Nash sued Wells Fargo for negligence in providing security but did not sue Methodist.
- After the close of evidence, Wells Fargo requested that Methodist (a nonparty) be placed on the verdict form to allow apportionment of fault for noneconomic damages.
- The trial court denied the request and submitted a verdict form listing only the parties.
- The jury awarded Nash $556,000, including $365,000 in noneconomic damages.

## Issues

1. When a verdict is reversed solely because a nonparty tortfeasor was omitted from the verdict form, must the new trial include damages, or be limited to liability and apportionment of fault?

## Decision

- The Florida Supreme Court held that a reversal based solely on the omission of a nonparty from the verdict form does not require a retrial of damages.
- The proper remedy is a new trial limited to liability issues and apportionment of fault among responsible entities, including properly identified nonparties.
- The court quashed the district court’s remand to the extent it permitted a full new trial that would reopen damages.

## Legal Principles

- In negligence actions involving noneconomic damages, fault must be apportioned among all responsible entities, including nonparties, when properly raised.
- A verdict-form error affecting fault allocation (a “Fabre error”) does not, by itself, undermine the jury’s determination of the total amount of damages.
- Absent an independent error affecting damages, appellate relief for a Fabre error should be limited to retrial of liability and allocation of fault, leaving the original damages amount in place.

## Conclusion

The court ruled that the omission of a responsible nonparty from the verdict form requires a limited new trial to determine liability and apportion fault, but it does not reopen the jury’s prior damages determination unless a separate damages-related error is shown.


Nash v. Wells Fargo Guard Servs., Inc., 678 So. 2d 1262 (Fla. 1996)