HENRY DIAZ, PETITIONER,
v.
PALMETTO GENERAL HOSPITAL, ET AL., RESPONDENTS
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The Florida Supreme Court quashed the First District Court of Appeal's decision upholding a $13.28 hourly attorney fee award in a workers' compensation case, finding that the conclusive statutory fee schedule in section 440.34, Florida Statutes, violates due process under the Florida and United States Constitutions. The Court remanded for further proceedings consistent with its companion decision in Castellanos v. Next Door Co.
The conclusive statutory fee schedule is unconstitutional as a denial of due process under both the Florida and United States Constitutions. The First District's decision affirming the $13.28 hourly fee award was quashed and the case was remanded for further proceedings consistent with the Court's decision in Castellanos v. Next Door Co.
[1] A statutory workers' compensation attorney's fee schedule is unconstitutional as a denial of due process.
[2] A court is compelled to affirm a lower court's decision when bound by prior jurisprudence, even if the outcome is unreasonable.
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“the $13.28 hourly fee — over twenty-five -times less than the $350 hourly rate found to be a reasonable fee — 'patently unreasonable'”
Establishes the stark disparity between the awarded fee and what was found to be reasonable, highlighting the severity of the statutory fee schedule's impact
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe claimant's attorney worked 120 hours on a workers' compensation case and was awarded a fee of $13.28 per hour (totaling approximately $1,593.60), …
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This complex workers’ compensation case is before this Court for review of the decision of the First District Court of Appeal in Diaz v. Palmetto General Hospital/Sedgwick CMS, 146 So.3d 1288 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014), concerning a $13.28 hourly fee award for 120 hours of work deemed to be necessarily and reasonably expended by the claimant’s attorney. The judge of compensation claims found' the $13.28 hourly fee — over twenty-five -times less than the $350 hourly rate found to be a reasonable fee — “patently unreasonable” and stated that the claimant would not have recovered the $8,956.44 in total benefits that were awarded to him without the aid and assistance of counsel. The attorney for the employer/camer, on the other hand, spent 175 hours litigating this case— 55 hours more than the claimant’s attorney — which was found by the- judge of compensation claims-to be “a reasonable amount of time given the nature of the case.”
Forced to calculate the fee for the claimant’s attorney in strict compliance with the conclusive fee schedule , in section 440.34, Florida Statutes, the judge of compensation claims could not deviate from the statutory requirements regardless of how unreasonable the ultimate , fee award. And, constrained by its prior jurisprudence, the First District was compelled to affirm the fee “[biased on” its decision in Castellanos v. Next Door Co./Amerisure Ins. Co., 124 So.3d 392, 393 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013). Diaz, 146 So.3d at 1288.
However, this' Court has now held on review of Castellanos that the conclusive statutory fee schedule is unconstitutional as a denial of due process under the Florida and United States Constitutions. Castellanos v. Next Door Co., No. SC13-2082, 192 So.3d 431, 432-33, 2016 WL 1700521, slip op. at 1-2 (Fla. Apr. 28, 2016). Here, the First District certified that its disposition passed upon the same question certified in Castellanos, 124 So.3d at 394, which this Court has now resolved.1 For the reasons explained in our opinion in Castel-lanos, we therefore quash the First District’s decision in Diaz and remand for *883further proceedings consistent with Castel-lanos. See also Richardson v. Aramark/Sedgwick CMS, No. SC14-738, 193 So.3d 880-81, 2016 WL 1704132, slip op. at 2-3 (Fla. Apr. 28, 2016); Pfeffer v. Labor Ready Se., Inc., .No. SC14-1325, 191 So.3d 884, 882, 2016 WL 1708823, at *1 (Fla. Apr. 28, 2016).
It is so ordered.
LABARGA, C.J., and PARIENTE, LEWIS, QUINCE, and PERRY, JJ., concur. ■
CANADY and POLSTON, JJ., dissent.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Castellanos v. Next Door Co., 192 So. 3d 431 (Fla. 2016)…denial of benefits or multiple defenses raised by the E/C, and in each case, the attorney for the E/C expended a number of hours equal to or exceeding the hours expended by the claimant’s attorney. For example, in Diaz v. Palmetto General Hospital, 191 So. 3d 882 (Fla.2016), the statutory fee award was $13.28 per hour for 120 hours of work deemed to be necessarily and reasonably expended by the attorney for the claimant. The E/C’s attorney spent 175 hours litigating the 'case, which was found to be a reasona…
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Pfeffer v. Labor Ready Se., Inc., 191 So. 3d 884 (Fla. 2016)…decision and remand for further proceedings consistent with Castellanos. See also Richardson v. Aramark/Sedgwick CMS, No. SC14-738, 193 So. 3d 880-81, 2016 WL 1704132, slip op. at 2-3 (Fla. Apr. 28, 2016); Diaz v. Palmetto Gen. Hosp., No. SC14-1916, 191 So. 3d 882, 882, 2016 WL 1704091, at *1 (Fla. Apr. 28, 2016). It is so ordered. LABARGA, C.J., and PARIENTE, LEWIS, QUINCE, and PERRY, JJ., concur. CANADY and POLSTON, JJ., dissent.…
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Richardson v. Aramark/Sedgwick CMS, 193 So. 3d 880 (Fla. 2016)…stella-nos clearly resolves this issue, we quash the First District’s decision and remand for further proceedings consistent with Castellanos. See also Pfeffer v. Labor Ready Se., Inc., 191 So. 3d 884, 884-85 (Fla.2016); Diaz v. Palmetto Gen. Hosp., 191 So. 3d 882, 882-83 (Fla.2016). It is so ordered. LABARGA, C.J., and PARIENTE, LEWIS, QUINCE, and PERRY, JJ., concur. CANADY and POLSTON, JJ., dissent.…
Authorities Cited
- Castellanos v. Next Door Co., 192 So. 3d 431 (Fla. 2016)
- Castellanos v. Next Door Company/Amerisure Ins. Co., 124 So. 3d 392 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013)
- Pfeffer v. Labor Ready Se., Inc., 191 So. 3d 884 (Fla. 2016)
- Richardson v. Aramark/Sedgwick CMS, 193 So. 3d 880 (Fla. 2016)
- Diaz v. Palmetto General Hospital/Sedgwick CMS, 146 So. 3d 1288 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014)
- Grady M. Kittrell v. Kittrell, 146 So. 3d 1288 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014)