Gibson v. Minute Maid Corp.

251 So. 2d 260, 1971 Fla. LEXIS 3469
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJune 30, 1971
DocketNo. 40713
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 251 So. 2d 260 (Gibson v. Minute Maid Corp.) 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
Gibson v. Minute Maid Corp., 251 So. 2d 260, 1971 Fla. LEXIS 3469 (Fla. 1971).

Opinions

ADKINS, Justice.

We have for review by petition for writ of certiorari an order of the Florida Industrial Commission reversing an order of the Judge of Industrial Claims.

Claimant, an employee of respondent Minute Maid Corporation, injured his back [261]*261while attempting to pick up the wheels of a trailer which was loaded with fruit. While attempting to set the trailer in the fifth wheel of the tractor, claimant experienced a sharp pain in the lower part of his back.

A hearing was held on December 9, 1969. The Judge of Industrial Claims found that claimant had suffered an injury by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment and that he suffered a IS per cent permanent partial disability rating of the body as a whole on an organic basis, but that claimant was permanently and totally disabled based on a loss of wage-earning capacity and that respondents should pay compensation benefits for total disability. He further found that respondents were to continue to furnish remedial support and palliative medical treatment as the nature of the injury may require. Attorneys’ fees were awarded for representation of the claimant.

Upon review, the Industrial Relations Commission entered an order reversing the Judge of Industrial Claims, stating that the Commission could not find competent substantial evidence in the record to "support the judge’s findings that, as a result of the claimant’s 15 per cent permanent partial disability of the body as a whole, he is now totally disabled based on a loss of wage earning capacity.” The Commission stated that claimant had failed to establish his prima facie case of permanent total disability based on the evidence in the record.

Claimant, 42 years of age, was born in Alabama and completed the fifth grade. His entire work experience had been limited to that of a truck driver and a laborer, as he has no specialized skill, trade or training. Claimant has been unable to work since the date of the accident, but he did perform some light duties for the same employer as a truck driver for a period of eight weeks during the interval between January and May of 1967.

Claimant testified he was unable to perform light-type work due to the pain in his back and leg, and that he had not even done his own yard work since the accident; that he could drive for only short distances of two or three miles for his back would pain him if he sat in the same position for any length of time. Claimant stated that following his discharge by Dr. F. DeWitt Stanford, the treating physician, in January, 1968, he applied for work in several filling stations. Also, he applied to the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation of the State of Florida for assistance in retraining so that he could secure lighter work. Claimant was interviewed by the Rehabilitation Supervisor of the Industrial Relations Commission and indicated a willingness to undertake a pre-vocational evaluation, provided transportation could be furnished. Claimant made little or no attempt to secure employment after his deposition had been taken by respondents on June 13, 1968.

The medical evidence showed that claimant sustained a sprain of the lumbosacral joint and that he had a narrowing of the intervertebral disc between the fifth lumbar disc and the sacrum.

Dr. Stanford assigned to claimant a temporary total disability rating of 15 per cent of the body as a whole, which was confirmed by later examination by Dr. Bright McConnell, Jr. Dr. Stanford on at least ten occasions performed lumbosacral nerve blocks and on each occasion the symptoms of low back pain and radiating pain down the left lower extremity were relieved for a short period of time. The Judge of Industrial Claims indicated in his order that this fact indicated to him the presence of nerve root pressure or pathology.

During the period from the accident until the hearing, claimant complained of symptoms of back and leg pain, numbness and loss of sensation in the lower left ex-, tremity, weakness, nervousness, headaches and inability to sleep. Dr. Stanford attached a significance to the consistency of these complaints, stating that a patient with a functional overlay or psychic prob[262]*262lem would normally have changes in his complaints from one examination to the next. However, Dr. Stanford stated that the symptomatology of claimant stayed about the same all during the period of time that he treated him. There were some increases in pain from time to time, but the symptoms themselves varied very little and no significant changes of claimant’s symptoms were ever present. Dr. Stanford further stated that the patient with functional overlay would often change symptomatology, but the fact that claimant’s symptoms remained just about the same would have some significance to him that they might be based on organic pathology, although he could never pinpoint the orthopedic pathology claimant had, except for tenderness over the lumbo-sacral joint.

Dr. Stanford placed certain limitations on claimant strictly from a medical standpoint which included working no more than six to seven hours a day, lifting nothing over 85 pounds, doing no work that would require much stooping or bending or climbing stairs, and doing no work that would require climbing a ladder.

The Judge of Industrial Claims found that, although claimant was apparently poorly motivated and had a low pain threshold as a result of the injury, claimant could only walk short distances, was unable to drive his car for distances of more than two or three miles without resting or changing positions, could not perform work requiring much stooping, lifting, or climbing up stairs or ladders, and was unskilled and untrained for work other than a truck driver or laborer.

The Judge also found that claimant’s work history prior to the accident was excellent. He had worked for the same employer from seven to nine years with no .loss of time or work other than for several prior injuries. The Judge also found that there was no indication of any malingering on the part of claimant and pointed out that the treating physician accepted claimant’s continuing complaints as being real.

The Judge then found that claimant had established a prima facie case that he could not uninterruptedly do even light work owing to physical limitations, pain and discomfort due to the accidental injury and that the burden was then shifted to the respondents to show that claimant was able to perform certain types of work within his physical limitations and that such suitable work was available to him. There was no evidence presented that claimant could presently perform any given type of work or that there was suitable work available for him. The only evidence presented by respondents in this regard was testimony that claimant should be able to perform certain types of work. However, the Judge observed that these opinions were based upon objective physical findings and limitations and did not take into account the effects of claimant’s suggestive complaints of pain and the limiting effect on claimant’s work activity.

The only question involved is whether there is competent substantial evidence in accord with logic and reason to support the finding of permanent total disability based upon loss of wage-earning capacity when claimant received only a 15 per cent permanent partial disability rating of the body as a whole.

As stated in Harris v. Lenk, 224 So.2d 283 (Fla.1969):

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Bluebook (online)
251 So. 2d 260, 1971 Fla. LEXIS 3469, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gibson-v-minute-maid-corp-fla-1971.