A Florida appellate court held that a corporation that employed a certified registered nurse anesthetist ("CRNA") and provided the CRNA's services to a hospital on an independent contractor basis, was not shielded from liability by Florida's Good Samaritan Act when a jury found the CRNA negligent in her provision of emergency care.

The corporation that employed the CRNA and the hospital were sued after a burn victim who was treated in the hospital's emergency room subsequently died. The court found that Florida's Good Samaritan Act applied to the hospital's emergency treatment of the burn victim, and that the hospital had not violated the "reckless disregard" standard in the Act. The court also found that the Good Samaritan Act, which only applies to hospitals, hospital employees and individuals licensed to practice medicine, did not apply to the CRNA. The corporation argued that the CRNA became an agent of the hospital by working there as an independent contractor. The court noted that the Good Samaritan Act did not expressly apply to agents, but considered the question important enough to ask the Florida Supreme Court to review the case.