Prather v. Process Systems, No. 1D01-4925.

• Court: Court of Appeal of Florida (US)
• Writing for the Court: PER CURIAM.
• Citation: 867 So.2d 479
• Decision Date: 13 February 2004
• Docket Number: No. 1D01-4925.
• Parties: Elsie PRATHER, Appellant, v. PROCESS SYSTEMS, Wal-Mart Amstaff/Greers, et al., Appellees.

867 So.2d 479

Elsie PRATHER, Appellant,
v.
PROCESS SYSTEMS, Wal-Mart Amstaff/Greers, et al., Appellees

No. 1D01-4925.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

February 13, 2004.

Rehearing Denied March 11, 2004.

867 So.2d 480

T. Rhett Smith, Esq. and Teresa E. Liles, Esq., Pensacola, for Appellant

Frank C. Bozeman, III, Esq. and Colleen Cleary Ortiz, Esq. of Bozeman, Jenkins & Matthews, P.A., Pensacola, for Appellees.

PER CURIAM.

Claimant, Elsie Prather, appeals an order of the Judge of Compensation Claims ("JCC"), which denied her petition for disability and medical benefits. In denying claimant's petition for benefits, the JCC determined that "[b]ased on all the testimony presented, the petitioner's testimony lacks candor and is not reliable." The issue presented is whether the order denying claimant's petition for benefits is supported by competent, substantial evidence. Concluding that the JCC properly and thoroughly performed his obligation as the finder of fact, we affirm.

In workers' compensation cases, the JCC's findings must be sustained if supported by any view of the evidence and its permissible inferences. Ullman v. City of Tampa Parks Dep't, 625 So.2d 868, 873 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993) (citing Orange City Water Co. v. Barkley, 432 So.2d 698 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983)). "The [JCC], as the trier of fact, has the right to determine the credibility of witnesses, including the claimant." Id. at 874 (citing Irving v. City of Daytona Beach, 472 So.2d 810 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985)). It is also within the province of the JCC to determine whether the claimant's medical history is credible or not, and the JCC may give greater weight to lay testimony than to scientific opinions of experts. GTE v. Miller, 642 So.2d 1188, 1189 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994) (citing Ullman, 625 So.2d at 873; Jeffers v. Pan Am. Envelope Co., 172 So.2d 577 (Fla.1965)).

In denying claimant's petition for benefits, the JCC also rejected the expert medical advisor's recommendation in favor of claimant. Regardless of whether or not the JCC erred in rejecting the expert medical advisor's opinion, the JCC set forth a second ground for denying claimant's application for benefits. The order stated that, based on all the testimony, the JCC was denying the claim as the result of claimant's lack of candor and reliability. See GTE, 642 So.2d at 1189 ("[I]t was not the province of the physicians to determine whether the claimant's history was credible. That determination was for the judge.") (citing Tampa Bay Moving Sys., Inc. v. Frederick, 433 So.2d 628, 630 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983); other citation omitted); Ullman, 625 So.2d at 874. Thus, because the JCC can give greater weight to lay

867 So.2d 481

testimony than to the scientific testimony of experts, and because his finding regarding claimant's lack of credibility is supported by competent, substantial evidence, including claimant's failure to inform numerous doctors, including Dr. Szmurlo, Dr. Doheny, and Dr. Sellers, about her previous psychiatric medical history, the JCC did not err in rejecting the claimant's petition for benefits. The JCC based his finding regarding claimant's credibility on her testimony and the testimony of the doctors as a whole, which he had a right to do. See Chavarria v. Selugal Clothing, Inc., 840 So.2d 1071, 1076 n. 3 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003) ("Even in cases which must be resolved upon a true appraisal of testimony of medical experts, the deputy commissioner's findings of facts should be upheld unless there is no competent, substantial evidence, which accords with logic and reason, to sustain them.") (quoting U.S. Cas. Co. v. Md. Cas. Co., 55 So.2d 741, 745 (Fla.1951)); GTE, 642 So.2d at 1189; Ullman, 625 So.2d at 874

AFFIRMED.

ALLEN and LEWIS, JJ., concur; ERVIN, J., dissents with written opinion.

ERVIN, J., dissenting.

The issue before the judge of compensation claims (JCC) was whether claimant's compensable, workplace injury was the major contributing cause (MCC) of her major depression. The majority affirms the JCC's rejection of the opinion of the expert medical advisor (EMA) for the reason that, based on the totality of the evidence, including the testimony of claimant, the order is supported by competent, substantial evidence. The majority's deference to the JCC's decision appears at odds with the legislature's clearly expressed preference that opinions of EMAs be generally accepted. I cannot agree that after the passage of the EMA procedure, codified in section 440.13(9)(c), Florida Statutes (1995), a judge now retains the nearly unfettered power to disapprove an EMA's opinion in circumstances, such as those at bar, in which the advisor fully took into consideration all inconsistencies in the medical history given him by the claimant and still concluded that her workplace injury was the MCC of her mental condition.

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