Mallon v. Florida Rock Industries, Inc., 89-1640

• Decision Date: 16 October 1990
• Docket Number: No. 89-1640,89-1640
• Parties: 15 Fla. L. Weekly D2628 Michael J. MALLON, Appellant, v. FLORIDA ROCK INDUSTRIES, INC. and Underwriters Adjusting Company, Appellees.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 503

568 So.2d 503

15 Fla. L. Weekly D2628

Michael J. MALLON, Appellant, v. FLORIDA ROCK INDUSTRIES, INC. and Underwriters Adjusting Company, Appellees.

No. 89-1640.

District Court of Appeal of Florida,

First District.

Oct. 16, 1990.

John T. Fryback, Bradenton, for appellant.

Nancy L. Cavey, St. Petersburg, for appellees.

PER CURIAM.

Appellant seeks reversal of a compensation order which denied benefits on the ground that appellant had failed to prove his injury was causally related to his employment. We affirm.

Appellant, who was 45 years of age at the time of the hearing, testified that he has spent most of his life working primarily as an unskilled manual laborer, though he has never worked the same job for more than a year. He testified that he had worked at Florida Rock Industries for approximately three months as a laborer when, near the end of December 1987, he began to experience arm pain. Appellant testified that the pain in his right arm was more severe than in his left. On Christmas Eve, appellant went to the emergency room for bronchitis or asthma complaints, later described as "flu-like" symptoms, but made no complaint concerning arm pain. According to his testimony, appellant continued to suffer arm pain, and on February 15, 1988, suffered a shooting pain in his right arm while shoveling sand at work. However, no notice of accident was filed; and when appellant went to the emergency room that evening, he denied suffering an injury at work and made no complaint regarding pain in his left arm. An orthopedic surgeon later examined appellant on referral and found him to have a normal range of motion in the right shoulder with a questionable reduced grip strength. Approximately two months later, complaining of pain in both arms, appellant left his employment at Florida Rock.

In November 1988, at the instance of his counsel, appellant saw Dr. Raymond, a physiatrist ¹, reporting that he had suffered bilateral arm pain since December 1987, and that he had hit a rock while shoveling which worsened the pain in the right arm. Dr. Raymond opined that appellant most likely suffered from "diffuse myalgias" (muscle pain).

The record reveals that in 1984, appellant had gone to the emergency room complaining of numbness in the right arm, at which time neuritis was diagnosed. The record further indicates that after leaving Florida Rock, appellant continued to suffer arm pain.

A claim was made for temporary total or temporary partial benefits from the date appellant left Florida Rock and continuing, payment of past medical bills, authorization of future care, penalties, interest, costs and attorney fees. The JCC found the appellant's testimony unreliable, and further found that even if the appellant's testimony was accepted, there was still no competent and substantial evidence to support a claim based on...