SPECIAL DISABILITY TRUST FUND, APPELLANT,
v.
HUBBARD CONSTRUCTION COMPANY AND CNA INSURANCE COMPANIES, APPELLEES
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The Special Disability Trust Fund appeals an order requiring it to reimburse an employer/carrier for wage loss benefits under Florida's merger doctrine. The court reversed, finding that the employer failed to prove that the preexisting left eye impairment materially and substantially contributed to the wage loss from a subsequent right knee injury.
The court reversed the reimbursement order, holding that the employer failed to prove either form of merger under section 440.49(2)(b). The employer could not prove the accident would not have occurred but for the preexisting condition, and critically, could not prove that the permanent disability or wage loss from the knee injury was materially and substantially greater due to the preexisting eye condition, particularly since the eye condition was surgically corrected before permanent disability was assessed.
[1] The Special Disability Trust Fund is not required to reimburse an employer/carrier for wage loss benefits when the employer fails to prove "merger" as defined by statute,…
[2] A claimant's preexisting condition does not trigger reimbursement from the Special Disability Trust Fund unless the subsequent accident would not have occurred if the pre…
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“the E/C did not prove that the accident in which the knee was injured would not have occurred if the preexisting left eye impairment had not existed”
Establishes the first prong of the merger doctrine that the employer failed to satisfy
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceA bridge carpenter with a known preexisting left eye cataract (causing 20/400 visual acuity, which he refused surgery to correct) was hired by the emp…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
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BARFIELD, Chief Judge.
The Special Disability Trust Fund (SDTF) appeals an order requiring it, pursuant to section 440.49(2)(b), Florida Statutes (1991), to reimburse the employer/carrier (E/C) for a percentage of the wage loss benefits paid to the claimant, a bridge carpenter hired by the employer with knowledge that he had a preexisting left eye impairment, who severely injured his right knee in a fall at work in 1992. We reverse.
Competent substantial evidence supports the findings of the judge of compensation claims (JCC) that prior to his knee injury, the claimant had a permanent physical impairment (i.e., a cataract in his left eye causing a substantial decrease in visual acuity, for which he had refused surgery), that the employer knew about this permanent physical impairment prior to the knee injury, and that the evidence presented was insufficient to prove “merger” as defined in section 440.49(2)(b)2.a.(i.e., the E/C did not prove that the accident in which the knee was injured would not have occurred if the preexisting left eye impairment had not existed). However, the JCC’s findings regarding “merger” as defined by section 440.49(2)(b)2.b., discussed below, are not supported by competent substantial evidence and are therefore reversed.
The JCC found that the permanent disability or wage loss resulting from the 1992 knee injury was materially and substantially greater than that which would have resulted had the preexisting left eye condition not existed and that the employer had paid wage loss benefits for that materially and substantially greater disability. Even if the vocational rehabilitation expert had testified that the pre-existing 20/400 visual acuity of the left eye would have been a substantial factor in claimant’s inability to work after his knee injury, the record clearly shows that this eye condition was corrected by cataract surgery one month after the knee injury, while the claimant was temporarily and totally disabled as a result of the knee surgery, and no evidence was presented that the claimant’s inability to work after he reached maximum medical improvement from the knee injury (i.e., his “permanent disability, permanent impairment, or wage loss resulting from the subsequent accident”) was in any way attributable to the left eye condition, much less “materially and substantially greater than that which would have resulted had the permanent physical impairment not existed.” To the extent that the order can be read to indicate that the JCC used the date of the 1992 accident to determine that there had been a merger of the preexisting left eye condition and the right knee injury, we find this a misconstruction and misapplication of the law to these particular facts.
The’ order requiring reimbursement is REVERSED.
ERVIN and BENTON, JJ., concur.