BOSWELL IH TRUCKS, INC. AND UNDERWRITERS ADJUSTING COMPANY, APPELLANTS,
v.
DIVISION OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION, WORKERS' COMPENSATION ADMINISTRATIVE TRUST FUND, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1986-12-16
No. BN-315
THOMPSON and WIGGINTON, JJ., concur.
498 So. 2d 1042 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1986)

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.

Synopsis

The Florida First District Court of Appeal affirmed an order requiring an employer/carrier to reimburse the Division of Workers' Compensation $270 for costs incurred in preparing an insolvent claimant's appeal record. The court held that when parties settle all issues including an appeal without providing for cost reimbursement, the deputy commissioner has authority to order the employer/carrier to reimburse the Division's costs.


Holding

The court held that a deputy commissioner has authority to order an employer/carrier to reimburse the Division for costs paid on behalf of an insolvent claimant when the parties settle all issues between them, including the appeal, without making provision for cost assessment and payment. Such an order will not be reversed on appeal unless it constitutes an abuse of discretion, which the court found did not occur here.


Headnotes

[1] A deputy commissioner has the authority to order an employer/carrier to reimburse the Division for costs paid on behalf of an insolvent claimant when the parties settle a…

[2] A deputy commissioner's order to reimburse the Division for costs paid on behalf of an insolvent claimant will not be reversed on appeal unless the order constitutes an a…

Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“where the claimant and the employer/carrier settle all issues between them, including claimant's appeal, in consideration for payment of money in the form of a lump sum settlement without making provision for the assessment and payment of costs of the appeal, the deputy has the authority to order the employer/carrier to reimburse the Division for costs paid in behalf of the insolvent claimant”

Establishes the core holding regarding the deputy's authority to order cost reimbursement in settled cases

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

An employer/carrier accepted an industrial injury claim but disputed the claimant's average weekly wage (AWW) computation. The deputy commissioner res…

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.


Opinion of the Court
SMITH, Judge.

SMITH, Judge.

The employer/carrier appeal an order of the deputy commissioner granting the Division’s motion to tax costs and ordering them to reimburse the Division $270.00 for preparation of the insolvent claimant’s record on appeal. We affirm.

The claimant sustained an industrial injury which the employer/carrier accepted as compensable. However, a dispute arose over the computation of claimant’s average weekly wage (AWW), which the deputy resolved in favor of the employer/carrier. The insolvent claimant appealed and the Division paid the costs for preparing the record on appeal.

During the pendency of the appeal, a lump sum settlement agreement was reached. This court remanded the case and the Division was notified of the proposed settlement and filed a motion to tax costs. The claimant and the employer/carrier appeared before the deputy and denied liability to pay costs, the claimant on the grounds that he was still an indigent who was settling his entitlement to future wage loss benefits in one lump sum, and the employer/carrier on the grounds that its position regarding the AWW had been sustained by the deputy and had not been reversed on appeal and that it had not “settled” the issue on appeal.1

As in Department of Labor & Employment Security, Division of Workers’ Compensation v. Circle T-Bone Ranch, 439 So. 2d 993, 994 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983), this controversy arose because the parties negotiated a settlement without including these negotiations a determination of how the Division would be reimbursed for the costs. The employer/carrier is asking this court to supply a rule of law to eliminate a hiatus created by the parties’ act of settlement without complying with the suggested practice that the settlement agreement should make provision for the payment of costs. See Department of Labor & Employment Security, Division of Workers’ Compensation v. Circle T-Bone Ranch, 439 So. 2d at 994, and rule 4.210, Workers’ Compensation Rules. We find that where the claimant and the employer/carrier settle all issues between them, including claimant’s appeal, in consideration for payment of money in the form of a lump sum settlement without making provision for the assessment and payment of costs of the appeal, the deputy has the authority to order the employer/carrier to reimburse the Division for costs paid in behalf of the insolvent claimant, and such order will not be reversed on appeal unless under all circumstances it can be said that the deputy’s order constitutes an abuse of discretion. We find no abuse of discretion here.

AFFIRMED.

THOMPSON and WIGGINTON, JJ., concur. . Contrary to the employer/carrier’s contentions, the language of the settlement agreement does suggest that claimant settled the AWW issue as part of the consideration for the parties’ joint settlement. The stipulation and joint petition for settlement provides, among other things, that "the parties are in agreement that there are factual and legal issues which could be resolved either way by the deputy commissioner and the First District Court of Appeal.” This language unmistakeably indicates to this court that both parties “settled.”


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw