CITY OF TAMPA, APPELLANT,
v.
DAVID GREEN, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1980-12-02
No. TT-47
JO ANOS, J., and WOODIE A. LILES (Ret.), Associate Judge, concur.
390 So. 2d 1220 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1980) Caution
Cited by 12 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

The City of Tampa appealed a workers' compensation award to a garbage man who suffered a fractured skull falling from a truck lacking a horizontal handrail. The court affirmed the award, holding that the deputy commissioner properly excluded a blood alcohol test as unreliable and that the injury was occasioned primarily by the missing safety equipment, not intoxication.


Holding

The court affirmed the exclusion of the blood alcohol test results as within the deputy commissioner's discretion, given the failure to locate the laboratory technician and concerns about the method and timing of the test. The court further held that even if the test results had been admitted, substantial evidence supported a finding that the injury was occasioned primarily by the absence of the horizontal handrail and the manner in which the truck was operated, not by intoxication.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court has discretion to admit or exclude business records based on the reliability of their sources, method, and time of preparation.

[2] A claimant's injury may be compensable under workers' compensation even if the claimant consumed alcohol, provided the injury was not primarily occasioned by intoxication…

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Key Quotes

“the trial court 'retains much discretion as to the admissibility of particular entries or papers . . . .'”

Establishes that the deputy commissioner had discretion to exclude the blood alcohol test results based on concerns about method and timing of preparation.

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Facts & Procedural History

Claimant, a garbage man for Tampa, fell off a garbage truck while working a new route, sustaining a fractured skull. The truck he was assigned lacked …

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Opinion of the Court
WENTWORTH, Judge.

WENTWORTH, Judge.

The self-insured employer appeals a workers’ compensation order which we affirm.

Claimant, a garbage man for the city of Tampa, sustained a fractured skull when he fell off a garbage truck while on a new route. Although the other trucks were equipped with both vertical and horizontal handrails, this truck, which claimant had never worked before, had only a vertical handrail at claimant’s station. Claimant testified that he fell off the truck when it made a sharp turn a little faster than usual, and he reached for the missing handrail. The driver testified that there was a small bump in the road at the point of the accident.

Claimant was taken to the hospital and a blood alcohol test was eventually administered more than seven hours after the accident occurred. The employer sought to introduce into evidence medical records containing the results of the test.

However, the laboratory technician who performed the test could not be located and, upon objection by claimant’s attorney, the deputy commissioner refused to admit the test results into evidence.

Section 92.36, Florida Statutes (1975), the statutory provision applicable at the hearing in this case, provides that business records may be admitted into evidence in the appropriate circumstances, and various medical tests and examinations, contained in hospital reports, have qualified as business records under § 92.36. See e. g., Jaime v. Vilberg, 363 So. 2d 386 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1978); Exchange National Bank of Tampa v. Hospital & Welfare Board of Hillsborough County, 181 So. 2d 9 (Fla. 2d DCA 1965).

However, the statute provides for admissibility only “if, in the opinion of the court, the sources of information, method and time of preparation were such as to justify its admission,” and the trial court “retains much discretion as to the admissibility of particular entries or papers ... . ” Brevard County v. Jacks, 238 So. 2d 156 (Fla. 4th DCA 1970); accord, Lea Industries Inc. v. Raelyn International Inc., 363 So. 2d 49 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1978); see generally, Mastan Co. v. American Custom Homes Inc., 214 So. 2d 103 (Fla. 2d DCA 1968).

In the present case the deputy apparently concluded that the “method and time of preparation” of the test had not been shown to be sufficiently reliable to justify its admission into evidence. This determination was a matter within the deputy’s discretion.

In attempting to introduce the blood alcohol test results into evidence, the employer sought to invoke § 440.09(3), Florida Statutes, which provides that

“no compensation shall be payable if the injury was occasioned primarily by the .intoxication of the employee .... If there was at the time of the injury 0.10% or more by weight of alcohol in the employee’s blood, it shall be presumed, in the absence of substantial evidence to the contrary, that the injury was occasioned primarily by the intoxication of the employee.”

In addition, the deputy expressly found that, even if the blood alcohol test results should be admitted into evidence, claimant’s injury was nevertheless occasioned primarily by the absence of a horizontal handrail on the truck. Although admitting that he had been drinking heavily during the weekend preceding the accident, claimant testified that he was sober when he reported to work at 6 a. m., and that he performed his job in the usual manner until falling off the truck around 11:30 a. m. This testimony was corroborated by claimant’s co-workers, although it was noted that claimant had taken frequent drinks of water and had begun to “slow down” shortly before his accident.

The record facts in this case (including the bump in the road, a sharp fast turn, and the absence of the usual handrail) provide “substantial evidence” for the deputy’s conclusion that claimant’s injury was not occasioned primarily by intoxication.

The order appealed is affirmed.

JO ANOS, J., and WOODIE A. LILES (Ret.), Associate Judge, concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Kurynka v. Tamarac Hosp. Corp., Inc., 542 So. 2d 412 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989)
    …, 269 So. 2d 407 (Fla. 4th DCA 1972), cert. denied, 273 So. 2d 768 (Fla.1973); Specialty Linings, Inc. v. B.F. Goodrich Co., 532 So. 2d 1121 (Fla.2d DCA 1988); Beasley v. Mitel of Delaware, 449 So. 2d 365 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984); City of Tampa v. Green, 390 So. 2d 1220 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980); Brown v. State, 389 So. 2d 269 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980); Jaime v. Vilberg, 363 So. 2d 386 (Fla.3d DCA 1978), cert. denied, 373 So. 2d 462 (Fla.1979). See also State v. James, 255 S.C. 365, 179 S.E. 2d 41 (1971). We conclude that the…
  • Beasley v. Mitel OF Del. & Home Ins. Co., 449 So. 2d 365 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984)
    …port was not self-authenticated, and the testifying associate medical examiner was not a “custodian or other qualified witness” as contemplated by the statute. See Brown v. State, 389 So. 2d 269 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980). And while City of Tampa v. Green, 390 So. 2d 1220 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980), indicates that the deputy retains much discretion in this regard, the totality of the circumstances in the present case show a “lack of trustworthiness” which would further preclude admissibility under § 90.803(6). Accordingly,…
  • Avalos v. Williford Farms, Inc., 561 So. 2d 1344 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990)
    …t the primary cause of the accident, but only a remote, if indeed any, cause. “Substantial evidence was presented showing a completely sober man could have suffered the same accident [that claimant] did.” Id. at 355; see also City of Tampa v. Green, 390 So. 2d 1220 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980). In contrast, claimant below did not present sufficient evidence to overcome the presumption that his injury was occasioned primarily by his intoxication. There was no showing that the circumstances of this case would have occur…

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