In Public Health Trust of Dade County v. Valcin, 507 So. 2d 596 (Fla. 1987), the plaintiff sued the defendant hospital for, inter alia, its negligent performance of a sterilization procedure. The Third District found that "the lack of an 'operative report' by the surgeon in Valcin's file impaired the expert's ability to determine whether the operation had been performed with due care," and thus Valcin had been hindered in proving a prima facie case of negligence against the defendant hospital. Id. at 597. The Third District created a set of presumptions which were to apply so that the plaintiff could still maintain the negligence action against the defendant despite the absence of this key evidence. If the defendant demonstrated that the loss of evidence was only negligent, a rebuttable presumption that the defendant was negligent in the underlying action was to apply. If the loss was intentional, however, a conclusive, irrebuttable presumption of negligence was to be entered against the defendant. Id. at 598. On appeal, the Court held that "the rules fashioned by the district court sweep wider than necessary." Id. at 599. First, we held that when evidence was intentionally lost, misplaced, or destroyed by one party, trial courts were to rely on sanctions found in Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.380(b)(2) and that "a jury could well infer from such a finding that the records would have contained indications of negligence." Id.; see Mercer v. Raine, 443 So. 2d 944, 946 (Fla. 1983) (willful violation of trial court's discovery order justified imposition of harsh sanction of default judgment against noncomplying party). If the loss of the evidence was determined to be negligent, the Third District's rebuttable presumption of negligence for the underlying tort applied. However, we clarified that the presumption only applied when "the absence of the records hinders the plaintiff's ability to establish a prima facie case." Id. This rebuttable presumption shifted the burden of proof under section 90.302(2), Florida Statutes (1985), so that the presumption "is not overcome until the trier of fact believes that the presumed negligence has been overcome by whatever degree of persuasion is required by the substantive law of the case." Id. at 600-01 (quoting Caldwell v. Division of Retirement, 372 So. 2d 438, 440 (Fla. 1979)).