Holl v. United Parcel Serv. & Liberty Mut. Ins.

• Decision Date: 09 June 2014
• Docket Number: No. 1D13–2745.,1D13–2745.
• Parties: Joseph P. HOLL, III, Appellant, v. UNITED PARCEL SERVICE and Liberty Mutual Insurance, Appellees.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

140 So.3d 1062

Joseph P. HOLL, III, Appellant,
v.
UNITED PARCEL SERVICE and Liberty Mutual Insurance, Appellees.

No. 1D13–2745.

District Court of Appeal of Florida,
First District.

June 9, 2014.

Bill McCabe, Longwood, and Michael Keough, New Port Richie, for Appellant.

[140 So.3d 1063]

Edward C. Duncan III of the Law Office of J. Christopher Norris, Fort Myers, for Appellees.

PER CURIAM.

Joseph P. Holl, a UPS tractor-trailer operator, appeals an order denying him temporary total disability (TTD) benefits beyond the 401–week limitation in section 440.15(3)(c), Florida Statutes (2002). The applicable portion of the 2002 version of section 440.15 at issue reads, in relevant part:

(3) PERMANENT IMPAIRMENT AND WAGE–LOSS BENEFITS—

(c) Duration of temporary impairment and supplemental income benefits.—The employee's eligibility for temporary benefits, impairment income benefits, and supplemental benefits terminates on the expiration of 401 weeks after the date of injury.

Holl argued that this provision does not apply to the temporary disability benefits at issue. The JCC ruled to the contrary, construing subsection (3)(c)—in conjunction with the remainder of section 440.15—as providing “that an injured worker is subject to a period of 401 weeks from the date of injury within which temporary benefits, impairment benefits and supplemental income benefits may be sought. Once such benefits are determined to be due, the worker is entitled to be paid up to a maximum of 104 weeks of these benefits, so long as the 401–week period has not expired.” Holl appeals this interpretation, one we review de novo. See Lombardi v. S. Wine & Spirits, 890 So.2d 1128, 1129 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004).

The interpretive question is whether TTD benefits are within the class of “temporary benefits” to which the 401–week limitation in the 2002 version of the statute applies. Although subsection (3)(c) is contained within a subsection entitled “PERMANENT IMPAIRMENT AND WAGE–LOSS BENEFITS,” it imposes the 401–week limitation on three categories of benefits: “temporary benefits, impairment income benefits, and supplemental benefits.” The latter two categories are mentioned explicitly in the titles to subsection (3)(a) (entitled “Impairment benefits”) and subsection (3)(b) (entitled “Supplemental benefits”).

The former is included in subsection (3)(c), whose title is “ Duration of temporary [sic] impairment and supplemental income benefits ” (we note that a comma between “temporary” and “impairment” apparently is missing). While the placement of a limitation on “temporary benefits” in this subsection may be somewhat out of place, we cannot simply ignore the Legislature's intent (as of 2002) that such benefits be limited to 401 weeks; that is what subsection (3)(c) directs, and TTD benefits are within the classification of “temporary benefits” to which the statute applies.

This plain reading of subsection (3)(c) is supported by the fact that because impairment and supplemental benefits are based on permanent medical impairments, though paid only temporarily, they are distinct categories within the three listed in the statute; they are, in that sense, not “temporary benefits.” Specifically, impairment benefits are payable after an injured worker reaches maximum medical improvement (MMI), and continue until the earlier of the worker's death or, for dates of accident prior to October 1, 2003, three weeks for each percentage point of impairment (or the expiration of 401 weeks after the accident). See§ 440.15(3)(a) 3., Fla. Stat. (2002); Ch. 03–412, § 18, at 3924, Laws of Fla. (changing basis for impairment benefits to two weeks per percentage point of impairment for each of the first ten percentage points, three weeks for

[140 So.3d 1064]

each of the...