CITY OF MIAMI, APPELLANT,
v.
WILL H. HAMMOND, APPELLEE
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The City of Miami appealed a workers' compensation order requiring it to reimburse a retired police officer for illegally offsetting his workers' compensation benefits against his pension. The court affirmed, holding that the City lacked authority to offset ordinary disability retirement benefits against workers' compensation benefits because ordinary disability retirement by definition excludes disabilities arising from accidents in the performance of duty.
The City was not entitled to offset Hammond's ordinary disability retirement pension by his workers' compensation benefits. Because ordinary disability retirement benefits are defined to exclude disabilities arising from accidents in the performance of duty, and workers' compensation benefits cover only such accidental disabilities, the two benefits cannot cover the same disability, making the offset provision inapplicable.
[1] A city pension ordinance defining ordinary disability retirement as incapacity not resulting from an accident in the performance of duty precludes offsetting workers' com…
[2] Workers' compensation benefits are awarded for disability resulting from accidental injury in the course and scope of employment.
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“Ordinary disability is defined in subsection (5) of section 67 of the City's pension ordinance as meaning mental or physical total incapacity from further performance of duty "(not as a result of an accident in the actual performance of duty as defined in subsection (6) of this section)."”
Establishes that ordinary disability retirement by its own definition excludes disabilities from accidents in performance of duty
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceWill Hammond sustained compensable work injuries on three occasions as a police officer for the City of Miami. In September 1972, a compensation judge…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
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ZEHMER, Judge.
The City of Miami appeals a workers’ compensation order wherein the judge of compensation claims ruled that the City had illegally offset claimant Will Hammond’s retirement pension by the amount of his workers’ compensation benefits between March 22, 1975, and July 31, 1989, and ordered the City to reimburse Claimant these illegally deducted benefits and pay penalties, interest, and attorney’s fees. The City argues that City of Miami v. Jones, 593 So. 2d 544 (Fla. 1st DCA), rev. denied, 599 So. 2d 1279 (Fla.1992),1 mandates reversal of this order. We need not reach that issue because the award must be affirmed on a different ground.
Claimant sustained compensable injuries on three separate occasions while working as a police officer for the City. In September 1972, a judge of compensation claims entered a final order finding that Claimant was permanently and totally disabled, and establishing his compensation rate at $56 per week. On March 22, 1975, Claimant received “Ordinary Disability Retirement” from the Miami City Employees’ Retirement System. Ordinary disability is defined in subsection (5) of section 67 of the City’s pension ordinance as meaning mental or physical total incapacity from further performance of duty “(not as a result of an accident in the actual performance of duty as defined in subsection (6) of this sec tion).” Subsection (6) contains the provisions for “Accidental Disability Retirement Allowance” awardable when the employee “has been totally and permanently incapacitated for duty as the natural and proximate result of an accident occurring while in the actual performance of duty at some definite time and place_" A higher retirement benefit is payable for accidental disability retirement than for ordinary disability retirement. The offset provision in the pension ordinance (invalidated in 1973) is found in subparagraph (15) and provides in part that Any amounts which may be paid or payable under the provisions of any state workmen’s compensation or similar law to a member ... on account of any disability ... shall be offset against and payable in lieu of any benefits payable out of the funds provided by the city under the provisions of the retirement system on account of the same disability....
(Emphasis added.)
Since ordinary disability retirement benefits are not payable for disability due to injuries received by accident in the performance of duty — the disability covered by subsection (6) — and since a compensable disability under the workers' compensation act must result from an accidental injury occurring in the course and scope of the employee’s employment, the definition of ordinary disability retirement benefits excludes a pension award for any disability that occurred in the performance of one’s duties of employment, and thus could not be the same disability for which one is receiving workers’ compensation benefits. We need look no further than the pension ordinance itself to determine that the City was not entitled to offset Claimant’s ordinary disability retirement pension by the amount of his workers’ compensation benefits.
AFFIRMED.
ERVIN and WIGGINTON, JJ., concur. . In Jones, this court held that the City of Miami was entitled to offset from pension benefits the amount its employee was receiving in compensation benefits because the employee’s accident occurred prior to July 1, 1973, the date section 440.09(4), Florida Statutes, was repealed.