HELEN DAMON, PETITIONER,
v.
CENTRAL HOTEL, PUBLIC SERVICE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, AND FLORIDA INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION, RESPONDENTS

Fla. | 1961-12-06
No. 31170
TERRELL, DREW and THORNAL, JJ., concur., ROBERTS, C. J., and O’CONNELL, J., dissent and would deny certiorari., THOMAS, J., dissents.
135 So. 2d 204 Florida Supreme Court (1961) Positive Treatment
Cited by 6 cases

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Synopsis

Helen Damon sought certiorari review of a Florida Industrial Commission decision that reversed a deputy commissioner's award of workers' compensation benefits for a fall suffered while working as a hotel manager. The Supreme Court held that the Commission's finding that the injury was idiopathic and not arising out of employment was unsupported by competent substantial evidence and based on impermissible speculation.


Holding

The Court held that the Commission's decision was unsupported by competent substantial evidence and was based on speculation rather than the record. The claimant's testimony, properly construed in its entirety, permitted a permissible inference that she either became entangled in her robe or tripped on the carpet—either of which would render the accident compensable—and excluded any inference of an idiopathic fall.


Key Quotes

“The record discloses that there is competent substantial evidence in accordance with logic and reason to support the deputy's finding that petitioner suffered a compensable industrial accident.”

Establishes that the deputy commissioner's factual findings were supported by competent substantial evidence.

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Facts & Procedural History

Petitioner Damon was employed as a hotel manager by Central Hotel when she suffered an injury from a fall. A deputy commissioner found the injury comp…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

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Opinion of the Court
HOBSON, Justice.

HOBSON, Justice.

Petitioner was injured by a fall which occurred while she was employed by the respondent employer as a hotel manager. Following a hearing on her controverted claim for Workmen’s Compensation benefits, the deputy commissioner entered an order in which he found that the petitioner’s injury was compensable. On application for review the Florida Industrial Commission reversed the deputy’s order and dismissed the claim on the ground that the fall was "idiopathic”, and “apparently arose out of conditions personal to the claimant”. It was held that since the environment of the employment provided no hazard which contributed to the injury, the injury did not “arise out of” the employment. To review this order of the commission, petitioner seeks a writ of certiorari.

The record discloses that there is competent substantial evidence in accordance with logic and reason to support the deputy’s finding that petitioner suffered a com-pensable industrial accident. Here again, as in the recent case of Edwards v. Metro Tile Company, Fla., 133 So.2d 411, Case #31,062, opinion filed October 4, 1961, the Commission has failed to apply the competent substantial evidence test to the findings of the deputy as prescribed by United States Casualty Company v. Maryland Casualty Company, Fla., 55 So.2d 741. Moreover, in the instant case the majority members of the Commission themselves indulged in speculation and reached an independent finding of fact which is totally unsupported by the record

In reversing the finding of the deputy, the majority of the commission obviously relied on the claimant’s testimony in answer to the query: “How did you come about slipping and falling on this particular day?” Her reply, in part was “That I don’t know.” However, that was not her entire answer. She went on to say, “I just know I got two sheets out of the linen closet. I had a robe on. Whether I caught my robe or whether the carpet was loose or whether I tripped on that or not, I don’t know.”

It is urged by counsel for the respondents that petitioner’s answer as above quoted should be interpreted to mean simply that she didn’t know what caused her to fall. However, it is not for the full commission nor for this court to glean from the language used by the petitioner and upon the perusal of a cold typewritten record the proper inference to be drawn from the said answer of the petitioner. Neither the commission nor this court was privileged to observe the petitioner when she testified and take note of her inflections and emphases.

Certainly, a permissible inference to bt drawn from this testimony, when considered in its entirety is that the claimant either fell because she became entangled in her robe or because she tripped on the carpet. Either of these alternatives would render the accident compensable (as it was held to be by the deputy commissioner), and would exclude any inference that the fall was idiopathic. Such a finding by the commission was patently based on conjecture and is completely without support in the record. For these reasons the order of the full commission must be quashed.

The respondent’s application for review by the full commission asserted a number of alleged errors in the deputy’s order which the commission did not dispose of. Respondent is entitled to a review of these matters by the full commission. Accordingly, the order complained of by the petitioner is quashed, but the cause is remanded to the full commission for a review of the *206points not considered by it or by this opinion.

It is so ordered.

TERRELL, DREW and THORNAL, JJ., concur.

ROBERTS, C. J., and O’CONNELL, J., dissent and would deny certiorari.

THOMAS, J., dissents.


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Citator

Cited By

  • S. Bell Tel. & Tel. Co. v. McCOOK, 355 So. 2d 1166 (Fla. 1977)
    …e Law of Workmen’s Compensation § 12.00 (1972). . Reed v. Brinson Elec. Co., 50 So. 2d 877 (Fla.1951). . Diamelio v. Royal Castle, 148 So. 2d 8 (Fla.1962). . Federal Elec. Corp. v. Best, 274 So. 2d 886 (Fla.1973). See also Damon v. Central Hotel, 135 So. 2d 204 (Fla.1961), concerning sufficiency of evidence showing a fall was not idiopathic. .See General Properties Co. v. Greening, 154 Fla. 814, 820, 18 So. 2d 908, 911 (1944).…
  • Joycie T. Bolinger v. Division OF Retirement, 335 So. 2d 568 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976)
    …which have developed abundantly since the Florida compensation act was passed in 1935, Bolinger’s fall and resulting injury had a sufficient causal relationship with her employment to be characterized as “arising out of” it. Damon v. Central Hotel, 135 So. 2d 204 (Fla.1961); Protectu Awning Shutter Co. v. Cline, 154 Fla. 30, 16 So. 2d 342 (1944); Looney v. W & J Constr. Co., 289 So. 2d 723 (Fla.1974). That conclusion is consistent also with the single decision we are aware of which applies § 121.021(13). In…
  • Drybala v. Hangar ONE, Inc., 393 So. 2d 660 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981)
    …are sufficient to invoke that doctrine because, absent evidence of other causative factors, the facts are consistent only with a conclusion that the wet and uneven bathroom floor was causally related to claimant’s fall. Cf., Damon v. Central Hotel, 135 So. 2d 204 (Fla.1961). While the deputy’s order in the present case implies that the fall may have been caused by medication claimant was taking, the record does not contain evidentiary support for such a conclusion. Claimant testified that he had previously…

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