Osorio v. K & D ERECTORS, INC.

882 So. 2d 347, 2003 WL 2007812
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedSeptember 12, 2003
Docket2010756 and 2010813
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 882 So. 2d 347 (Osorio v. K & D ERECTORS, INC.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Osorio v. K & D ERECTORS, INC., 882 So. 2d 347, 2003 WL 2007812 (Ala. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

882 So.2d 347 (2003)

Salvador OSORIO
v.
K & D ERECTORS, INC., et al.
Gonzalez Law Firm, L.L.C.
v.
Salvador Osorio and K & D Erectors, Inc.

2010756 and 2010813.

Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama.

May 2, 2003.
Order Overruling Rehearing September 12, 2003.

*348 Neil Taylor, Jr., Russellville, for Salvador T. Osorio.

George M. Vaughn of Paden & Paden, Birmingham, for Gonzalez Law Firm, L.L.C.

Keith J. Pflaum and Kathryn L. Harman of Porterfield, Harper & Mills, P.A., Birmingham, for K & D Erectors, Inc.

YATES, Presiding Judge.

Salvador Osorio sued his employer, K & D Erectors, Inc., on May 24, 2000, in the Shelby Circuit Court seeking to recover workers' compensation benefits for injuries he sustained during the course of his employment with K & D. The complaint was filed on behalf of Osorio by Marco Gonzalez of the Gonzalez Law Firm, L.L.C. The complaint was not verified and no application to employ an attorney was filed.

Osorio also sued K & D in the Colbert Circuit Court on November 28, 2000, seeking to recover workers' compensation benefits for the work-related injuries made the basis of the Shelby County action. This complaint was filed on behalf of Osorio by attorney Neil Taylor, Jr. This complaint was verified and was accompanied by an application to employ Taylor as Osorio's attorney, which the trial court granted.

Osorio filed a document entitled "Declaration of Attorney Authorization" in the Shelby Circuit Court on December 7, 2000, stating that Taylor was his "exclusive and only" attorney and that neither Gonzalez nor any member of the Gonzalez Law Firm was authorized to represent him. Gonzalez and the Gonzalez Law Firm[1], on December 12, 2000, filed, in the Shelby Circuit Court, a claim and lien for legal services pursuant to § 34-3-61, Ala.Code 1975, upon all proceeds received by Osorio as a result of his action seeking recovery for his on-the-job injuries suffered while employed by K & D. Gonzalez sought a 15% attorney fee and the reimbursement of expenses he had incurred while he represented Osorio. On December 18, 2000, Osorio's sister, Minerva T. Osorio, filed an affidavit in response to Gonzalez's claim for an attorney fee. On January 30, 2001, Gonzalez filed an application to employ an attorney seeking to represent Osorio in the Shelby County workers' compensation action, and an addendum to the claim for an attorney fee.

*349 On December 18, 2000, Osorio filed in the Colbert Circuit Court a motion for attendant-care expenses, alleging that as a result of his workplace accident he was blind, his left leg was partially paralyzed, and he had no use of his left arm and that he was in need of attendant care. On December 20, 2000, Osorio moved to have the Shelby County action transferred to Colbert County. This motion was denied. Subsequently, on February 15, 2001, Osorio moved to have the Colbert County action transferred to Shelby County. On February 21, 2001, Osorio filed in the Shelby Circuit Court the motion seeking attendant-care expenses. The Colbert County action was transferred to Shelby County on March 1, 2001; the cases were consolidated for purposes of discovery and trial.

Following an ore tenus proceeding, the trial court, on December 28, 2001, entered an order finding Osorio to be permanently and totally disabled; denying Osorio's request for attendant-care expenses or additional home-care expenses for in-home health-care professionals; awarding Taylor an attorney fee of 3% from Osorio's recovery; and denying Gonzalez's claim for an attorney fee.[2] Both Osorio and the Gonzalez Law Firm appeal following the denial of their postjudgment motions.

This case is governed by the 1992 Workers' Compensation Act. This Act provides that an appellate court's review of the standard of proof and its consideration of other legal issues shall be without a presumption of correctness. § 25-5-81(e)(1), Ala.Code 1975. It further provides that when an appellate court reviews a trial court's findings of fact, the judgment entered on those findings will not be reversed if the findings are supported by substantial evidence. § 25-5-81(e)(2). Our supreme court "has defined the term `substantial evidence,' as it is used in § 12-21-12(d), to mean `evidence of such weight and quality that fair-minded persons in the exercise of impartial judgment can reasonably infer the existence of the fact sought to be proved.'" Ex parte Trinity Indus., Inc., 680 So.2d 262, 268 (Ala.1996), quoting West v. Founders Life Assurance Co. of Florida, 547 So.2d 870, 871 (Ala.1989). This court has also concluded: "The new Act did not alter the rule that this court does not weigh the evidence before the trial court." Edwards v. Jesse Stutts, Inc., 655 So.2d 1012, 1014 (Ala.Civ.App.1995).

Osorio's Claim for Attendant-Care Expenses

Osorio was employed by K & D as a construction worker. On December 14, 1998, Osorio fell approximately 30 feet from a roof and suffered a severe closed-head injury. Osorio suffered numerous other injuries, including the loss of the use of his left arm; partial paralysis of his left foot; and multiple fractures of the skull, transverse process, and right ribs. He was rendered legally blind and deaf in his right ear, and he suffered severe cognitive and language deficits because of the fall. It is undisputed that Osorio was rendered permanently and totally disabled as a result of his workplace accident.

Osorio lives with family members who help care for him; his family members assist him in grooming, personal hygiene, preparing food, bathing, and dressing. Osorio argues that his family is entitled to receive $400 per week in attendant-care expenses from K & D as reimbursement for caring for him. K & D argues that the Workers' Compensation Act does not require the payment of such expenses.

*350 The trial court specifically found that the Act does not provide for the payment of attendant-care expenses to an employee's family for assistance with the employee's daily living. Section 25-5-77(a), Ala.Code 1975, provides, in part:

"[T]he employer ... shall pay the actual cost of the repair, refitting, or replacement of artificial members damaged as the result of an accident arising out of and in the course of employment, and the employer ... shall pay ... reasonably necessary medical and surgical treatment and attention, physical rehabilitation, medicine, medical and surgical supplies, crutches, artificial members, and other apparatus as the result of an accident."

Section 25-5-77(a), Ala.Code 1975, also requires the employer to reimburse hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, licensed outpatient rehabilitation facilities, and accredited diagnostic facilities for treatment provided or services rendered to the employee.

In Ex parte City of Guntersville, 728 So.2d 611 (Ala.1998), the employee, a policeman, was rendered a paraplegic after being shot in the back while on duty. The employee purchased a van and requested the City to reimburse him for the purchase price of the van. The City agreed to install a wheelchair lift, but refused to reimburse the employee for the full purchase price of the van. The issue as outlined by the supreme court was whether § 25-5-77(a), Ala.Code 1975, required the City to furnish the disabled employee with a van. In determining that the City was not required to reimburse the employee for the purchase price of the van, our supreme court stated:

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Related

McCartney v. McCartney
11 So. 3d 213 (Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, 2007)
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989 So. 2d 1074 (Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, 2006)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
882 So. 2d 347, 2003 WL 2007812, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/osorio-v-k-d-erectors-inc-alacivapp-2003.