RECCHI AMERICA INC., ET AL., APPELLANTS,
v.
ASTLEY HALL, APPELLEE

Fla. | 1997-03-13
No. 88011
KOGAN, C.J., and OVERTON, SHAW, HARDING and WELLS, JJ., concur., ANSTEAD, J., dissents with an opinion.
692 So. 2d 153 Florida Supreme Court (1997) Caution
Cited by 11 cases

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 Supreme Court held that the irrebuttable presumption provision in section 440.09(3) of the Florida Workers' Compensation Law—which presumes an injury was caused by intoxication upon positive drug confirmation—violates due process rights. The Court invalidated the presumption and modified the statute to permit rebuttal by clear and convincing evidence.


Holding

The irrebuttable presumption provision violates due process and is unconstitutional. The Court excised the clause "[i]n the absence of a drug-free workplace program" from the statute, permitting injured workers to rebut the presumption of intoxication-caused injury by presenting clear and convincing evidence that the drug did not contribute to the injury.


Headnotes

[1] An irrebuttable presumption in a statute violates due process when the expense and difficulties of individual determinations do not justify its inherent imprecision.

[2] A statute creating an irrebuttable presumption of intoxication as the primary cause of injury is unconstitutional if it fails a three-pronged due process analysis.

Previewing 2 of 5 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

“No [workers'] compensation shall be payable if the injury was occasioned primarily by the intoxication of the employee.... If there was at the time of the injury 0.10 percent or more by weight of alcohol in the employee's blood, or if the employee has a positive confirmation of a drug as defined in this act, it shall be presumed that the injury was occasioned primarily by the intoxication of, or by the influence of the drug upon, the employee.”

Sets forth the statutory presumption at issue that was found unconstitutional

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

Astley Hall sustained work-related injuries when a coworker tripped and jabbed a steel apparatus into his head. Hall was not responsible for the accid…

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
GRIMES, Justice.

GRIMES, Justice.

We have on appeal Hall v. Recchi America Inc., 671 So. 2d 197 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996), in which the district court of appeal expressly declared invalid the irrebuttable presumption provision of section 440.09(3), Florida Statutes (1991). We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. The relevant facts are set forth fully in the opinion below. In brief, appellee Astley Hall sustained work-related injuries during the course of his employment at Recchi America. The undisputed evidence indicated that Hall was not responsible for the accident that caused his injuries. However, the judge of compensation claims (JCC) denied Hall workers’ compensation benefits because a urine test administered shortly after the accident revealed the presence of inactive marijuana metabolites in his system. The JCC relied upon section 440.09(3), Florida Statutes (1991), which states:

No [workers’] compensation shall be payable if the injury was occasioned primarily by the intoxication of the employee.... If there was at the time of the injury 0.10 ;percent or more by weight of alcohol in the employee’s blood, or if the employee has a positive confirmation of a drug as defined in this act, it shall be presumed that the injury was occasioned primarily by the intoxication of, or by the influence of the drug upon, the employee. In the absence of a drug-free workplace program, this presumption may be rebutted by clear and convincing evidence that the intoxication or influence of the drug did not contribute to the injury.

(Emphasis added.)

The district court of appeal held that the underlined portion of section 440.09(3) creates an irrebuttable (or conclusive) presumption that violates the constitutional right to due process. In reaching its conclusion, the court applied the three-pronged analysis announced by this Court for determining the constitutionality of a conclusive presumption: (1) whether the concern of the legislature was reasonably aroused by the possibility of an abuse which it legitimately desired to avoid; (2) whether there was a reasonable basis for a conclusion that the statute would protect against its occurrence; and (3) whether the expense and other difficulties of individual determinations justify the inherent imprecision of a conclusive presumption. Markham v. Fogg, 458 So. 2d 1122, 1125 (Fla. 1984); Bass v. General Dev. Corp., 374 So. 2d 479, 484 (Fla.1979). According to the district court of appeal, the irrebuttable presumption failed the three-pronged test because the expense and other difficulties of individual determinations did not justify the inherent imprecision of the conclusive presumption. Hall, 671 So. 2d at 201.

We agree with the reasoning and result of the majority opinion below and adopt it in its entirety. To avoid any possible confusion, we clarify that our holding invalidates the irrebuttable presumption altogether, including where an employee’s blood alcohol level is 0.10 percent or more by weight at the time of injury. Although the district court of appeal based its decision in part on the diagnostic limitations of urine testing,1 which is not used to test for alcohol, the court did not rely on that reason alone. In determining that the conclusive presumption created a high potential for inaccuracy, the court also relied on the fact that “[a] positive confirmation of a drug at the time of the industrial injury does not conclusively establish that the industrial accident was causally related to the intoxication of, or the influence of the drug upon, the employee.” Id. That point was well illustrated in this case where it was uncontroverted that Hall was injured when a coworker tripped and jabbed a long steel apparatus into the back of his head. The court below also noted the feasibility of individualized determinations of causation.

We find the appropriate remedy is to excise the irrebuttable presumption provision from section 440.09(3) by removing the words “[i]n the absence of a drug-free workplace program.” Absent that clause, the statute permits an injured worker to rebut the presumption by presenting clear and convincing evidence that the intoxication or influence of the drug did not contribute to the injury. We believe that the statute as modified continues to further the legislature’s intent to discourage drug and alcohol abuse and maximize workplace productivity while at the same time respecting due process requirements.

Accordingly, we affirm the decision below. We decline to address Hall’s other arguments.

It is so ordered.

KOGAN, C.J., and OVERTON, SHAW, HARDING and WELLS, JJ., concur. ANSTEAD, J., dissents with an opinion.

. Testimony established that urine testing is inherently incapable of determining whether the active drug in question (in this case marijuana) was present in an individual at the time of injury because urine testing measures the presence of drug metabolites, which implies nothing about the presence of the active drug in the blood at the relevant time. Hall v. Recchi America Inc., 671 So. 2d 197, 201 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996).

Dissent
ANSTEAD, Justice,

ANSTEAD, Justice,

dissenting.

Although harsh, it is apparent that the legislature has focused on alcohol abuse and illegal drug conduct as the basis for permitting the use of the conclusive presumption involved herein. In fact, only the illegal drug use is involved in this case. Because the state has a very substantial interest in com-batting illegal drug use, I would uphold the statute’s constitutionality and invocation here. It is also clear in this case that the sanctions provided in the statute were well known to all, and, in essence, made a part of the employment contract.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Universal Ins. Co. OF N. Am. v. Warfel, 82 So. 3d 47 (Fla. 2012)
    …ed and argued by Universal at trial, that an insured could not overcome this presumption, would render any portion of section 627.7073 unconstitutional and inconsistent with all other provisions of the sinkhole statutes. See Recchi Am. Inc. v. Hall, 692 So. 2d 153, 154 (Fla.1997) (articulating the test for determining the constitutionality of a conclusive presumption). In the absence of clear statutory language to the contrary, statutory presumptions are governed by section 90.303. This principle is supporte…
  • Castellanos v. Next Door Co., 192 So. 3d 431 (Fla. 2016)
    …tutional due process issue, based on ouh well-established precedent regarding conclusive irrebuttable presumptions, is that the statute precludes every injured worker from challenging the reasonableness of the fee award. See Recchi Am. Inc. v. Hall, 692 So. 2d 153, 154 (Fla.1997) (clarifying that its holding “invalidates the irrebuttable presumption altogether,” including as applied to certain situations).' It is the irrebuttable statutory presumption — not the ultimate statutory fee awarded in a given case —…
    1 / 3
  • Roeder v. Fla. Dep't of Env't Prot., 303 So. 3d 979 (Fla. 1st DCA 2020)
    …if negligently or intentional erroneous—were to be conclusive and irrebuttable it could have said so, but it did not. Plus, conclusive and irrebuttable presumptions are disfavored, and in some cases are unconstitutional. See Recchi Am. Inc. v. Hall, 692 So. 2d 153, 154 (Fla. 1997); State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Malmberg, 639 So. 2d 615, 616 (Fla. 1994); Pub. Health Tr. of Dade Cty. v. Valcin, 507 So. 2d 596, 599 (Fla.1987); Straughn v. K & K Land Mgmt., Inc., 326 So. 2d 421, 424 (Fla. 1976). As such, it i…

Previewing 3 of 4 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw