Stables v. Rivers
| Decision Date | 24 May 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. 89-483,89-483 |
| Parties | 15 Fla. L. Weekly D1450 Lundy STABLES and CNA Insurance Company, Appellants/Cross-Appellees, v. Catherine RIVERS, Appellee/Cross-Appellant. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Keith R. Pallo of Adams, Coogler, Watson & Merkel, West Palm Beach, and Diane H. Tutt, Ft. Lauderdale, for appellants/cross-appellees.
David C. Wiitala of McManus, Wiitala & Contole, North Palm Beach, for appellee/cross-appellant.
Employer/carrier appeal a workers' compensation order by which claimant was found to be permanently totally disabled and awarded various benefits. Employer/carrier challenge the award of child care and housekeeping services, and the establishment of permanent total disability as of the date of accident. We find no error with regard to these issues. Claimant cross-appeals and challenges the denial of psychological evaluation and counseling for her husband and children, and the commencement date of supplemental benefits. We find no error as to the supplemental benefits issue, but reverse as to the denial of psychological evaluation and counseling for claimant's husband and children.
Claimant experienced an industrial accident by which she was rendered paraplegic, and after some initial confusion as to whether workers' compensation benefits should be paid under the laws of Florida, or of another state, it was established that Florida law applies and a merits hearing was held on a claim for benefits. The parties agreed that claimant is permanently totally disabled, and evidence was presented as to the extent of her ability to function in her home environment. Various witnesses described the extensive difficulties which claimant encounters in this regard, including problems in caring for her two small children and performing routine household chores. Claimant testified as to her expenditures for child care and housekeeping help since sustaining her industrial injury. Claimant's need for these services, including personal attendant care, is generally supported by the testimony of a rehabilitation nurse and a physician, as well as claimant's own description of her abilities and needs. Insofar as the child care and housekeeping services which the judge awarded were thus shown to have been necessitated by the industrial injury, and to be useful in mitigating the effects of the injury or facilitating the process of recovery, such services were properly awarded under section 440.13, Florida Statutes. See generally, Khawam v. Collision Clinics International Inc., 413 So.2d 827 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982); Doctor's Hospital of Lake Worth v. Robinson, 411 So.2d 958 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982).
In establishing claimant's permanent total disability as of the date of accident, the judge applied section 440.15(1)(b), Florida Statutes, which provides that:
... paraplegia ... shall, in the absence of conclusive proof of a substantial earning capacity, constitute permanent total disability. In all other cases, permanent total disability shall be determined in accordance with the facts.
In applying this statute the judge expressly relied on Pinellas Ambulance Service Inc. v. Gettinger, 504 So.2d 1386 (Fla. 1st DCA 1987), which involved a somewhat different issue than is here presented but which characterized the supreme court's opinion in Jackson v. Princeton Farms Corp., 140 So.2d 570 (Fla.1962), as establishing that under the statute "the moment the physical impairments described therein occur, a presumption of permanent disability is in being...." While Jackson also involved a different issue than is here presented, the supreme court in Jackson did construe section 440.15(1)(b) as creating a presumption of permanent total disability at "the moment" when the statutorily-described event "transpires." Since the record in the present case indicates that claimant's paraplegia occurred as of the date of her accident the judge properly applied section 440.15(1)(b), as construed in Jackson, in...
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Timothy Bowser Const. Co. v. Kowalski
...the other requirements of a claimant's family unrelated to the injured claimant's treatment or recovery. In Stables and CNA Ins. v. Rivers, 562 So.2d 784 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990), we reversed an award that had denied a claim for psychological evaluations and counseling for the claimant's husband......
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Mace v. INDUSTRIAL COM'N OF ARIZONA
...595 A.2d 781 (781). ¶ 12 Courts in other jurisdictions also have addressed issues akin to the one presented here. In Stables v. Rivers, 562 So.2d 784 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1990), an industrial accident rendered the claimant paraplegic. The claimant requested counseling for her family, shown by t......
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Polk County Bd. of Com'rs v. Varnado
...award of benefits pursuant to section 440.13(2)(a), Florida Statutes, is the employee's medical need for the benefit. Stables v. Rivers, 562 So.2d 784 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990). The JCC should only award those medical benefits which are determined to be a medical necessity. Diamond R. Fertilizer ......
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Hughes v. Industrial Com'n of Arizona
...Florida case law that allows child care when necessitated by and necessary to treat an industrial injury. See Stables v. Rivers, 562 So.2d 784, 785 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1990) (where child care was shown, by testimony from a doctor and rehabilitation nurse, to have been necessitated by the indus......