Hayward Trucking, Inc. v. Aetna Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 09 April 1985
• Docket Number: No. AZ-117,AZ-117
• Citation: 466 So.2d 437,10 Fla. L. Weekly 896
• Parties: 10 Fla. L. Weekly 896 HAYWARD TRUCKING, INC., and Nationwide Insurance Company, Appellants, v. AETNA INSURANCE COMPANY, and Clifford A. Joyner, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 437

466 So.2d 437

10 Fla. L. Weekly 896

HAYWARD TRUCKING, INC., and Nationwide Insurance Company, Appellants, v. AETNA INSURANCE COMPANY, and Clifford A. Joyner, Appellee.

No. AZ-117.

District Court of Appeal of Florida,

First District.

April 9, 1985.

Jack A. Langdon, P.A., Gainesville, for appellants.

Bruce R. Kaster of Green, Simmons, Green, Hightower & Gray, P.A., Ocala, for appellee.

MILLS, Judge.

This appeal and cross appeal arise from a continuing dispute between workers' compensation insurance carriers over benefits liability. We affirm.

Nationwide Insurance Company (Nationwide) was the employer's carrier on 15 September 1981 when the claimant, Joyner, injured his back in an industrial accident. Aetna Insurance Company (Aetna) was the carrier on 24 May 1982 when Joyner had a second industrial accident.

In Hayward Trucking, Inc. v. Aetna Insurance Co., 445 So.2d 385 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984), this Court reversed the deputy's finding that Nationwide was responsible for temporary total disability and medical benefits following the second accident. The Court found Aetna responsible.

Following that appeal, Joyner contended he reached maximum medical improvement (MMI) on 17 June 1983 with a 15% permanent impairment of the body as a whole. He sought wage loss benefits from that date, attorney's fees, and continuing medical benefits.

Aetna contended any permanent impairment was caused entirely by the 1981 accident and it was not responsible for benefits after 22 June 1982, the date it contended Joyner fully recovered from all effects of the 1982 accident. Alternatively, Aetna disclaimed responsibility for benefits due after 17 June 1983.

Nationwide countered that Joyner had not yet reached MMI and Aetna remained responsible for temporary disability and medical benefits. Nationwide also contended that, upon MMI, any benefits due are the result of the 1982 accident and therefore Aetna's responsibility.

Dr. Jones, an orthopedic surgeon who treated Joyner regularly after the second accident, was deposed in April 1984. He opined Joyner reached MMI on 17 June 1983 with a 15% permanent impairment of the body as a whole, the cause of the disability being a bulging disc. In his earlier depositions, Jones had refused to apportion disability between the 1981 and 1982 accidents. He did, however, testify that the 1982 accident was "simply a reinjury" and that the 1981 accident caused the primary injury to the disc. He testified that injured discs sometimes would not bulge for periods of six months up to two years.

In a 1983 deposition, Dr. Koerner, an osteopath, testified he suspected a disc problem when he examined Joyner after the 1981 accident.

In the order here appealed, the deputy found Joyner reached MMI on 17 June 1983 with a 15% permanent impairment of the body as a whole as a result of the 1981 accident. He found Joyner entitled to wage loss and medical benefits at Nationwide's expense from MMI and ordered Nationwide to reimburse Aetna for benefits paid...