City of Plantation v. Roberts

342 So. 2d 69
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedDecember 22, 1976
Docket47405
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 342 So. 2d 69 (City of Plantation v. Roberts) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Plantation v. Roberts, 342 So. 2d 69 (Fla. 1976).

Opinion

342 So.2d 69 (1976)

CITY OF PLANTATION and Midland Insurance Company, Petitioners,
v.
Robert L. ROBERTS and Industrial Relations Commission, State of Florida, Respondents.

No. 47405.

Supreme Court of Florida.

December 22, 1976.
Rehearing Denied February 28, 1977.

*70 Edwin H. Underwood and Albert A. Gordon, Underwood, Gillis, Karcher, Reinert & Gordon, Miami, for petitioners.

Robert H. Gregory, Coral Gables, and Donald F. Harrington, Miami, for respondents.

HATCHETT, Justice.

Respondent Roberts was injured while operating a police launch in a canal within the corporate limits of petitioner city. Mr. Roberts was a policeman employed by petitioner, and was acting within the scope of his employment on July 19, 1973, when he was pelted with coconuts which five children threw at him from the canal bank. He filed a claim for workmen's compensation for injuries sustained from the coconuts. His claim was met with a motion to dismiss on the ground that the judge of industrial claims lacked jurisdiction. The theory of the motion was that unspecified federal law created a remedy for an injury of this kind, and also, even before the enactment of Section 440.09(2), Florida Statutes (1975), ousted state tribunals of jurisdiction over accidents occurring on navigable waters. The judge of industrial claims rejected this theory, without deciding whether the canal should be classified as navigable waters, and, on appeal, the Industrial Relations Commission affirmed the denial of the motion to dismiss. By petition for writ of certiorari, the city and its insuror bring the question here. We conclude that the judge of industrial claims properly exercised jurisdiction and deny the petition for writ of certiorari.

As a policeman employed by petitioner city, respondent's principal duties were those of a radar officer in the traffic division. In addition, respondent was one of "about eleven people that" operated the police launch "from time to time. Whoever happened to be available, and knew anything about operating the outboard would get it." (T 23). On this basis, respondent had manned the outboard motorboat on 12 to 15 occasions in the course of more than two and a half years' employment by the police department (which was preceded by two years in the police reserves). Respondent Roberts was out in the police launch alone, investigating a sunken boat, when he was injured.

The city relies on Atlas Iron and Metal Co. v. Hesser, 177 So.2d 199 (Fla. 1965), in arguing that the judge of industrial claims had no jurisdiction over respondent's claim. The Atlas Iron and Metal Co. case arose out of an accident which occurred while the employee Hesser was engaged in converting certain naval landing *71 craft into barges for civilian use. The vessels were afloat on navigable waters, moored in a canal. Hesser spent a substantial portion of his working day on land but was aboard ship when he was injured. The question for decision was whether Hesser was entitled to workmen's compensation benefits or whether he was covered by the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. § 903 et seq., and the Court decided that he was entitled to the benefits of the federal legislation, and therefore not entitled to benefits afforded by the Workmen's Compensation Law. Section 440.01 et seq., Florida Statutes (1975). The holding in Atlas Iron and Metal Co. v. Hesser, supra, rests on the exclusivity provision of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. § 905, and does not control here because the claimant in the present case has no possibility of recovery under the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act,[1] which specifically excludes from its coverage any "officer or employee ... of any State ... government, or of any political subdivision thereof." 33 U.S.C.A. § 903(a)(2) as amended 1972.

The present case resembles more closely the case of Sikes v. Fort Myers Construction Co., 191 So.2d 265 (Fla. 1966), in which a tugboat operator was injured while securing a fuel barge to a dredge. The dredging operation was part of the creation of a series of canals in what was to become a residential development. The Court distinguished the Atlas Iron and Metal Co. case in these words:

Both Atlas Iron and Metal Co. and Calbeck [v. Travelers Insurance Co., 370 U.S. 114, 82 S.Ct. 1196, 8 L.Ed.2d 368 (1962)] dealt with the problem of whether a state workmen's compensation act or the Federal Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Act was controlling. Here the dispute concerns the problem of the applicability of the Florida Workmen's Compensation Law or the Jones Act. There are many differences between the Jones Act and the Longshoremen's Act, the chief of them being that the former necessitates proof of negligence for recovery, while the latter is a compassionate statute from which much of our Workmen's Compensation Act was drawn. The jurisdictional aspects of the two federal acts also differ; therefore Atlas Iron and Metal Co. cannot be decisive in the case sub judice. 191 So.2d at 266 (footnotes omitted)

The Sikes court then noted that the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 688,[2] conferred a cause of action only on "any seaman" and declared that Sikes was not a seaman because "the `ship' was a dredge[3] ... [and Sikes] slept and took his meals on shore and was paid on an hourly basis." 191 So.2d at 266. The Sikes decision established as a matter *72 of Florida law that workmen's compensation benefits were available to an otherwise eligible workman, who sustained an injury in a man-made canal communicating with navigable waters, so long as the accident fell outside the purview of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act and the workman did not qualify as a "seaman" within the meaning of the Jones Act.[4] Subsequent decisions of this Court have in no way eroded the authority of the holding in Sikes v. Fort Myers Construction Co., supra, in this regard.

It is therefore appropriate to consider whether respondent Roberts is a "seaman" within the intendment of the Jones Act.[5] The master of a vessel, no less than the crew he commands, may be a "seaman" within the meaning of this Act. South Chicago Coal & Dock Co. v. Bassett, 309 U.S. 251, 60 S.Ct. 544, 84 L.Ed. 732 (1940). But in order to qualify as a "seaman" under the Jones Act, a person must be more or less permanently attached to the vessel. Owens v. Diamond M. Drilling Co., 487 F.2d 74, reh. den., 487 F.2d 1401 (5th Cir.1973); Dugas v. Pelican Const. Co., 481 F.2d 773 (5th Cir.1973) cert. den. sub nom., 414 U.S. 1093, 94 S.Ct. 724, 38 L.Ed.2d 550; McKie v. Diamond Marine Co., 204 F.2d 132 (5th Cir.1953).

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342 So. 2d 69, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-plantation-v-roberts-fla-1976.