DADE COUNTY PLANNING DEPARTMENT AND BITUMINOUS CASUALTY CORPORATION, PETITIONERS,
v.
CHARLES JEROME RANSING AND FLORIDA INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION, RESPONDENTS

Fla. | 1963-12-11
No. 32457
DREW, C. J., and ROBERTS, O’CON-NELL and CALDWELL, JJ., concur., TERRELL, J., dissents with opinion., THORNAL, J., dissents and concurs with TERRELL, J.
158 So. 2d 528 Florida Supreme Court (1963) Negative Treatment
Cited by 5 cases

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Synopsis

The Florida Supreme Court clarified whether a 20-day deadline for filing an application for review under workers' compensation law was timely when the deadline fell on Sunday, October 4, 1962, with the application filed on Monday, November 5, 1962. The Court held that statutory deadlines should be extended when they expire on Sunday, eliminating a prior distinction between workers' compensation proceedings and appellate procedures.


Holding

The Court held that when a statutory deadline for filing an application for review expires on Sunday, the deadline should be extended to the following Monday, making the employer's application for review timely and thus properly entertained by the Full Commission.


Key Quotes

“a compensation order shall be final 20 days after the day copies are mailed to the interested parties unless within that period there shall be filed an application for review by the Full Commission.”

Establishes the statutory deadline at issue in the case

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Facts & Procedural History

The deputy commissioner entered an order in a workers' compensation claim on October 15, 1962, and mailed copies to the interested parties. The employ…

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

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Opinion of the Court
THOMAS, Justice.

THOMAS, Justice.

This case had its inception in a claim under Workmen’s Compensation Law, Chapter 440, Florida Statutes, F.S.A. The deputy commissioner entered his order and mailed copies of it to the claimant and the employer 15 October 1962. On 5 November 1962 the employer, Board of County Commissioners of Dade County, Florida, filed an application for review.

Inasmuch as the application was lodged with the deputy commissioner the 21st day after the deputy’s order was entered, the Full Commission entertained a motion of the claimant to dismiss it, and the motion was granted.

The relevant part of Chapter 440, Sec. 440.25(4) (a), provides that a compensa*529tion order shall be final 20 days after the day copies are mailed to the interested parties unless within that period there shall be filed an application for review by the Full Commission.

The immediate problem, presented to us by petition of certiorari to review the dismissal, is whether or not the filing of the application was untimely in view of the fact that the 20th day from the signing of the order of the deputy and mailing of the notices fell on Sunday, 4 November 1962.

There is authority for the holding that when the “act to be performed is in fulfillment of a statutory requirement, Sunday will not be excluded, and performance must be made on Saturday” although the more liberal construction of extending the time of performance to Monday is applied when “the time within which, by an order or rule, judicial action is to be taken, expires on Sunday * * Simmons v. Hanne, SO Fla. 267, 39 So. 77, decided in 1905.

Forty-eight years later in Carlile v. Spofford, Fla., 65 So.2d 545, this court held, two members dissenting, referring to Simmons v. Hanne, supra, that since the provisions of Chapter 59, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., limiting the time of appeal to 60 days from the entry of the order appealed, also provided that the prescribed procedure be considered a rule of court, and the Common Law and Equity Rules expressly provided that periods expiring at a certain time should be extended if they ended on Sunday or a legal holiday, the court had modified the statute to that extent.

Upon thorough consideration we have concluded that there is no need for the distinction, and no lack of power in this court to eliminate it, and that as a matter of construction and obviation of confusion the computations should be the same. Thus will any trap to an unwary attorney who has failed to grasp the distinction be avoided.

There is no occasion to hold that a period for review by the Full Commission should be governed by one rule, i. e., that expiration on a Sunday would require filing on the Saturday before, if indeed not on the Friday before since Saturdays are now generally considered holidays, while a petitioner for certiorari to this court from a ruling of the Full Commission in the very controversy be allowed to file on Monday if the time for filing a certiorari expired1 on Sunday. Sec. 440.27, Florida Statutes,, F.S.A., Rule 4.5(c) and Rule 3.18, Florida Appellate Rules, 3,1 F.S.A.

Without any unfavorable criticism of the Commission’s effort to follow available authorities on their way to a decision of the question but with confidence that an interpretation harmonizing the procedures will redound to clarification and simplification we hold that the application should be entertained and the cause, therefore, considered on its merits.

So the order of the Full Commission is quashed with directions to proceed accordingly.

DREW, C. J., and ROBERTS, O’CON-NELL and CALDWELL, JJ., concur.

TERRELL, J., dissents with opinion.

THORNAL, J., dissents and concurs with TERRELL, J.

TERRELL, Justice

(dissenting).

I would not recede from the well established authority on this subject. See Simmons v. Hanne, 50 Fla. 267, 39 So. 77.

THORNAL, J., concurs.

Dissent
TERRELL, Justice

TERRELL, Justice

(dissenting).

I would not recede from the well established authority on this subject. See Simmons v. Hanne, 50 Fla. 267, 39 So. 77.

THORNAL, J., concurs.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Stockslager v. Daly Aluminum Prods., Inc., 246 So. 2d 97 (Fla. 1971)
    …cRae, we take this opportunity to recede from the rationale of that case insofar as it relates to computations of time, and to expressly approve the rationale of the District Court in the instant case. In Dade County Planning Department v. Ransing, 158 So. 2d 528, (Fla.1963), involving timeliness of an application for review filed with the Industrial Relations Commission on the 21st day after the entry of the order of the Deputy, where the 20th day fell on a Sunday, we said, “* * * as a matter of constructio…
  • Concepcion v. S. Gen. Builders, Inc., 219 So. 2d 425 (Fla. 1969)
    …in twenty days after delivery of the notice and no transcript was filed within the time required by F.I.C. Rule 6(b), the proceeding was subject to dismissal by the Full Commission. We have not overlooked Dade County Planning Department v. Ransing, 158 So. 2d 528 (Fla.1963). It was there held that Fla.App.Rule 3.18, regarding computation of time, applied to the period establishing the finality of workmen’s compensation orders. It was held that when the last day of a twenty day period fell on a Sunday, then,…

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