Georgia Pacific Corp. v. Butler

District Court of Appeal of Florida

Georgia Pacific Corp. v. Butler

438 So. 2d 916, 1983 Fla. App. LEXIS 22410

CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida

DecidedSeptember 29, 1983

DocketNo. AQ-322

StatusPublished

This text of 438 So. 2d 916 (Georgia Pacific Corp. v. Butler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Georgia Pacific Corp. v. Butler, 438 So. 2d 916, 1983 Fla. App. LEXIS 22410 (Fla. Ct. App. 1983).

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Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Contending that its handling of this workers’ compensation claim is “lacking in the display of unreasonableness required [917]*917for a showing of malice, oppression, or willful, wanton, or reckless disregard of the rights of the claimant,” Exceptional Children’s Home & Nursery, Inc. v. Fortuna, 414 So.2d 1130, 1131 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982), the self-insured employer urges that we reverse the deputy’s order awarding “bad faith” attorney’s fees pursuant to section 440.34(2)(b), Florida Statutes (1979).

We affirm. Four episodes mar the employer’s handling of this claim: the employer ended temporary total benefits by declaring MMI, of which there was then no evidence; then implausibly misconstrued, as suggesting a medical consultation already inconclusively gotten, the Division specialist’s recommendation of a medical consultation on temporary partial disability; again resisted, some months later, claimant’s renewed claim for medical care; and, after finally capitulating on the medical care issue, waited more than two weeks to confirm that claimant’s disc surgery had validated his year-long claims of continuing pain, so finally paying past due benefits. Considered individually these episodes may not seem extraordinary. But in cumulative effect they represent a year’s betting by the servicing agent that claimant was of sound body when in fact he was not. The deputy could well have found this stonewalling offensive to the standards enunciated in Florida Erection Services, Inc. v. McDonald, 395 So.2d 203 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981) and its progeny, most particularly Holiday Care Center v. Scriven, 418 So.2d 322 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982), and sufficient to constitute “bad faith.”

AFFIRMED.

ROBERT P. SMITH, Jr., and BOOTH and WIGGINTON, JJ., concur.

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PER CURIAM.

Contending that its handling of this workers’ compensation claim is “lacking in the display of unreasonableness required [917]*917for a showing of malice, oppression, or willful, wanton, or reckless disregard of the rights of the claimant,” Exceptional Children’s Home & Nursery, Inc. v. Fortuna, 414 So.2d 1130, 1131 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982), the self-insured employer urges that we reverse the deputy’s order awarding “bad faith” attorney’s fees pursuant to section 440.34(2)(b), Florida Statutes (1979).

We affirm. Four episodes mar the employer’s handling of this claim: the employer ended temporary total benefits by declaring MMI, of which there was then no evidence; then implausibly misconstrued, as suggesting a medical consultation already inconclusively gotten, the Division specialist’s recommendation of a medical consultation on temporary partial disability; again resisted, some months later, claimant’s renewed claim for medical care; and, after finally capitulating on the medical care issue, waited more than two weeks to confirm that claimant’s disc surgery had validated his year-long claims of continuing pain, so finally paying past due benefits. Considered individually these episodes may not seem extraordinary. But in cumulative effect they represent a year’s betting by the servicing agent that claimant was of sound body when in fact he was not. The deputy could well have found this stonewalling offensive to the standards enunciated in Florida Erection Services, Inc. v. McDonald, 395 So.2d 203 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981) and its progeny, most particularly Holiday Care Center v. Scriven, 418 So.2d 322 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982), and sufficient to constitute “bad faith.”

AFFIRMED.

ROBERT P. SMITH, Jr., and BOOTH and WIGGINTON, JJ., concur.

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Bluebook (online)

438 So. 2d 916, 1983 Fla. App. LEXIS 22410, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/georgia-pacific-corp-v-butler-fladistctapp-1983.

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