AMERICAN MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, CARRIER, SPECIAL DISABILITY TRUST FUND, AND GEORGE BROWN & SON, EMPLOYER, APPELLANTS,
v.
COLLINS PATRICK, JR., APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1984-06-19
Nos. AV-287, AV-288
MILLS and SHIVERS, JJ., concur.
453 So. 2d 424 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1984) Positive Treatment
Cited by 4 cases

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Synopsis

An employer and insurance carrier appealed a deputy commissioner's order awarding a workers' compensation claimant a lump sum advance of $103,700 representing all future periodic benefits commuted to present value. The Florida appellate court affirmed the award, holding that recent statutory amendments apply prospectively only and that the lump sum was in the claimant's best interest given his financial circumstances.


Holding

The court affirmed the $103,700 lump sum award. The 1983 amendments to sections 440.20(12) and 440.20(13) are substantive and apply prospectively only, not retroactively to injuries predating their effective date. The award was in the claimant's best interest given his severe financial hardship, and the court modified the order to require the funds be used only as specified in the investment plan.


Headnotes

[1] Amendments to workers' compensation statutes are applied prospectively only.

[2] A lump sum advance of future compensation benefits may be awarded when it is in the claimant's best interest.

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Key Quotes

“The 1983 amendments to sections 440.20(12) and 440.20(13), Florida Statutes (1979) are substantive and are to be applied prospectively only.”

Establishes that the statutory amendments at issue apply only to future injuries, not retroactively to the claimant's pre-amendment injury.

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Facts & Procedural History

A workers' compensation claimant suffered an injury on June 1, 1979, and was entitled to periodic disability benefits. However, the periodic payments …

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Opinion of the Court
WIGGINTON, Judge.

WIGGINTON, Judge.

The employer/carrier and the Special Disability Trust Fund appeal the deputy commissioner’s order directing them to pay to claimant a lump sum advance of all future compensation benefits commuted to a present value of $103,700. The E/C raise three points for our review: (1) whether the lump sum advance is in claimant’s best interest; (2) whether the $7,500 cap appearing in section 440.20(13)(d), Florida Statutes (1983), applies to the instant award; and (3) whether the 8 percent discount rate appearing in section 440.20(12)(c), Florida Statutes (1983), applies to the instant award. We affirm.

Points II and III were decided adversely to appellants’ position in our very recent decision in Cone Brothers Contracting v. Gordon, 453 So. 2d 420 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984). The 1983 amendments to sections 440.20(12) and 440.20(13), Florida Statutes (1979) are substantive and are to be applied prospectively only.1

Resolution of Point I is also controlled by the Gordon decision; although we note that on these facts, where the periodic payments left claimant in utter penury once daily living expenses were met, we feel even more compelled to affirm the lump sum award.

The financial plan introduced by claimant is sound and comprehensive, and would undeniably be in his best interests. However, we would amend the deputy’s order to add the proviso that the $103,700 lump sum received by claimant be utilized only for those purposes as set forth in the investment plan prepared by financial consultant Henry L. Turner, III, and in the testimony.

AFFIRMED, as amended.

MILLS and SHIVERS, JJ., concur. . We distinguish our holding in Gordon from that in Kissimmee Construction Company (GAC Corporation) v. Riley, 400 So. 2d 313 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984). In Riley, section 440.20(12), Florida Statutes (1979) was applied in place of section 440.20(10), Florida Statutes (Supp.1978), since the claimant’s injury took place following the effective date of the 1979 amendments. That was not the case in this instance, as the date of claimant’s injury was June 1, (1979), prior to the August 1 effective date of the 1979 statutes.


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Citator

Cited By

  • …mily circumstances his financial plan “would enable him to manage his life, which undeniably means providing for his family, an ability presently denied him by his crippling industrial injury and concomitant periodic receipt of disability benefits.” 453 So. 2d 424.…
  • Oliver B. Cannon & Sons, Inc. v. Maxwell Crosby, 481 So. 2d 921 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985)
    …commissioner is REVERSED. Claimant’s unauthorized reply brief is stricken. BOOTH, C.J., and MILLS, J., concur. . See generally Edgewood Boys Ranch Foundation v. Robinson, 456 So. 2d 1270 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984); American Mutual Insur. Co. v. Patrick, 453 So. 2d 424 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984); Cone Bros. Contracting v. Gordon, 453 So. 2d 420 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984); Exxon Co. v. Orlando, 444 So. 2d 584 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984); Sanford v. Alachua County School Boards, 425 So. 2d 112 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983).…

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