STEPHEN KEITH, APPELLANT,
v.
NEWS & SUN SENTINEL AND CRAWFORD AND COMPANY, APPELLEES
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The court held that under existing precedent, a newspaper publisher is not liable for injuries to a street vendor who is not considered an employee for workers' compensation purposes.
[1] A newspaper publisher may be insulated from workers' compensation liability for injuries sustained by a street vendor if the contract between the publisher and its delive…
[2] The evolving business relationship between newspaper publishers and newspaper delivery persons raises questions about the continued viability of established precedent reg…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceA newspaper vendor was injured by a car while selling newspapers. The publisher had a contract with an individual who recruited and supervised the ven…
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BENTON, Judge.
This appeal presents the question whether a newspaper vendor should be viewed as an employee of the newspaper’s publisher for purposes of the Workers’ Compensation Law, Section 440.01 et seq., Florida Statutes (1993). In keeping with long-standing precedent, notably Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Kendall, 88 So. 2d 276 (Fla.1956); but see Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Hatch, 617 So. 2d 380 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993), the judge of compensation claims found that recitals in the contract between the publisher and its “delivery agent,” the individual who recruited and supervised Mr. Keith, insulated the publisher and its insurance carrier from liability on account of the street vendor’s injuries. A car hit the appellant while he was hawking the Sun Sentinel at his assigned corner. This court’s recent decision in Fort Pierce Tribune v. Williams, 622 So. 2d 1368 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993) rev. pndg. sub nom. Williams v. Fort Pierce Tribune Co., No. 82,409 (Fla.; pet. filed Sept. 23, 1993), reversed an order entered by a judge of compensation claims that treated a newspaper carrier as an employee of the publisher. In deciding the Fort Pierce Tribune case, a different panel of this court certified to the Supreme Court of Florida as a question of great public importance the following:
WHETHER, IN LIGHT OF THE EVOLVING BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS AND PERSONS DELIVERING NEWSPAPERS, THE HOLDING IN MIAMI HERALD PUBLISHING CO. V. KENDALL, 88 SO.2D 276 (FLA.1956), REMAINS VIABLE?
622 So. 2d at 1368. The instant ease presents the same question, albeit on different facts. In the event the Supreme Court exercises its discretion to address the question certified in the Fort Pierce Tribune case, its decision may well be dispositive of the parties’ contentions in the present case. Accordingly, we also certify as a question of great public importance the question set out above.
Under existing decisions, however, our duty, as we understand it, is to uphold the order under review. The order is, therefore,
AFFIRMED.
ERVIN and BARFIELD, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Keith v. News & SUN Sentinel Co., 667 So. 2d 167 (Fla. 1995)…ETHER, IN LIGHT OF THE EVOLVING BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS AND PERSONS DELIVERING NEWSPAPERS, THE HOLDING IN MIAMI HERALD PUBLISHING CO. v. KENDALL, 88 So. 2d 276 (Fla.1956), REMAINS VIABLE? See Keith v. News & Sun Sentinel, 631 So. 2d 333, 334 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994). The First District affirmed a ruling by the Judge of Compensation Claims (“JCC”) that Stephen Keith, a street vendor for Sun Sentinel newspapers who was injured while selling newspapers, was not entitled to receive worker’s…
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Antinarelli v. Ocean Suite Hotel & Nation Wide Ins. Co., 642 So. 2d 661 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994)…o its general distributor agents and to their street-corner sellers such as the claimants. Thus, material differences in the nature of the dispositive contract render Hatch factually distinguishable from our decision in Keith v. News & Sun Sentinel, 631 So. 2d 333, 334 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994), where the JCC found that recitals in the threshold contract between the publisher and its delivery agent insulated the publisher and its insurer from liability for the injuries of a newspaper vendor. Former manager Kendric…
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Raulerson v. Sentinel, 655 So. 2d 1237 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995)…LLEN, J., and SMITH, Senior Judge, concur. . See also the very recent opinion in Orlando Sentinel v. Donny Wong-Chow, 652 So. 2d 982 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995). . Miami Herald Publishing v. Kendall, 88 So. 2d 276 (Fla.1956); Keith v. News & Sun Sentinel, 631 So. 2d 333 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994); Fort Pierce Tribune v. Williams, 622 So. 2d 1368 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993), rev. granted, Williams v. Fort Pierce Tribune, 640 So. 2d 1109 (Fla.1994); City of Port St. Lucie v. Chambers, 606 So. 2d 450 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992), rev. den.,…
Authorities Cited
- The Miami Herald Publ'g Co. v. Mrs. Mary Kendall, 88 So. 2d 276 (Fla. 1956)
- The Miami Herald Publ'g v. Hatch, 617 So. 2d 380 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993)
- Fort Pierce Tribune & Claims Ctr. v. Williams, 622 So. 2d 1368 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993)