Spink v. McConnell
Spink v. McConnell
Opinion of the Court
Carolyn Faye Spink, as personal representative of the estate of Maxine Delores Merritt (decedent), appeals a final judgment dismissing her amended complaint against C.F. McConnell, M.D., the medical examiner for the first judicial circuit, for failure to state a cause of action. In the complaint appellant requested a declaratory decree finding that the probable cause of decedent’s death was not “suicide,” as appellee stated on decedent’s death certificate, but was “undetermined” or “accidental.” She alleged that investigating officers indicated that decedent’s cause of death was undetermined or accidental, and that decedent’s psychiatrist stated that decedent had no suicidal tendencies. She alleged that she and decedent’s heirs have suffered mental and emotional harm as a result of the statement on the death certificate and that the estate suffered irreparable damage and injury based on the suicide exclusion in decedent’s life insurance policies. As we perceive appellant’s purpose in filing this litigation, it is to correct an allegedly erroneous statement of the probable cause of death on the decedent’s death certificate.
It is axiomatic that a declaratory judgment is not appropriate where there is not a bona fide dispute between contending parties that presents a justiciable question. Bryant v. Gray, 70 So.2d 581 (Fla. 1954). Appellant has not demonstrated the existence of a justiciable controversy between herself and appellee. She has not alleged that she has any right to compel the medical examiner to change his opinion expressed in his report or noted on the death certificate, nor has she cited any authority for the proposition that the lower court has the authority to order him to make such a change. The Declaratory Judgment Act may not be extended to a point where it might be substituted for another appropriate action in the absence of a bona fide foundation for a declaratory judgment. M & E Land Company v. Siegel, 177 So.2d 769 (Pla. 1st DCA 1965).
AFFIRMED.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.