Boynton Landscape v. Dickinson

• Decision Date: 28 February 2000
• Docket Number: No. 1D98-4148.,1D98-4148.
• Citation: 752 So.2d 1236
• Parties: BOYNTON LANDSCAPE and Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., Appellants, v. James DICKINSON, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

752 So.2d 1236

BOYNTON LANDSCAPE and Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., Appellants, v. James DICKINSON, Appellee.

No. 1D98-4148.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

February 28, 2000.

Randall T. Porcher and James C. Byrd, Jr., of Rigell, Leal & Ring, P.A., West Palm Beach, for Appellants.

Richard A. Kupfer, West Palm Beach; Jerry J. Goodmark of Goodmark, Goodmark & Goldstone, P.A., West Palm Beach, for Appellee.

WEBSTER, J.

In this workers' compensation case, the employer and carrier seek review of an order directing them to calculate the social security offset in the future using a weekly social security benefit of $60.81; and to refund to the claimant all social security offsets taken between October 7, 1986, and January 8, 1998. Because we conclude that the claimant's claim seeking recalculation of the social security offset and a refund of all offsets previously taken is barred by the doctrine of res judicata, we reverse.

In 1979, the claimant sustained a work-related injury. He was accepted as permanently and totally disabled in 1982. He began receiving social security disability benefits in 1980. In 1986, the employer and carrier began taking a social security offset. The claimant filed claims for attendant care benefits in 1987, 1989 and 1994, and merits hearings were held on those claims. In 1997, for the first time, the claimant filed a claim seeking recalculation of the social security offset and a refund of all offsets taken since October 7, 1986, along with another claim seeking attendant care benefits. The employer and carrier controverted the claim seeking recalculation and reimbursement of social security offsets, asserting, among other things, that it was barred by the doctrine of res judicata. The judge of compensation claims rejected the res judicata defense and, finding that the amount of the offset should have been based on a weekly social security benefit of $60.81 instead of the figure of $65.86 used by the employer and carrier, ordered that the employer and carrier refund to the claimant the entire amount offset between October 7, 1986, and January 8, 1998. This appeal follows.

The employer and carrier argue that the claim seeking recalculation of the social security offset and a refund of all offsets previously taken is barred by the doctrine of res judicata because it was ripe for adjudication at three prior merits hearings, and should have been raised then. We agree.

As a general rule, piecemeal litigation of mature claims is no more permissible in workers' compensation cases than in civil litigation. If a merits hearing occurs and mature claims are not litigated, the claims are considered waived, and later litigation is precluded by application of the doctrine of res judicata. E.g., Artigas v. Winn Dixie Stores, Inc., 622 So.2d 1346 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993)

; Department of Transportation v. Greene, 599 So.2d 1368 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992); Florida Power & Light Co. v. Haycraft, 421 So.2d 674 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982). Here, the claimant did not file his claim that he was entitled to recalculation of the social security offset and a refund of all offsets previously taken because the employer and carrier did not have sufficient information from the Social Security Administration when it began taking an offset in 1986 until 1997, more than ten years after the fact. Notwithstanding the long delay in filing his claim and the three intervening merits hearings, the claimant maintains that the claim is not barred because the social security offset is, like a...