GEORGIA PACIFIC CORP., APPELLANT,
v.
ALEX BUTLER, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1983-09-29
No. AQ-322
ROBERT P. SMITH, Jr., and BOOTH and WIGGINTON, JJ., concur.
438 So. 2d 916 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1983)

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Synopsis

Georgia Pacific Corp., a self-insured employer, appealed an award of bad faith attorney's fees in a workers' compensation claim, arguing its handling of the claim did not display the unreasonableness required to show malice or reckless disregard. The court affirmed, finding the employer's cumulative pattern of denying benefits over a year constituted bad faith.


Holding

The court held that while individual episodes of the employer's conduct might not appear extraordinary, their cumulative effect over one year represented bad faith stonewalling sufficient to constitute bad faith under applicable Florida precedent and warranted an award of bad faith attorney's fees.


Headnotes

[1] An employer's cumulative pattern of conduct, even if individual episodes might not seem extraordinary, can support a finding of bad faith in handling a workers' compensat…

[2] An employer's declaration of Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI) without supporting evidence can contribute to a finding of bad faith in a workers' compensation claim.

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Key Quotes

“in cumulative effect they represent a year's betting by the servicing agent that claimant was of sound body when in fact he was not”

This establishes the court's core finding that the employer's pattern of denials and delays, when viewed together, constituted bad faith.

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Facts & Procedural History

An employer denied or delayed various aspects of an employee's workers' compensation claim over approximately one year, including: terminating tempora…

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

Contending that its handling of this workers’ compensation claim is “lacking in the display of unreasonableness required for a showing of malice, oppression, or willful, wanton, or reckless disregard of the rights of the claimant,” Exceptional Children’s Home & Nursery, Inc. v. Fortuna, 414 So. 2d 1130, 1131 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982), the self-insured employer urges that we reverse the deputy’s order awarding “bad faith” attorney’s fees pursuant to section 440.34(2)(b), Florida Statutes (1979).

We affirm. Four episodes mar the employer’s handling of this claim: the employer ended temporary total benefits by declaring MMI, of which there was then no evidence; then implausibly misconstrued, as suggesting a medical consultation already inconclusively gotten, the Division specialist’s recommendation of a medical consultation on temporary partial disability; again resisted, some months later, claimant’s renewed claim for medical care; and, after finally capitulating on the medical care issue, waited more than two weeks to confirm that claimant’s disc surgery had validated his year-long claims of continuing pain, so finally paying past due benefits. Considered individually these episodes may not seem extraordinary. But in cumulative effect they represent a year’s betting by the servicing agent that claimant was of sound body when in fact he was not. The deputy could well have found this stonewalling offensive to the standards enunciated in Florida Erection Services, Inc. v. McDonald, 395 So. 2d 203 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981) and its progeny, most particularly Holiday Care Center v. Scriven, 418 So. 2d 322 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982), and sufficient to constitute “bad faith.”

AFFIRMED.

ROBERT P. SMITH, Jr., and BOOTH and WIGGINTON, JJ., concur.


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