Jones v. ETS of New Orleans, Inc.

• Decision Date: 30 August 2001
• Docket Number: No. SC96287.,SC96287.
• Citation: 793 So.2d 912
• Parties: Brian JONES, et ux., Petitioners, v. ETS OF NEW ORLEANS, INC., Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

793 So.2d 912

Brian JONES, et ux., Petitioners, v. ETS OF NEW ORLEANS, INC., Respondent.

No. SC96287.

Supreme Court of Florida.

August 30, 2001.

L. Barry Keyfetz of Keyfetz, Asnis & Srebnick, P.A., Miami, FL, and Gerald R. Herms, Tampa, FL, for Petitioners.

Robert A. LeVine of Newman, LeVine & Metzler, P.A., Tampa, FL, for Respondent.

Joseph H. Williams of Troutman, Williams, Irvin, Green & Helms, P.A., Winter Park, FL, for The Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers, Amicus Curiae.

PARIENTE, J.

We have for review the Second District Court of Appeal's decision in ETS of New Orleans, Inc. v. Jones, 738 So.2d 958 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999), which expressly and directly conflicts with the opinion of this Court in Baughman v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., 78 So.2d 694 (Fla.1955). We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(3), Fla. Const. Because we conclude that the term "court costs" as used for purposes of calculating equitable distribution of workers' compensation liens is not limited to "taxable costs," we quash the Second District's decision.

FACTS

Brian Jones, the claimant in this workers' compensation case, was employed by Ed Smith Steel Erectors, Inc. While on the jobsite, Jones had to walk along the eight-inch-wide top of a partially constructed concrete block wall, through which a four-foot-high segment of PVC pipe protruded. The pipe had been installed by Lawhorn Plumbing, which was another subcontractor on the project. As Jones grabbed the pipe (which was two inches in diameter) to swing around it, the pipe broke and Jones fell eighteen feet to the concrete floor below. As a result of this fall, Jones suffered compression fractures and a broken ankle. His permanent injuries resulted in a whole person disability rating of twenty-two percent.

At the time of Jones' accident, ETS of New Orleans ("ETS") provided the workers' compensation insurance for Jones' employer. ETS eventually paid Jones $124,460.12 in workers' compensation benefits. Later, however, Jones filed a third-party tort claim against Lawhorn Plumbing for damages allegedly resulting from its negligence. ETS filed a workers' compensation lien in that suit. Jones and Lawhorn Plumbing ultimately settled for $50,000, and Jones then filed a petition in circuit court for equitable distribution of the settlement proceeds in order to satisfy ETS's workers' compensation lien. After an evidentiary hearing, the trial court awarded ETS $5,102.86.

On appeal to the Second District, ETS asserted, among other things, that the trial court overstated the amount of costs that Jones was entitled to subtract from his settlement before determining the pro rata share of the award that ETS would receive.¹See id. at 959. In particular, ETS argued that the trial court improperly included in its final order of equitable distribution all costs incurred by Jones rather than only taxable costs. The Second District agreed with ETS, concluding that the term "court costs" within the meaning of section 440.39(3)(a), Florida Statutes (1997), means "taxable costs" instead of "all costs." See ETS, 738 So.2d at 959

. Accordingly, the Second District reversed and remanded on this issue. See id. at 960.

ANALYSIS

The question before us in this case is a narrow one: whether under section 440.39(3)(a), the term "court costs" means "taxable costs" or whether that term means "all costs" incurred by the employee in preparing the claim against the third party, subject to the determination that the costs are reasonable. Jones maintains that the Second District erred in restricting costs to only taxable costs.

Section 440.39(3)(a), Florida Statutes provides in pertinent part as follows:

Upon suit being filed, the employer or the insurance carrier ... may file in the suit a notice of payment of compensation and medical benefits to the employee or his dependents, which notice shall constitute a lien upon any judgment or settlement recovered to the extent that the court may determine to be their pro rata share for compensation and medical benefits paid or to be paid under the provisions of this law, less their pro rata share of all court costs expended by the plaintiff in the prosecution of the suit including reasonable attorney's fees for the plaintiff's attorney. In determining the employer's or carrier's pro rata share of those costs and attorney's fees, the employer or carrier shall have deducted from its recovery a percentage amount equal to the percentage of the judgment or settlement which is for costs and attorney's fees. Subject to this deduction, the employer or carrier shall recover from the judgment or settlement, after costs and attorney's fees incurred by the employee or dependent in that suit have been deducted, 100 percent of what it has paid and future benefits to be paid, except, if the employee or dependent can demonstrate to the court that he did not recover the full value of damages sustained, the employer or carrier shall recover from the judgment or settlement, after costs and attorney's fees incurred by the employee or dependent in that suit have been deducted, a percentage of what it has paid and future benefits to be paid equal to the percentage that the employee's net recovery is of the full value of the employee's damages; provided, the failure by the employer or carrier to comply with the duty to cooperate imposed by subsection (7) may be taken into account by the trial court in determining the amount of the employer's or carrier's recovery, and such recovery may be reduced, as the court deems equitable and appropriate under the circumstances....

(Emphasis supplied.) This portion of the statute has remained unchanged since 1989.

Because "workers' compensation benefits are a creature of statute," our analysis of the meaning of court costs "must be based on statutory interpretation guided by this Court's prior case law interpreting the applicable statutes." City of Hollywood v. Lombardi, 770 So.2d 1196, 1200 (Fla.2000). A basic tenet of statutory interpretation is that a "statute should be interpreted to give effect to every clause in it, and to accord meaning and harmony to all of its parts." Acosta v. Richter, 671 So.2d 149, 153-54 (Fla.1996). Accordingly, "statutory phrases are not to be read in isolation, but rather within the context of the entire section." Id. at 154. In other words, "[j]ust as a single word cannot be read in isolation, nor can a single provision of a statute.... A provision that may seem ambiguous in isolation is often clarified by the remainder of the statutory scheme." Smith v. United States, 508 U.S. 223, 233, 113 S.Ct. 2050, 124 L.Ed.2d 138 (1993).

When all of the parts of section 440.39(3)(a) are considered together, the construction that is most consistent with the statutory language is that the term "all court costs" means "all costs," rather than merely taxable costs as the Second District concluded. Although "court costs" is not defined within section 440.39(3)(a), the term is used interchangeably within the same subsection with "costs." In addition, the statute specifically refers to "all court costs expended by the plaintiff" and "costs... incurred by the employee." These expansive provisions for costs are consistent with the interpretation of the term meaning "all costs."

The notion that costs, for the purposes of the equitable distribution formula, would be limited to taxable costs fails to take into account the limited nature of taxable costs. A prevailing party is entitled to recover from the losing party "all his or her legal costs and charges which shall be included in the judgment." § 57.041, Florida Statutes. The general rule is that only taxable costs are to be included in any cost judgment. See Kelly v. Militana, 595 So.2d 113, 115 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992)

; see also Mitchell v. Osceola Farms Co., 574 So.2d 1162, 1163 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991).²

On the other hand, for purposes of the determination of the equitable distribution formula, the starting point is the employee's net recovery. See generally Lombardi, 770 So.2d at 1200-02

. Net recovery represents the gross recovery less attorney's fees and costs. If the term "court costs" were construed as limited to "taxable costs," the employee would be responsible for nontaxable costs and therefore the amount that the employee would receive would be less than his or her net recovery.³ In addition, the statute's reference to "judgment or settlement" contemplates its applicability to settlements, whereas the term "taxable costs" refers to those items of costs that are recoverable against adverse parties after judgment.

Our prior case law, in fact, directly refutes the notion that court costs under the equitable distribution scheme are limited to taxable costs. In Baughman, the carrier brought an action for its pro rata share of the claimant's recovery against a third party tortfeasor. 78 So.2d at 695. The employee had secured a judgment against a third party tortfeasor that included taxable costs. The trial court, however, did not include court costs incurred but not taxed against the tortfeasor in assessing the carrier's pro rata share of court costs. See id. Like the present statute, the 1951 version of the statute⁴ that applied in Baughman also used the term "court costs."

The Court specifically distinguished between court costs incurred by the employee versus taxable costs assessed against the losing party:

We agree with the appellant with reference to the taxation against the appellee of its pro rata share of that part of the court costs which were not taxed against the defendant in this case.

The court allowed the appellant nothing at all on this portion of the costs and we think that was error. Although the judge could use his discretion in fixing the amount, we do not believe he was exercising it properly when he did not require the appellee to pay any part of the costs incurred by the appellant, above those paid by the defendant, when the appellee obviously benefitted from

...