Richards Dept. Store v. Donin

• Decision Date: 05 October 1978
• Docket Number: No. 52339,52339
• Citation: 365 So.2d 385
• Parties: RICHARDS DEPARTMENT STORE et al., Petitioners, v. Lee DONIN et al., Respondents.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 385

365 So.2d 385

RICHARDS DEPARTMENT STORE et al., Petitioners, v. Lee DONIN et al., Respondents.

No. 52339.

Supreme Court of Florida.

Oct. 5, 1978.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 8, 1978.

H. George Kagan of Miller & Hodges, Coral Gables, for petitioners.

Israel Abrams, North Miami Beach, for respondents.

Robert H. Gregory, Coral Gables, Ramon Malca of Pyszka, Kessler, Adams & Solomon, Miami, and Steven A. Rissman of Earle, Cooper & Rissman, Orlando, for amici curiae.

ALDERMAN, Justice.

We have for review by petition for writ of certiorari an order of the Industrial Relations Commission affirming the order of the Judge of Industrial Claims finding claimant's heart attack to be the result of unusual stress causally related to employment. We determine that the Industrial Relations Commission misapplied the doctrine of Victor Wine & Liquor, Inc. v. Beasley, 141 So.2d 581 (Fla.1962), in determining that claimant's heart attack was compensable and thereby departed from the essential requirements of the law.

Claimant, a forty-five-year-old merchandise buyer, had previously suffered a myocardial infarction in 1971 for which he was hospitalized and out of work for three months. In August of 1974, he was employed by Richards Department Store to set up a housewares department. Shortly, thereafter, he was assigned the responsibility of being the buyer for the housewares, patio furniture, lawn and garden, and budget furniture departments of the store. At this time he had an assistant. Although not a part of his customary duties, in November, 1974, he assisted his supervisor and other buyers in the preparation of a six-month inventory plan and also assisted in preparation of a three-month advertising budget. In the middle of December, 1974, he was given the added responsibilities of buying for the small appliances department and of creating a popular life style concept shop. During this time, his assistant quit, and he was not provided with a new assistant until February 3, 1975. In January, 1975, he covered in one and a half days a Chicago housewares market that normally would have required a week. Upon returning from Chicago, in addition to his regular duties, he had to supervise a warehouse sale. Because claimant's departments were not producing the volume of sales expected, he was threatened with the loss of his job. In early February, 1975, he began to suffer severe headaches, nausea, shortness of breath and vomiting of blood. By the latter part of February, he was suffering with retrosternal chest pains, sweating and pain radiating to his left shoulder and left arm. He was hospitalized on February 24, 1975, and was diagnosed as having sustained a subendocardial-myocardial infarction.

The Judge of Industrial Claims decided that claimant had suffered a compensable heart attack since the heart attack was the result of unusual stress causally related to his employment and since "the activity of claimant's employment was not routine."

Finding no reversible error to have been demonstrated, the Industrial Relations Commission affirmed.

The employer maintains that the decision below is contrary to the holding of this Court in Victor Wine. It points out that the Judge of Industrial Claims made no finding of a specifically identifiable stress or effort. It claims that unusual stress or strain is not that which arises out of work regularly performed by the employee. Cf. Friendly Frost Used Appliances v. Reiser, 152 So.2d 721 (Fla.1963).

On the other hand, the claimant suggests that this case presents a novel situation upon which no Florida decision is directly on point....