Hughes v. Denny's Restaurant

328 So. 2d 830, 1976 Fla. LEXIS 4278
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJanuary 21, 1976
Docket46638
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 328 So. 2d 830 (Hughes v. Denny's Restaurant) 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
Hughes v. Denny's Restaurant, 328 So. 2d 830, 1976 Fla. LEXIS 4278 (Fla. 1976).

Opinion

328 So.2d 830 (1976)

Helen Ruth HUGHES, Petitioner,
v.
DENNY'S RESTAURANT et al., Respondents.

No. 46638.

Supreme Court of Florida.

January 21, 1976.
Rehearing Denied April 13, 1976.

*832 Paul R. Stern of Stern & Bernardini, Daytona Beach, for petitioner.

E.J. Gierach of Gierach & Ewald, Orlando, for respondents.

BOYD, Justice.

This cause is before us on petition for writ of certiorari to the Florida Industrial Relations Commission. We have jurisdiction pursuant to Article V, Section 3(b)(3), Florida Constitution.

The claimant, petitioner herein, seeks review of an Order of the Industrial Relations Commission dated December 10, 1974, which reversed an earlier Order of the Judge of Industrial Claims holding that petitioner had a 75% permanent partial disability. The facts of the case are as follows.

Petitioner originally sustained an industrial slip-and-fall accident on May 30, 1970; subsequently, an injury was discovered with damage between the C-5 and C-6 interspaces of the spine, as well as some problems in the low back area which do not concern us sub judice. The case was pending before the original Judge of Industrial Claims for a lengthy period of time, during which the principal treating physician, through new diagnostic techniques, identified a condition located at C-4 and C-5 of which he had not been previously aware. This is an entirely different condition from the condition at C-5 and C-6 which had been identified and treated previously. The doctor retracted his former opinions as to cause and origin, as well as his former opinions as to the believability of the patient. That original Judge of Industrial Claims then ruled the claim to be compensable, a ruling reversed by the Industrial Relations Commission on the ground that Rule 3 (presently Rule 8) had been violated in that testimony had been taken more than 90 days after the first hearing. The Respondent-Commission directed a new Judge of Industrial Claims to enter an order based solely upon testimony taken in the first 90 days. The new Judge complied in what is referred to by the Respondent-Commission as "the first order," wherein petitioner's claim was dismissed because the claimant's cervical pathology at C-5-6 could not be causally related to the industrial accident. Thereafter, the claimant filed her petition to modify in accordance with the principles outlined in Sauder v. Coast Cities Coaches, Inc.[1] Once again the principal treating physician appeared and testified (1) that there are two different problems in the cervical area of petitioner's spine, one of which he had previously identified at C-5 and C-6; (2) that on the basis of a newly discovered diagnostic technique he was able to identify a problem at C-4 and C-5 which he did not originally believe existed; and (3) that, now, he could establish a causal relationship with the condition at C-4 and C-5 and the industrial accident on the basis of the history related by claimant, which history at that point became logical in light of the newly discovered diagnostic technique. The new Judge of Industrial Claims then entered what the Respondent-Commission refers to as "the second order," which was an order on a petition to modify and which held the claim to be compensable. In this "second order" the Judge of Industrial Claims specifically found as follows:

"1. The mandate of the Industrial Relations Commission required that the *833 only evidence to be considered at the time of entry of the order of January 30, 1974, was the evidence received at the hearing of September 17, 1971, or within a ninety (90) day period thereafter. No consideration whatsoever was given to any evidence received or heard and appearing in the record subsequent to the ninety (90) day period commencing September 17, 1971.
"2. In his deposition of September 7, 1971, Dr. Jules S. Neviaser testified that he noted degenerative changes with auto-fusion or sound change of fusion between the intervertebral bodies of C-5 and C-6. He repeated several times that he was concerned about degenerative disease at the level of C-5 and C-6, that is the disc space between those two levels. He also indicated treatment for her for the low back including major surgery. He thought the patient needed the care of a psychiatrist and referred her to one. He stated there was no way he could relate the injuries he found, that is the injuries between C-5 and C-6 and the injuries of the low back to the industrial injury. It was on this basis that the order herein sought to be modified was entered. The doctor never mentioned any injury to the disc space between C-4 and C-5.
"3. In the testimony before the undersigned Judge on Friday, May 17, 1974, with a cine-radiograph introduced into evidence, it appeared that a new evidentiary factor was first discovered in January, 1972. That this evidentiary factor showed a serious injury requiring surgery at the level of C-4 — C-5, one level above the level for which the doctor thought he was treating the patient. That with all diligence and with the extent of medical knowledge available in the community and the extent of medical facilities available to this doctor in the community at that time Dr. Neviaser testified that he could not have determined or discovered the injury at C-4 — C-5 earlier than January, 1972. ...
"4. The undersigned finds that the claimant has been temporarily and totally disabled from the date of the accident, May 30, 1970 to the last time she was examined by Dr. Neviaser on April 17, 1974 as a result of the neck injury to C-4 — C-5 interspace.
"5. I further find that the injury to claimant's back is a totally unrelated condition to that of the injury to the claimant's neck which was sustained in this industrial accident and is not compensable. The physician is directed to refile his medical statements eliminating any treatment which was for the back.
"6. I accept as true the professional opinion of Dr. J.S. Neviaser as per his testimony before me on May 17, 1974, that the condition for which he treated this patient was an instability of the cervical spine at the level of C-4 — C-5 requiring surgery and that the injury was within reasonable medical probability caused by the claimant's industrial accident." (E.S.)

Based on these findings the Judge of Industrial Claims granted petitioner's requested modification with certain exclusions.

The Respondent-Commission reversed the "second order," holding that the "first order," which held that there was no causal relationship between these injuries and the industrial accident, established the law of the case and that, therefore, it was unnecessary to consider the merits of the claim. It is from this order of reversal that this petition for certiorari is brought.

Section 440.28, Florida Statutes, reads in pertinent part as follows:

"... upon the application of any party in interest, on the ground of a change in condition or because of a mistake in a determination of fact the division may... at any time prior to two years after ... an order rejecting a claim ..., review a *834 compensation case ... and ... issue a new compensation order ..."

We recognize that it has been held that the "mistake of fact" contemplated by this section is one made by either the deputy commissioner or by the Respondent-Commission.[2]

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Bluebook (online)
328 So. 2d 830, 1976 Fla. LEXIS 4278, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hughes-v-dennys-restaurant-fla-1976.