STAR INSULATION AND AETNA LIFE & CASUALTY, APPELLANTS,
v.
ALAN DEWAYNE KENNINGTON, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1989-05-26
No. 88-2037
WENTWORTH and MINER, JJ., concur.
544 So. 2d 301 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1989) Caution
Cited by 2 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

Star Insulation and Aetna Life & Casualty appeal a workers' compensation award to an employee injured at an out-of-state job site. The court reverses, finding insufficient evidence that the employment contract was made in Florida, which is required for extraterritorial coverage under Florida law.


Holding

The court reverses the compensation award, holding that there is no competent, substantial evidence that the contract of employment was made in Florida. The evidence shows only that the claimant was directed to appear at the job site in Alabama, without any binding offer or acceptance of employment occurring in Florida.


Headnotes

[1] A contract of employment is not made in Florida if there is no evidence that an offer of employment was extended or accepted in Florida.

[2] For Florida workers' compensation to apply to an injury occurring outside the state, the contract of employment must have been made in Florida or the employment must have…

Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“Where an accident happens while the employee is employed elsewhere than in this state, which would entitle him or his dependents to compensation if it had happened in this state, the employee or his dependents shall be entitled to compensation if the contract of employment was made in this state, or the employment was principally localized in this state.”

Establishes the statutory requirement that for out-of-state injuries to be compensable, the contract of employment must be made in Florida

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

In June 1987, claimant Kennington, a Florida resident, was hired to work at the Perdido Hilton construction site in Gulf Shores, Alabama. He was injur…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
NIMMONS, Judge.

NIMMONS, Judge.

The employer and carrier (E/C) appeal from an order awarding compensation benefits to the claimant. The E/C defended on the basis that the claimant was employed outside the State of Florida and the contract of employment was not made in Florida. The deputy commissioner determined otherwise and the E/C appeals. We reverse.

In June, 1987, claimant was hired to work at the construction site of the Perdido Hilton in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The claimant, who resided in Milton, Florida, was injured at the job site a few weeks later. ⅛

Section 440.09(1), Florida Statutes (1987), provides in pertinent part:

(1) * * * Where an accident happens while the employee is employed elsewhere than in this state, which would entitle him or his dependents to compensation if it had happened in this state, the employee or his dependents shall be entitled to compensation if the contract of employment was made in this state, or the employment was principally localized in this state. * * *

The order was based in part upon the deputy’s finding that the employer had authorized one of its employees, Jim Caliendo, to communicate with claimant and hire him. It is questionable whether there is competent, substantial evidence to support the finding that Caliendo was so authorized as contrasted with the notion that Caliendo was merely authorized to request that the claimant come to the job site to see Mr. Berryhill, the on-site job foreman, who would do the hiring. Nevertheless, we will assume that the employer had delegated hiring authority to Caliendo. The problem is that there is simply no evidence to support any finding that a contract of employment was entered into, oral or otherwise, at any time before the claimant arrived at the job site in Gulf Shores. Nor was there evidence that Caliendo extended an offer of employment to claimant at the Pitt Grill on the morning in question.1

The deputy’s specific finding, upon which his conclusion was based that the contract of employment was made in Florida, was stated in paragraph 5 of the order:

5. * * * Mr. Caliendo contacted the claimant by phone and a meeting was set between the two at the Pitt Grill in Milton, Florida. At this meeting, Mr. Cal-iendo told the claimant about the job and advised the claimant to come to the job site the next day to begin work. * * *

But there is no record support for the above finding. The only indication of what took place at the Pitt Grill gathering was by way of the claimant’s testimony in which he told Caliendo that he was going out to the Hilton to work with them that day. Caliendo was not called to testify. Claimant testified that he had called a friend of his, Robert Franklin, who was an employee of Star Insulation and from whom claimant learned of the job opening, and had asked when the workers met to go out to the Hilton. Franklin told claimant that they met at the Pitt Grill and that claimant should meet them there. Claimant testified that he did not believe Calien-do knew he was going to show up at the Pitt Grill on the morning in question. We would also note that claimant believed Cal-iendo worked at a trade level below that of claimant and that claimant did not look upon Caliendo as a person with hiring authority.

In conclusion, there is no competent substantial evidence that the contract of employment was made in Florida.

Accordingly, the order is REVERSED.

WENTWORTH and MINER, JJ., concur. . We note the Supreme Courts holding in Ray-Hof Agencies, Inc. v. Petersen, 123 So. 2d 251, 255 (Fla.1960):

[I]n a unilateral offer of contract the place of contract is the place of performance of the last act necessary to complete the contract in accordance with the offer made by the offer-or.

Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Nelson v. McABEE Constr., Inc., 591 So. 2d 1015 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991)
    …1966).2 At first blush, this case would appear to fit within the Mattel pattern, and indeed, the judge’s order indicates his view that such was the case. However, the judge felt constrained by this court’s decision in Star Insulation v. Kennington, 544 So. 2d 301 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989), to find that an employee’s performance of any act upon arrival at an out-of-state job site constitutes evidence that the contract of employment was not made in this state. Although we affirm the result reached in the order, we c…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw