JIMMY WALTERS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA-DOC/DIVISION OF RISK MANAGEMENT, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 2012-10-16
No. 1D11-6707
MARSTILLER and RAY, JJ., concur.
100 So. 3d 1173 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (2012) Negative Treatment
Cited by 8 cases

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Synopsis

A correctional officer with a statutory presumption of occupational causation for heart disease was denied workers' compensation benefits by a judge of compensation claims, who found the State rebutted the presumption by proving the disease resulted from viral gastroenteritis. The appellate court reversed, holding that the State failed to prove the virus was non-occupational, and the trial judge improperly shifted the burden to the claimant.


Holding

The court reversed, holding that the State failed to rebut the section 112.18 presumption because it did not prove the viral gastroenteritis had a non-occupational cause—the source of the virus was unknown and could have been contracted at work. The trial judge erred in shifting the burden to the claimant to prove the virus was occupational under section 440.151, a requirement that applies only after the statutory presumption is rebutted. Once the presumption arises, it is sufficient to establish occupational causation unless overcome by evidence proving a non-occupational cause.


Headnotes

[1] A rebuttable presumption of occupational causation for disabling heart disease suffered by correctional officers is established by statute unless rebutted by medical evid…

[2] The presumption of occupational causation for heart disease is dispositive unless rebutted by proof of a specific, non-work-related event, exposure, or a combination of w…

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Key Quotes

“The presumption is dispositive unless rebutted by medical evidence.”

Establishes the legal force of the statutory presumption under section 112.18 and the standard for rebuttal

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Facts & Procedural History

Jimmy Walters was a correctional officer whose job included handling newly arrived inmates' clothing. A pre-employment physical revealed no heart dise…

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Opinion of the Court
BENTON, C.J.

BENTON, C.J.

On this appeal of the order of a judge of compensation claims denying all benefits claimed on account of Jimmy Walters’s heart disease, we reverse and remand for the award of medical benefits for the care and treatment of his heart disease and of any other workers’ compensation benefits he may be entitled to on account of his heart disease.

Section 112.18, Florida Statutes (2009) — variously known as the “Firefighter’s Presumption,” the “Heart and Lung Bill” or the “Heart-Lung Statute,” see 9 Patrick John McGinley, Fla. Prac. Workers’ Comp, with Forms § 11:6 (2012 ed.) — creates a rebuttable presumption of occupational causation for disabling heart disease (among other health conditions) suffered by correctional officers (among others) who meet certain prerequisites.1 The presumption is dispositive unless rebutted by medical evidence. See Fuller v. Okaloosa Corr. Inst., 22 So.3d 803, 806 (Fla. 1st DCA 2009). In order to rebut the presumption, the medical evidence must prove “the disease ... was caused by a specific, non-work related event or exposure,” Caldwell v. Div. of Ret., Fla. Dep’t of Admin., 372 So.2d 438, 441 (Fla. 1979), superseded by statute on other grounds as stated in Universal Ins. Co. of N. Am. v. Warfel, 82 So.3d 47, 52-54 (Fla.2012), ie., by “some non-work-related factor.” Lentini v. City of W. Palm Beach, 980 So.2d 1232, 1233 (Fla. 1st DCA 2008). See also City of Tarpon Springs v. Vaporis, 953 So.2d 597, 599 (Fla. 1st DCA *11752007). The presumption can also be rebutted by proof of a specific “combination of wholly non-industrial causes.” Punsky v. Clay Cnty. Sheriff’s Office, 18 So.3d 577, 583-84 (Fla. 1st DCA 2009).

In the present case, the parties stipulated to the factual predicate necessary to give rise to the statutory presumption of occupational causation.2 Mr. Walters is a corrections officer whose job required, among other things, that he gather newly received inmates’ clothing when new arrivals were ordered to change into prison garb. Before he began work as a correctional officer, a medical examination revealed no heart disease of any kind. Beginning the week before he went to the hospital on December 22, 2009, he felt as if he were coming down with a cold, but he worked the full week anyway. Only after chills and nausea on his days off, and when he began to experience chest pain, did he go to Gulf Coast Medical Center where he was treated for “heart symptoms.” From there he was then taken by ambulance to Bay Medical Center, where he was diagnosed with myoperiearditis and cardiomyopathy, and remained hospitalized for several days.

Relying on the presumption of occupational causation set out in section 112.18, Florida Statutes (2009), he later filed a workers’ compensation claim asserting the heart disease was compensable. After the State of Florida denied the claim, the judge of compensation claims, while acknowledging that the statutory presumption arose, ruled the State had rebutted the presumption with testimony that Mr. Walters’s heart disease was attributable to viral gastroenteritis. The same order also said that the appellant had not proven that viral gastroenteritis was an occupational disease in the manner contemplated by section 440.151, Florida Statutes (2009).

In his single point on appeal, the appellant relies, as he did as claimant below, on the section 112.18 presumption. He contends the order under review erred both in finding that the State had rebutted the section 112.18 presumption and in shifting the burden of proof back to him, requiring him to establish that the stomach virus was an occupational disease. He takes no exception to the finding that his cardiac problems were traceable to a stomach virus, but argues that, because the etiology of his viral gastroenteritis — the source of the stomach virus — is unknown, the State failed to prove that the cause of his heart disease was non-occupational, and thus failed to rebut the section 112.18 presumption. The presumption obviated any requirement on his part to prove that he contracted the virus at work, he maintains.

*1176Once it arises, the presumption of occupational causation “remains with the claimant ... and ... is itself sufficient to support an ultimate finding of industrial causation unless overcome by evidence of sufficient weight to satisfy the trier of fact that the tuberculosis, heart disease or hypertension had a non-industrial cause.” Punsky, 18 So.3d at 583; see generally Warfel, 82 So.3d at 52-54. Unless the statutory presumption is rebutted, the presumption is an adequate substitute for evidence of occupational causation, and compels the legal result that a claimant has proven occupational causation. See Pun-sky, 18 So.3d at 582-84. The presumption controls “unless the contrary be shown.” § 112.18(2), Fla. Stat. (2009).

If the presumption applies, the claimant is under no obligation to establish occupational causation redundantly by adducing evidence beyond what was necessary to give rise to the presumption in the first place. Specifically, there is no requirement to put on proof meeting the requirements of section 440.151, Florida Statutes (2009), (titled “Occupational diseases”), unless and until the section 112.18 presumption is rebutted. “[A] claimant’s burden of proving major contributing cause (MCC) by medical evidence, is fully met where the presumption contained in section 112.18(1) is applied-” Fuller, 22 So.3d at 806.

Nobody suggests that substantial, competent evidence did not support the finding that “it was gastroenteritis, as a result of an unnamed virus, that caused a viral car-diomyopathy and pericarditis from which the Claimant suffered.” But no evidence whatsoever supports this additional finding: “I further find this to be non-occupational in nature and therefore not work-related.” Whether “this” references the gastroenteritis, the virus, or the heart disease, no competent evidence in the record supports the assertion that “this” was “non-occupational in nature” and “not work-related.” As far as this record shows, Mr. Walters may well have encountered the virus, the organism that caused first the gastroenteritis then the cardiom-yopathy and pericarditis, at his workplace.

Whether appellant caught the stomach virus at work or elsewhere was not proven and may not be knowable. The only opinions the doctors gave on the source of the virus were: “Q.... [C]ould you tell me where he got it [the virus]? A. [Dr. Trant-ham] No.” and [Dr. Castello] “It must be a virus. I don’t know which one or where it came from.” And finally “Q. But again, we don’t know what virus and from where it came from; is that reasonable? A. [Dr. Whitworth] Yes, that’s reasonable.” The State had the burden to prove he did not get the virus at work, and failed to eariy its burden.

The judge of compensation claims erroneously imported into this Heart and Lung Statute case the legal requirements claimants must meet to demonstrate entitlement to workers’ compensation benefits for other “occupational diseases” as provided for in section 440.151, Florida Statutes (2009). Mr. Walters sought to establish, not an occupational disease, but a “condition or impairment of ... any ... correctional officer ... caused by ... heart disease ... resulting in total or partial disability ... presumed to have been accidental and to have been suffered in the line of duty.” § 112.18(1), Fla. Stat. (2009). In shifting the burden to the claimant to prove that the offending virus was work-related, the judge of compensation claims failed to give proper effect to the section 112.18 presumption. The State never rebutted the presumption of an “accident” in the line of duty, a presumption that arose in the present case on stipulated facts.

*1177Accordingly, we remand with directions that the judge of compensation claims award medical benefits for the care and treatment of appellant’s heart disease and any other workers’ compensation benefits he is entitled to on account of his heart disease.

Reversed and remanded, with directions.

MARSTILLER and RAY, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • …tional officers (among others) who meet certain prerequisites. The presumption is dispositive unless rebutted by medical evidence. See Fuller v. Okaloosa Corr. Inst., 22 So. 3d 803, 806 (Fla. 1st DCA 2009).” Walters v. State, DOC/Div. of Risk Mgmt., 100 So. 3d 1173, 1174 (Fla. 1st DCA 2012) (footnote omitted). In the present case, after being diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, Brian Scherer stopped working as a correctional officer for Volusia County on October 27, 2009, [*137] because of his heart condition. The…
  • …s earlier declaration that, “much like a pre-existing condition, this court has recognized a congenital condition can be aggravated.” Id at 68 (citing City of Temple Terrace v. Bailey, 481 So. 2d 49 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986)); Walters v. State of Fl.-DOC, 100 So. 3d 1173 (Fla. 1st DCA 2012). In Gonzalez v. St. Lucie County-Fire District, 186 So. 3d 1106 (Fla 1st DCA 2016), the Claimant, a firefighter, responded to the scene of a fire. He walked the scene of the fire wearing heavy equipment weighing sixty to seventy…
    1 / 2
  • …under review, the JCC found that the E/C bore, but failed to meet, the burden of proving Claimant’s employment was not the cause of the viral cardiomyopathy. As this court recently held in Walters v. State of Florida—DOC/Division of Risk Management, 100 So. 3d 1173, (Fla. 1st DCA 2012), another case involving viral cardiomyopathy, “[i]f the presumption applies, the claimant is under no obligation to establish occupational causation redundantly by adducing evidence beyond what was necessary to give rise to the…

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