Ramcharitar v. Derosins

• Decision Date: 12 May 2010
• Docket Number: No. 3D09-1313.,3D09-1313.
• Citation: 35 So.3d 94
• Parties: Richard RAMCHARITAR, Appellant,v.Erzulie DEROSINS and Sky Chefs, Inc., a foreign corporation, Appellees.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

35 So.3d 94

Richard RAMCHARITAR, Appellant,v.Erzulie DEROSINS and Sky Chefs, Inc., a foreign corporation, Appellees.

No. 3D09-1313.

District Court of Appeal of Florida Third District.

May 12, 2010.

Feiler & Leach and Martin E. Leach, for appellant.

Carlton Fields, Nancy C. Ciampa, Stephanie C. Zimmerman and Emmet J. Schwartzman, Miami, for appellee.

Before WELLS and ROTHENBERG, JJ., and SCHWARTZ, Senior Judge.

WELLS, Judge.

In this personal injury action, Richard Ramcharitar appeals the entry of a final summary judgment in favor of the defendants below, Erzulie Derosins and Sky Chefs, Inc., claiming that the lower court erred in finding that the defendants were immune from tort liability pursuant to Florida's Workers' Compensation Law. We agree and reverse.

Richard Ramcharitar is a flight operations manager for American Airlines responsible for overseeing movement of airplanes to and from terminals at Miami International Airport. On July 14, 2001, while directing an aircraft pulling away from a terminal gate, Mr. Ramcharitar allegedly was struck by a Sky Chefs vehicle being operated by Erzulie Derosins. Sky Chefs, which provides beverages and food, is an American Airlines subcontractor; Ms. Derosins is a Sky Chefs employee.

Following this incident, Mr. Ramcharitar received workers' compensation benefits from American Airlines. He also filed suit against Sky Chefs and Ms. Derosins. Both Sky Chefs and Ms. Derosins denied responsibility for the accident and asserted workers' compensation immunity as a defense.

In December 2008, Sky Chefs and Ms. Derosins moved for summary judgment arguing that Sky Chefs, as a subcontractor of American Airlines (the general contractor), along with Ms. Derosins its employee, were immune from tort liability under the 2001 version of sections 440.10(1) and 440.11 of the Florida Statutes, which were in effect at the time Mr. Ramcharitar was injured. These provisions of Florida's Workers' Compensation Law afforded certain tort immunity to subcontractors where the contractor provided workers' compensation coverage for the employees of both the contractor and its subcontractors. See §§ 440.10(1) and 440.11, Fla. Stat. (2001). ¹ Summary judgment was granted. We reverse this final judgment because the Florida Supreme Court's opinion in Employers Insurance of Wausau v. Abernathy, 442 So.2d 953 (Fla.1983), which interprets this version of section 440.10, mandates this result.

In 1937, Florida's Workers' Compensation Law was amended to confer statutory immunity on a subcontractor against tort claims brought by an employee of either the general contractor (vertical immunity) or another subcontractor (horizontal immunity) where the general contractor had secured workers' compensation insurance for the subject employee, the rationale being that the employees of both the general contractor and the subcontractor(s) were all engaged in a common enterprise. See Carter v. Sims Crane Serv., Inc., 198 So.2d 25, 26-27 (Fla.1967) (finding that a subcontractor had horizontal immunity from a tort claim brought an employee of another subcontractor); Younger v. Giller Contracting Co., 143 Fla. 335, 196 So. 690, 693 (1940) (finding that a subcontractor had vertical immunity from a tort claim brought by an employee of the general contractor).

In 1974, the law was amended to expressly eliminate horizontal immunity, that is, to eliminate the statutory immunity for claims brought by an employee of one subcontractor against another subcontractor:

A subcontractor is not liable for the payment of compensation to the employees of another subcontractor on such contract work and is not protected by the exclusiveness-of-liability provisions of s. 440.11 from action at law or in admiralty on account of injury of such employee of another subcontractor.

See Ch. 74-197, § 6, at 546, Laws of Fla.; § 440.10(1), Fla. Stat. (1974).

While this amendment terminated horizontal immunity between subcontractors, subcontractors continued to enjoy vertical immunity from actions brought by a contractor's employees as recognized in Carter and Younger. However, in 1983, the Florida Supreme Court decided Employers Insurance of Wausau v. Abernathy, 442 So.2d 953 (Fla.1983), in which it held that the 1974 amendment to section 440.10 modified the “common employment premise” set forth in Younger and Carter, so that subcontractors were no longer immune from suit by a contractor's employee (eliminating vertical immunity), even if that employee had received workers' compensation benefits from the contractor:

The justification for limiting liability or granting immunity is the substitution of something else in its place, a quid pro quo. The duty to provide workers' compensation benefits supplants tort liability to those injured on the job. If the duty to provide such coverage does not exist, then one has no reason to expect immunity from wrongdoings committed against a third party.... [W]e recede from Younger ..., thus allowing a third-party action against one who has no duty to afford compensation benefits.

Abernathy, 442 So.2d at 954 (citations omitted).

This interpretation of the 1974 amendment to the workers' compensation law, section 440.10, remained in effect for the next twenty years. See Bruno v. Destiny Transp., Inc., 921 So.2d 836, 841 (Fla. 2d DCA 2006) (citing Abernathy for the proposition that statutory immunity does not apply “to situations where a general contractor's employee is injured by the negligence of a subcontractor's employee”); Sherrill v. Corbett Cranes Servs., Inc., 656 So.2d 181, 183 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995) (citing Abernathy and finding that “[i]t is now well established under Florida law that a subcontractor or independent contractor can be liable in tort for injuries sustained by the employees of a general contractor on a construction site”). In 2003, the Florida Legislature amended section 440.10 to restore subcontractor immunity from tort claims brought by either a general contractor or another subcontractor's employee (vertical and horizontal immunity):

A subcontractor providing services in conjunction with a contractor on the same project or contract work is not liable for payment of compensation to the employees of another subcontractor or the contractor on such contract work and is protected by the exclusiveness-of-liability provisions of s. 440.11 from any action at law or in admiralty on account of injury to an employee of another subcontractor, or of the contractor, provided that:

1. The subcontractor has secured workers' compensation insurance for its employees or the contractor has secured such insurance on behalf of the subcontractor and its employees ...; and

2. The subcontractor's own gross negligence was not the major contributing cause of the injury.

Ch. 2003-412, § 8, at 3879, Laws of Fla. (emphasis added).

Sky Chefs and Ms. Derosins do not dispute the fact that Mr. Ramcharitar was injured before the 2003 amendment to the workers' compensation law and that under the 1974 amendment as interpreted by Abernathy, they would not be immune from suit. They instead point to the fact that Mr. Ramcharitar filed the underlying lawsuit in 2005, after the statute was amended, and argue that we may conclude that they enjoy immunity because Abernathy was wrongly decided or alternatively because the 2003 revision should be applied retroactively. We decline to adopt either proposition.

It is axiomatic that stare decisis obligates this court to follow Florida Supreme Court precedent. See Hoffman v. Jones, 280 So.2d 431, 440 (Fla.1973) (“We hold that a District Court of Appeal does not have the authority to overrule a decision of the Supreme Court of Florida.”). This obligation extends to the circuit courts of this state as well, which are further obligated to follow the decisions of the district courts of appeal “unless and until they are overruled by the supreme court.” See Chapman v. Pinellas County, 423 So.2d 578, 580 (Fla. 2d DCA 1982). We therefore decline the appellees' invitation to simply ignore Abernathy as either an aberration in the decisional law-which it clearly was not given its repeated application over some twenty years-or as being wrongly decided. See Breed Tech. v. AlliedSignal Inc., 861 So.2d 1227, 1231 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003) (finding that the trial court erred in disregarding existing case law based on its view that the case “was wrongly decided and therefore not binding on it”). At the time Mr. Ramcharitar was injured, prevailing Supreme Court precedent provided no immunity to subcontractors sued by their contractor's employees for workplace injuries.

Sky Chefs and Ms. Derosins are also not immune from suit by virtue of the 2003 amendment to section 440.10 because it does not apply retroactively. “In the absence of clear legislative intent to the contrary, a law is presumed to operate prospectively.” Old Port Cove Holdings, Inc. v. Old Port Cove Condo. Ass'n One, 986 So.2d 1279, 1284 (Fla.2008). Therefore, in determining whether a statute applies retroactively, we must consider: “(1) whether the statute itself expresses an intent that it apply retroactively; and, if so, (2) whether retroactive application is constitutional.” Id. With respect to the first prong, when considering legislative intent “both the terms of the statute and the purpose of the enactment must be considered.” Fla. Hosp. Waterman, Inc. v. Buster, 984 So.2d 478, 488 (Fla.2008) (quoting Metro. Dade County v. Chase Fed. Housing Corp., 737 So.2d 494, 500 (Fla.1999)). If the first prong is not satisfied, there is no need to consider the second prong. Id.; see also Mem'l Hosp.-W. Volusia, Inc. v. News-Journal Corp., 784 So.2d 438, 441 (Fla.2001) (finding it unnecessary to determine whether the retroactive application of a statute was constitutional because the statute did not “set forth the clear legislative intent” that it be applied retroactively).

To this end, we find that while the 2003 amendment to section 440.10 effectively...