POOLE & KENT COMPANY, AND RELIANCE INSURANCE COMPANY, APPELLANTS,
v.
WARREN L. RHEA, ET AL., APPELLEES
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
The court held that attorney's fees in a workers' compensation case cannot be based on benefits paid to the claimant prior to the attorney's involvement.
The employer and carrier appealed an attorney's fees award, arguing the deputy commissioner improperly included past due compensation paid before the …
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Worker'S Compensation cases and more on FLexlaw
JOANOS, Judge.
In this workers’ compensation case the employer and carrier (E/C) were ordered to pay $70,800 in attorney’s fees in accordance with section 440.34, Florida Statutes. They appeal the amount of this award, taking issue with the calculations adopted by the deputy commissioner in establishing $467,000 as the value of benefits secured for the claimant by the attorney. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings.
Of the several arguments made by the E/C, one merits reversal. As part of the amount of total benefits secured by this attorney the deputy commissioner included a figure of $16,983.00 for past due compensation. We agree with the E/C that it appears from the evidence that at least some of this amount was paid to the claimant prior to the filing of any claim by the attorney whose fees are in question. Compensation paid prior to involvement by this attorney cannot be considered to have been “benefits to the claimant that the attorney is responsible for securing” as required by statute, and thus, should not be included in the value of the award upon which attorney’s fees are based.
Except for this one aspect of calculation, we find the decisions of the deputy commissioner to be reasonable, supported by competent, substantial evidence, and fully in accord with section 440.34, Florida Statutes.
Accordingly, we affirm the Order, including all the calculations adopted by the deputy commissioner, except that portion which includes benefits paid the claimant through the effort of someone other than the attorney whose fee is being determined. Therefore, we reverse in part and remand for recalculation of the attorney’s fee consistent herewith.
SMITH and WIGGINTON, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Dimitrius Ntonados v. Nick Peppas Constr. & Aetna Life & Cas. Co., 498 So. 2d 653 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986)…e to be awarded shall be stated as a specific dollar amount. In determining that amount, the deputy should be aware of the recent decisions in Rivers v. SCA Services of Florida, Inc., 488 So. 2d 873 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986), and Poole & Kent Co. v. Rhea, 488 So. 2d 908 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986). REVERSED AND REMANDED. SMITH and WIGGINTON, JJ., concur. . The finding of bad faith is not challenged on this appeal.…