Sunland Center At Miami v. Rudolph, BS-476

• Decision Date: 12 January 1988
• Docket Number: No. BS-476,BS-476
• Parties: 13 Fla. L. Weekly 170 SUNLAND CENTER AT MIAMI and The Kemper Group, Appellants, v. Alice RUDOLPH and the Division of Workers' Compensation, Appellees.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 132

521 So.2d 132

13 Fla. L. Weekly 170

SUNLAND CENTER AT MIAMI and The Kemper Group, Appellants, v. Alice RUDOLPH and the Division of Workers' Compensation, Appellees.

No. BS-476.

District Court of Appeal of Florida,

First District.

Jan. 12, 1988.

Rehearing Denied March 23, 1988.

Robert H. Gregory, Miami, for appellants.

Stuart F. Suskin of Abrams & Suskin, North Miami Beach, for appellees.

WENTWORTH, Judge.

Appellants, the employer/carrier, seek review of a workers' compensation order by which they were ordered to pay permanent total and temporary total disability benefits and medical bills, and to provide continuing psychiatric care. They raise several issues on appeal: 1) whether the deputy commissioner erred in placing appellee's deposition in evidence over appellants' objections, when appellee was present; 2) whether the deputy commissioner erred in modifying a prior order to find that appellee is permanently totally disabled; 3) whether the deputy commissioner erred in ordering payment of medical bills not authorized, identified or causally related to the accident; and 4) whether the deputy commissioner erred in failing to apportion benefits where appellee had a previous permanent partial impairment. We find that the deputy commissioner's findings can be fully substantiated by appellee's live testimony, and that admission of her deposition was therefore not prejudicial to appellants, competent, substantial medical evidence supports a finding that appellee is permanently totally disabled, the payment of medical bills was properly ordered, and apportionment was not required as no evidence was produced showing that appellee's preexisting impairment was disabling at the time of her subsequent accident or at the time of the award. We therefore affirm the order.

Appellee, a 63-year-old lab technician, resigned from her job in August 1985 after working 18 years for the employer. She had suffered compensable injuries in 1975 and 1976 when she fell, injuring her low back, and when she was attacked and strangled by a patient, injuring her shoulders and neck. A 1983 final order determined that appellee reached maximum medical improvement for these injuries on May 27, 1981, with a 20 percent permanent partial psychiatric impairment to the body as a whole, and a permanent partial orthopedic impairment of 7.5 percent to the body as a whole. Appellee sought modification of the order in August 1985, alleging a change of physical and/or economic condition resulting in permanent total disability. She also submitted a claim for temporary total disability benefits for five emergency hospitalizations due to severe depression. Appellants defended on the ground that appellee had not suffered a change of condition, psychiatric care was not authorized, and hospital and medical bills were not payable under section 440.13, Florida Statutes.

At the hearing on her claim, appellee's 1985 deposition was admitted into evidence over appellants' objections. Appellee also testified live. Appellee presented five psychiatrists, whose opinions, although varying, generally attested to her extreme anxiety and depression following her 1976 strangulation. Salient portions of that testimony included the opinions of Dr. Borges who stated that appellee's emergency hospitalizations were reasonable and necessary and that she should not return to her job because of her fears; Dr. Berken, who felt appellee's...