RICH INTERNATIONAL AIRWAYS, INC., AND HARTFORD INSURANCE COMPANY, APPELLANTS,
v.
LUIS CAHVASQUIS, APPELLEE
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Rich International Airways and Hartford Insurance appealed a workers' compensation order awarding Luis Cahvasquis nursing services and attorney's fees. The court modified the nursing services award to cover only the 15 days his wife provided care and remanded for recalculation of attorney's fees, while affirming the order as modified.
The court held that nursing services benefits may be awarded when a spouse provides services beyond normal gratuitous care, but the statute does not provide for payment when the claimant cared for himself. The court modified the nursing award to $1,200 for the 15 days of wife-provided care and remanded the attorney's fee award for recalculation to exclude any consideration of unwarranted nursing services.
[1] When a spouse provides nursing services that go beyond what would normally be provided on a gratuitous basis, benefits for nursing services may be awarded.
[2] An employer is not liable for nursing services provided by a claimant to themselves.
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“When a spouse provides services which go beyond that which would normally be provided on a gratuitous basis, benefits for nursing services may be awarded.”
Establishes the legal standard for awarding nursing services when a spouse provides care.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceCahvasquis suffered an industrial injury on December 10, 1979, and was hospitalized until December 14, 1979. Although he timely requested nursing serv…
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SHIVERS, Judge.
The employer/carrier appeal the deputy commissioner’s workers’ compensation order awarding Cahvasquis costs of nursing services and attorney’s fee. We modify the award for nursing services and the award of attorney’s fee and affirm the order as modified.
On December 10, 1979, Cahvasquis suffered an industrial injury during the course and scope of his employment. Following the injury, appellee entered the hospital where he remained until December 14,1979. Although Cahvasquis made a timely request for nursing services, the carrier refused payment. Several days after he left the hospital, Cahvasquis’ wife arrived from New York and treated his injuries for 15 days. Thereafter, appellee cared for himself. On July 2, 1981, the deputy commissioner entered an order awarding Cahvas-quis costs of nursing services for four weeks, costs of proceedings and attorney’s fee.
Section 440.13, Fla.Stat. (1979) provides for payment by the employer of fees for nursing services. When a spouse provides services which go beyond that which would normally be provided on a gratuitous basis, benefits for nursing services may be awarded. Silver Springs Sportswear v. Marlin, 389 So. 2d 702 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980).
The record provides an adequate basis for the award for the fifteen days the wife cared for the claimant.
The record, however, indicates the claimant cared for himself before the wife arrived and after she left. Although Section 440.-13(1) provides for an award if the employer refuses to pay and the employee personally expends money for nursing services, the statute does not provide for the payment of benefits for nursing services for the time during which the claimant cared for himself.
Accordingly, the award was inappropriate to the extent it granted benefits for nursing services beyond fifteen days. The order below is modified to grant appellee $1,200 for nursing services reflecting costs of these services at the rate accepted by the deputy commissioner. The award of an attorney’s fee is justified by the record [Landers Construction v. Delauder, 417 So. 2d 989 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981); Section 440.34(2) (a), Fla.Stat. (1979)], but not to the extent, if any, that the deputy commissioner considered the cost of unwarranted nursing services.
Accordingly, the order is REVERSED in part and REMANDED for reconsideration of assessment of attorney’s fee. The remainder of the order is AFFIRMED as modified.
McCORD and JOANOS, JJ., concur.
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Walt Disney World Co. v. Harrison, 443 So. 2d 389 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983)…v. Long, 420 So. 2d 900 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982). Disney counters that the deputy erred as a matter of law in awarding any benefits because “the claimant cared for herself and actually never used the services.” Rich International Airways v. Cahvasquis, 416 So. 2d 902 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982). Therefore, Disney argues, the award to claimant is a prohibited windfall because the act only reimburses a claimant for the economic loss suffered. Brown v. S.S. Kresge Co., 305 So. 2d 191 (Fla.1974). We find Disney’s “windfall…
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DON Harris Plumbing Co., Inc. v. Henderson, 454 So. 2d 745 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984)…, 810 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982), but see Khawam v. Collision Clinic International, Inc., 413 So. 2d 827 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982). When services go beyond these, however, benefits for attendant care may be awarded. See Rich International Airways v. Cahvas-quis, 416 So. 2d 902 .(Fla. 1st DCA 1982). Such services have been defined as dressing, Craftsmen’s Village v. Benach, 8 FCR 372 (1974); bathing, Craftsmen’s Village, supra; Pan Am World Airways, Inc. v. Weaver, 226 So. 2d 801 (Fla.1969); administering medication, Pan A…
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Catv Support Servs., Inc. v. Philip B. Lohr for the Estate of Robbie Gene Booe, 509 So. 2d 1189 (Fla. 1st DCA 1987)…e instant case supports the deputy commissioner’s conclusion that claimant’s family went “beyond ... [what] would normally be provided on a gratuitous basis....” Wlat Disney World, 443 So. 2d at 393, (citing Rich International Airways v. Cahvasquis, 416 So. 2d 902 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982)). First, although it is the claimant’s burden to “prove by competent, substantial evidence the quantity, quality, and duration of the attendant services claimed,” Walt Disney World, 443 So. 2d at 393 (citing Thatcher Glass Manuf…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Silver Springs Sportswear & Allstate Ins. Co. v. Marlin, 389 So. 2d 702 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980)
- Landers Constr. & Liberty Mut. Ins. Co. v. Lanny Delauder, 417 So. 2d 989 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981)