RISK MANAGEMENT SERVICES, INC., APPELLANT,
v.
NEALY MCCRANEY AND INEZ MCCRANEY, HIS WIFE, APPELLEES

Fla. 1st DCA | 1982-10-12
No. AK-29
ROBERT P. SMITH, Jr., C.J., and SHIVERS, J., concur.
420 So. 2d 374 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1982) Negative Treatment
Cited by 20 cases

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Synopsis

Risk Management Services, Inc. appealed from a trial court judgment determining its workers' compensation lien against settlement proceeds from a third-party tort claim. The court affirmed the calculation amount but reversed regarding the carrier's right to a lien on future benefits, remanding for modification of the trial court order.


Holding

The court affirmed the trial court's computation of the carrier's lien amount (21.5% of benefits paid), as the carrier had induced the error by misrepresenting the applicable law. However, the court reversed and remanded because the trial court erred in failing to include a provision allowing the carrier to recover or retain a pro rata portion of future compensation benefits, which § 440.39(3)(a) clearly contemplates.


Headnotes

[1] A party may be precluded from challenging a ruling on appeal if they induced the error in the trial court.

[2] A workers' compensation carrier's lien on a third-party settlement must be calculated based on the statutory version in effect at the time of the settlement.

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Key Quotes

“The employer or carrier shall recover . . . what it has paid and future benefits to be paid . . .”

Statutory language establishing that the carrier's lien rights extend to future benefits, not merely past benefits paid

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Facts & Procedural History

Nealy McCraney, a truck driver, sustained compensable work injuries from a vehicular accident caused by third-party negligence. Risk Management Servic…

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Opinion of the Court
THOMPSON, Judge.

THOMPSON, Judge.

Risk Management Services, Inc., (appellant) appeals from a final judgment contending that the trial court erred in determining the amount of its lien pursuant to § 440.39, Fla.Stat., and in failing to provide for a lien on future benefits to be paid. We affirm as to the first issue, but reverse as to the second.

Appellee Nealy McCraney, while working as a truck driver, sustained compensable injuries in a vehicular accident caused by the negligence of a third party. McCraney received workers’ compensation benefits from appellant. He thereafter sued the third party tortfeasor and her employer, which suit, because of limits of insurance coverage and collectability, was subsequently settled for less than the full value of McCraney’s damages. When appellant and McCraney were unable to agree as to the amount the appellant should recover from the settlement proceeds, the issue was submitted to the trial court.

At the hearing on the matter, the only disputed issue concerned the full amount of McCraney’s damages. Both parties agreed that once the trial judge had determined the true value of the claim, the carrier’s pro rata share of McCraney’s actual recovery was to be computed according to the formula set out in National Ben Franklin Insurance Company v. Hall, 340 So. 2d 1269 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976).

The lower court’s final order, which was expressly predicated on the authority of National Ben, provided that appellant was to recoup $5,679.93 of the $26,465.72 it had paid out. This order amounted to a finding that appellant was entitled to recover 21.5% of benefits paid. Appellant now urges us to find the trial judge in error, on grounds that the National Ben formula is based on the 1975 version of § 440.39, and is incorrect under the 1979 version of the statute which is applicable in this case. This we shall not do. Although appellant correctly argues that National Ben was no longer applicable because of changes in the statute, Lee v. Risk Management, Inc., 409 So. 2d 1163 (Fla.3d DCA 1982); Risk Management Services, Inc. v. Scott, 414 So. 2d 220 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982), the record in this case clearly demonstrates that appellant induced the error by representing to the trial judge that National Ben was controlling.

Appellant contends that no change in the law occurred until publication of the opinion in Lee v. Risk Management. This suggestion is incorrect. The law on which National Ben was based was changed on July 1, 1977, the effective date of § 440.39(3)(a), Fla.Stat. (1977), or approximately four years prior to the date of the hearing wherein appellant argued the applicability of National Ben.

Accordingly, we conclude that this is a clear case of “invited error,” see e.g., Behar v. Southeast Banks Trust Company, N.A., 374 So. 2d 572 (Fla.3d DCA 1979), and affirm as to this issue.

We do, however, find that the trial judge erred in failing to include in his order a provision allowing the carrier to recover or retain a pro rata portion of any future compensation benefits which it may be obligated to pay to MeCraney. Section 440.-39(3)(a), Fla.Stat. (1979) clearly contemplates a lien on future benefits providing: “The employer or carrier shall recover . . . what it has paid and future benefits to be paid . . . .” (emphasis supplied)

Therefore, this case is remanded with instructions to the trial court to allow appellant to deduct from any future benefits to be paid its pro rata share of McCraney’s recovery on the tort claim. Having invited the error in the computation of its share of the settlement proceeds, appellant shall be bound by it, and shall reduce any future benefits to be paid by 21.5%. The appellant shall recommence payment of full benefits, if and when the sum of the amounts recovered and retained pursuant to its lien equals McCraney’s net recovery on the tort claim.

Affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded.

ROBERT P. SMITH, Jr., C.J., and SHIVERS, J., concur.


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Citator

Cited By (11 total)

  • AETNA Ins. Co. v. Norman, 468 So. 2d 226 (Fla. 1985)
    …McDONALD, Justice. We have for review Aetna Insurance Co. v. Norman, 444 So. 2d 1124 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984), based upon express and direct conflict with Risk Management Services, Inc. v. McCraney, 420 So. 2d 374 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982). This case deals with the extent of a workers’ compensation insurer’s lien * on the proceeds of a third party settlement when that settlement is less than full value of the claim because of the claimant’s comparative negligence.…
  • Am. States Ins. & Burnett Corp. v. See-Wai, 472 So. 2d 838 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985)
    …at the time the carrier made payments to See-Wai. . National Ben Franklin Ins. Co. v. Hall, 340 So. 2d 1269 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976). . See Aetna Ins. Co. v. Norman, 444 So. 2d 1124 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984). .See Risk Management Services, Inc. v. McCraney, 420 So. 2d 374 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982). . See State of Florida, Division of Risk Management v. McDonald, 436 So. 2d 1134 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983); State Dept. of Health & Rehabilitative Services v. McConkey, 421 So. 2d 29 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982); Orange County v. Sealy, 412 S…
  • Hewitt v. Grattan, 432 So. 2d 125 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983)
    …, the parties were unaware that a 1977 amendment to section 440.39(3)(a) substantially changed the wording of the statute and rendered the National Ben Franklin formula obsolete. The same thing occurred in Risk Management Services, Inc. v. McCraney, 420 So. 2d 374 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982), in which the parties tried a post-1977 case on the basis of the National Ben Franklin formula. Yet, on appeal the insurance carrier argued that the 1977 version of the statute controlled. The court agreed but refused to disturb…

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