Jackson v. Computer Sci. Raytheon

• Decision Date: 27 April 2010
• Docket Number: No. 1D09-5985.,1D09-5985.
• Citation: 36 So.3d 754
• Parties: Kenneth L. JACKSON, Petitioner,v.COMPUTER SCIENCE RAYTHEON and CNA Insurance Company, Respondents.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

36 So.3d 754

Kenneth L. JACKSON, Petitioner,v.COMPUTER SCIENCE RAYTHEON and CNA Insurance Company, Respondents.

No. 1D09-5985.

District Court of Appeal of Florida,

First District.

April 27, 2010.

Bill McCabe, Longwood, for Petitioner.

Richard M. Margadonna of Moran, Kidd, Lyons, Johnson & Berkson, P.A., Orlando, for Respondents.

HAWKES, C.J.

The Claimant petitions for certiorari review of an order of the Judge of Compensation Claims (JCC) granting, in part, the Employer/Carrier's (E/C) motion to compel production of certain financial documents. The parties do not contest that the compelled production of irrelevant financial documents is a departure from the essential requirements of law. Therefore, the question pending before us is the relevancy of the requested documents.

Claimant makes two arguments concerning the JCC's ordered production of the contested documents. The first is simply that the financial documents are not relevant to the issues pending before the JCC. The second is that the JCC can never order the production of financial documents without first holding a hearing and making specific findings of relevancy. Because we conclude the financial records at issue are irrelevant to the pending legal issues as a matter of law, we grant the petition. Accordingly, it is unnecessary to address the second argument as to whether a hearing must always be held prior to ordering the production of financial documents even when relevancy may be readily apparent.

FACTS

In August 2009, Claimant filed a petition for benefits (PFB) challenging the E/C's attempt to recover overpaid benefits. On the pretrial stipulation, the E/C claimed it under-calculated a Social Security offset. Claimant responded that the offset should not be recalculated making various equitable arguments including; laches, estoppel, and detrimental reliance on the payments.

Specifically responding to Claimant's defenses (avoidances), the E/C filed a request for production of various financial documents, including accounts held jointly by Claimant and his wife. Claimant objected to the requests as either irrelevant or already provided. The E/C then moved to compel production of the documents, arguing Claimant's financial circumstances were relevant to the case given Claimant's purported avoidances especially by way of detrimental reliance. In response, Claimant argued the request invaded his privacy and necessitated an evidentiary hearing pursuant to this court's holding in Spry v. Professional Employer Plans, 985 So.2d 1187 (Fla. 1st DCA 2008) (holding JCC departed from essential requirements of law by requiring disclosure of financial documents without considering evidence regarding relevancy of information). Without an evidentiary hearing the JCC granted the E/C's motion in part, ordering Claimant to produce documents on joint accounts held by him and his wife.

ANALYSIS

This court may grant a petition for certiorari when an interlocutory order departs from the essential requirements of law and causes irreparable harm which cannot be remedied on appeal from a final order. See Commonwealth Land Title Ins. Co. v. Higgins, 975 So.2d 1169, 1176 (Fla. 1st DCA 2008). Certiorari jurisdiction does not arise unless the court first establishes irreparable harm. Id. The compulsion of private financial information-if irrelevant to the legal issues in dispute-is the kind of harm against which certiorari review guards. See Spry, 985 So.2d at 1188-89. Thus, our analysis hinges on whether Claimant's private financial information is relevant to the E/C's attempt to recoup perceived overpayments based on an allegedly miscalculated Social Security Disability offset.

Workers' compensation is purely a creature of statute. McDade v. Palm Beach County Sch. Dist., 898 So.2d 126, 127 (Fla. 1st DCA 2005). Under the Workers' Compensation Law, the various rights to offsets and recoupment available to the parties have been established by the Legislature as statutory (legal) rights. See id. at 128. Further, this court has consistently interpreted a carrier's right to assert a Social Security Disability offset, and the additional right to recoup any overpayments of compensation made, as issues of law to be decided on statutory and legal grounds. See, e.g.,Monroe v. Publix # 148, 790 So.2d 1249, 1252 (Fla. 1st DCA 2001) (harmonizing carrier's statutory right to recoupment of overpayment with legal prohibition against carrier's implementation of retroactive...