Johnson v. R. H. Donnelly Co.

• Decision Date: 13 August 1981
• Docket Number: No. XX-316,XX-316
• Citation: 402 So.2d 518
• Parties: George JOHNSON, Appellant, v. R. H. DONNELLY COMPANY and Hartford Insurance Group, Appellees.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 518

402 So.2d 518

George JOHNSON, Appellant, v. R. H. DONNELLY COMPANY and Hartford Insurance Group, Appellees.

No. XX-316.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

Aug. 13, 1981.

Rehearing Denied Sept. 11, 1981.

Jerold Feuer, Miami, for appellant.

Mark L. Zientz, of Williams & Zientz, Coral Gables, for appellees.

Michael J. Rudicell, Lakeland, for amicus curiae Department of Labor and Employment Security.

Mary Ann Stiles, Boca Raton, for amicus curiae Associated Industries of Florida.

MILLS, Judge.

Appealing from the deputy commissioner's denial of a joint settlement agreement, appellant-claimant, George Johnson, challenges the constitutionality of Section 440.20(12)(a), Florida Statutes (1979), which prohibits the release of an employer-carrier's liability for future medical expenses. The grounds asserted in the challenge are that the statute unconstitutionally prohibits the parties from settling their differences, thus, violates the access to courts provision of the Florida Constitution and the impairment of contract provisions of both the Florida and the United States Constitutions. Finally, it is asserted that the statute is an improper exercise of the state's police power. We affirm the deputy commissioner's denial and hold that Section 440.20(12)(a), Florida Statutes (1979), is constitutional.

Three procedural notes need to be made. First, when the appeal was initially filed in this case, R. H. Donnelly Company and Hartford Insurance Group were appellants and George Johnson was appellee. Subsequently, Donnelly, Hartford and Johnson filed a joint brief urging the unconstitutionality of the statute. Then, shortly before oral argument was to be heard, the then-appellants filed a notice of voluntary dismissal and the then-appellee filed a motion for realignment of parties. We granted Johnson's motion for realignment of parties and redesignated Johnson as appellant and treated Donnelly and Hartford's motion as a motion for voluntary dismissal as appellants, granted it, and realigned and redesignated Donnelly and Hartford as appellees. Donnelly and Hartford chose not to participate in oral argument.

Second, upon determining the importance of the issue raised in this case to workers' compensation litigants in the state, this court issued an order inviting interested parties to participate in this appeal as amicus curiae. Associated Industries of Florida accepted that invitation and has assisted the court by filing a brief and presenting oral argument, taking the position that the subject statute was constitutional.

Third, the Department of Labor and Employment Security entered this cause as a party appellee pursuant to Section 440.271, Florida Statutes (Supp.1980). However, the language in Section 440.271 which provides that the Department shall be a party to appeals to this court from orders of deputy commissioners was enacted as Section 10 of Chapter 80-236, Laws of Florida, and was, by the terms of Section 29 of Chapter 80-236, Laws of Florida, applicable to all claims for injury arising out of accidents occurring on or after July 1, 1980. Since the date of accident in the instant case is August 20, 1979, we have determined that the Department is not properly a party appellee in this action. We have chosen to treat the Department's very helpful brief and its oral argument in support of the constitutionality of the statute as those of an amicus curiae.

ACCESS TO COURTS

Johnson urges that Section 440.20(12)(a) violates the access to courts provision of Article I, Section 21, of the Florida Constitution. We disagree.

Access to courts guarantees the continuation of common law causes of action and those causes of action may be altered only if there is a reasonable substitution which protects the persons protected by the common law remedy. Kluger v. White, 281 So.2d 1 (Fla.1973). In Kluger, the court specifically held:

Workmen's compensation abolished the right to sue one's employer in tort for a job-related injury, but provided adequate, sufficient, and even preferrable safeguards for an employee who is injured on the job, thus satisfying one of the exceptions to the rule against abolition of the right to redress for an injury. 281 So.2d at 4.

The subject statute does not deprive the parties of a cause of action or a right to sue without other remedy; it in no way deprives the employee of a right to compensation for a work-related accident, nor does it deprive the employer of the protection against suit in tort by the employee because of a work-related accident.

In Kluger, supra, the no-fault statute prohibited a right of action in tort for property damage in the amount of less than $550 and was held unconstitutional because it was a complete deprivation of the right of a party to sue for such injury and was not simply the replacement of one remedy for another. Similarly, in Walker & LaBerge, Inc. v. Halligan, 344 So.2d 239 (Fla.1977), the Florida Supreme Court struck down a statutory provision which prohibited a third party tortfeasor from suing the employer because it deprived the third party tortfeasor of all rights of indemnity when the employee is injured in an industrial accident. Finding that the statute gave benefits and protections to the employee and the employer, but that it did not extend any benefits or protections whatsoever to the third party tortfeasor, the court held the statute unconstitutional as a deprivation of access to courts.

On the other hand, in cases where the statutes have put limitations on causes of action, they have not been found unconstitutional. For example, in McMillan v. Nelson, 5 So.2d 867, 149 Fla. 334 (Fla.1942), the Supreme Court found that the guest statute was not an unconstitutional deprivation of access to courts because although it did place a high degree of care on a driver relative to a paying passenger as opposed to a gratuitous one, it did not bar the right to sue altogether and the court found that the classification was neither unreasonable nor arbitrary. Similarly, in Carter v. Sims Crane Service, Inc., 198 So.2d 25 (Fla.1967), the court held that a statutory provision that a subcontractor is deemed to be the same person as the employer and that workers' compensation was the exclusive remedy for injuries to employees was not unconstitutional because under the common employment doctrine the immunity of the subcontractor was based upon or reasonably related to liability for injury. The court also held that the provision did not violate the constitutional due process clauses or the requirement of equal protection of the laws because it was based on legitimate classifications and did provide for a remedy against any injury. For a thorough and insightful discussion of the access to courts provision of the Florida Constitution, see Note, Article I, Section 21: Access to Court in Florida, 5 F.S.U.L.Rev. 871 (1977).

In the instant case the subject statute does not preclude settlement based on all factors other than future medical needs and does not prohibit compensation to the employee for future medical needs but simply requires that it be paid on a periodic, as needed, basis.

IMPAIRMENT OF CONTRACT

Johnson's second contention is that Section 440.20(12)(a) violates the "right to contract" clauses of both the federal and state constitutions because it deprives the parties of the right of compromise and settlement of a claim.

Article I, Section 10, of both the Florida Constitution and the United States Constitution prohibits any law which is an ex post facto law or a law "impairing the obligation of contracts." A reading of the In order for a statute to offend the constitutional prohibition against enactment of laws impairing the obligation of contracts, the statute must have the...