PEACE RIVER ELECTRIC CORP. AND EMPLOYERS INSURANCE OF WAUSAU, APPELLANTS,
v.
DAVID CLINE CHOATE, APPELLEE
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A Florida workers' compensation court affirmed an award of a wheelchair-accessible modular home to a paraplegic claimant permanently disabled from a 1975 industrial accident, rejecting the carrier's proposal to remodel his existing inadequate dwelling. The court emphasized that such extraordinary relief is limited to extreme cases and should not be loosely interpreted as precedent.
The deputy commissioner's award of an 'Enabler II' modular home designed as a wheelchair-accessible environment was affirmed. The carrier would retain title and ownership but provide the home rent-free, with major maintenance responsibility and insurance coverage, while the claimant assumed liability for property taxes and assessments.
[1] A deputy commissioner does not abuse discretion by awarding a permanently and totally disabled worker a specially designed modular home when the worker's existing dwellin…
[2] Workers' compensation law may provide extraordinary relief in extremely unique cases of disability, beyond standard benefits.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“The deputy did not abuse his discretion in awarding Choate use of the modular home. Clearly, claimant has presented a 'set of extremely unique circumstances' combined with a 'request for highly extraordinary relief' allowing his cause to fall within the narrow prescripts enunciated in this Court's decision in Haga v. Clay Hyder Trucking Lines”
The court's rationale for affirming the award, establishing that extraordinary relief is justified only in extremely unique circumstances
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceClaimant David Cline Choate worked as a lineman for Peace River Electric Corporation for eighteen years. In 1975, he fell fifteen feet from a power po…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
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WIGGINTON, Judge.
To forestall what appears to be an incipient creeping of hybrid case law into the field of workers’ compensation, this Court has grown increasingly more reticent to recite facts that would lend themselves as a potent source of fertilizer to nurture budding compensation disputes. Nevertheless, despite the risk that we may be plowing fertile grounds for litigious seed, we are strongly impelled to set forth our holding today as we affirm the deputy commissioner’s order. The circumstances of this case are unique and fraught with human misery, and we caution that this opinion should not be loosely interpreted by practitioners in the workers’ compensation field.
Claimant was left a paraplegic and confined to a wheelchair as a result of a compensable industrial accident in 1975. He had worked as a lineman for Peace River Electric Corporation for eighteen years, and was working in that capacity on the day of the accident when he fell fifteen feet from a power pole to land on his back on a protruding pedestal stub. He is now fifty-seven years old.
Claimant was accepted as permanently and totally disabled. He has lost all sensation and control from his waist downward, including control over bowel and bladder functions. There is no prospect for improvement. The carrier acknowledges that some form of special housing accommodations are required for Choate.
Claimant is presently existing by himself in a dilapidated makeshift dwelling consisting of an ancient trailer and a ramshackle wooden shed that are difficult or impossible to negotiate by wheelchair. Pursuant to his claim, the deputy awarded claimant an “Enabler II” modular home, specifically designed as a wheelchair-accessible environment. All title and right of ownership would remain in the carrier but claimant would be entitled to live in the home rent free. Major maintenance would be the responsibility of the carrier. Additionally, the carrier would provide adequate insurance, while claimant assumed liability for all real estate taxes and assessments on the property. In the event claimant failed to pay such taxes and assessments and they became a lien on the property, the carrier would pay them and be entitled to deduct the same from the permanent disability benefits being paid to claimant. Finally, in the event of claimant’s voluntarily electing other housing, or upon his death, the carrier would have the right to enter upon the premises and remove the modular home.
The employer/carrier contend the deputy should have accepted their suggested alternative of remodeling claimant’s existing dwelling. It is patently clear from the record, however, that nothing short of bulldozing the dwelling would serve to remedy the situation. The deputy did not abuse his discretion in awarding Choate use of the modular home. Clearly, claimant has presented a “set of extremely unique circumstances” combined with a “request for highly extraordinary relief” allowing his cause to fall within the narrow prescripts enunciated in this Court’s decision in Haga v. Clay Hyder Trucking Lines, 397 So. 2d 428 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981).
Again, we caution that only extreme cases of disability might warrant such extraordinary relief. The order of the deputy commissioner is hereby affirmed.
SHIVERS and SHAW, JJ., concur.
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Polk Cnty. Bd. OF Comm'rs & Home Ins. Co. v. Emmett F. Varnado, 576 So. 2d 833 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991)…using is a medical necessity or that the specific items listed by the JCC would be necessary to provide such an environment. Only the method of providing such a medically necessary environment is in dispute. In Peace River Electric Corp. v. Choate, 417 So. 2d 831 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982), this court upheld an award of a rent-free, [*838] wheelchair-accessible, modular home supplied by the carrier to a claimant. The court in that case, however, noted the extremely unique circumstances of that case (claimant living…
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Ramada INN S. Airport & Claims Ctr. v. Lamoureux, 565 So. 2d 376 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990)…that the severely injured claimant is in need of handicapped-equipped housing. The record is clear that the claimant's injuries and handicaps are at least as severe, if not more so, than those of the claimant in Peace River Electric Corp. v. Choate, 417 So. 2d 831 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982). Further, it is clear from the record that claimant’s present apartment in Dracut, Massachusetts is not wheelchair accessible, cannot be modified to meet the claimant's needs, and presents a safety hazard since the claimant has n…
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Adams Bldg. Materials, Inc. v. Brooks, 892 So. 2d 527 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004)…ounty Bd. of Comm’rs, 576 So. 2d at 837 (holding that JCC should only award medical benefits which are medically necessary).1 A new home should only be awarded when an existing home cannot be modified. See id.; cf. Peace River Elec. Corp. v. Choate, 417 So. 2d 831, 832 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982) (finding that unique circumstances were sufficient reason why existing home could not be modified). In this case, the evidence of medical necessity for a new house was one physician answering “yes” on a form asking if a new…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Haga v. Clay Hyder Trucking Lines, 397 So. 2d 428 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981)