Taylor v. School Bd. of Brevard County

• Decision Date: 13 July 2001
• Docket Number: No. 5D00-842.,5D00-842.
• Citation: 790 So.2d 1156
• Parties: Lawrence TAYLOR and Marie Taylor, Appellant, v. SCHOOL BOARD OF BREVARD COUNTY, Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

790 So.2d 1156

Lawrence TAYLOR and Marie Taylor, Appellant, v. SCHOOL BOARD OF BREVARD COUNTY, Florida, Appellee.

No. 5D00-842.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.

July 13, 2001.

Rehearing Denied August 14, 2001.

Joseph H. Williams of Troutman, Williams, Irvin, Green & Helms, P.A., Winter Park, for Appellant.

Kelley B. Gelb of Krupnick, Campbell, Malone, Roselli, Buser, Slama, Hancock, McNelis, Liberman & McKee, P.A., Ft. Lauderdale, Amicus Curiae for Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers.

Michael H. Bowling of Bell, Leeper & Roper, P.A., Orlando, for Appellee.

THOMPSON, C.J.

Lawrence Taylor and his wife, Marie (collectively "Taylor") appeal a summary final judgment entered in favor of the School Board of Brevard County ("school board"). We affirm.

Taylor was injured in the course of his work as a bus attendant, when a wheelchair lift affixed to the bus fell on him. Two people were involved in the deployment of the lift: the bus driver, who operated the control; and Taylor, the attendant, who was stationed outside the bus to open the doors. On the day of the accident, the emergency release pin plate on the mechanism was loose because the rivets had worn off. This caused the lift to fall as soon as the doors opened.

The lock assembly on the lift was repaired some four months prior to the accident. A week before the accident, the lift was re-positioned by a school board mechanic after a complaint that the lift had "bound up." The lift was last inspected and lubricated in the shop two days before the accident. A school board mechanic testified that the rivets may have worn out due to the lift having become "bound up." He also testified that an inspection of the lock assembly should have revealed the problem.

On October 2, 1998, Taylor brought the instant action against the school board. Taylor subsequently filed a motion for partial summary judgment seeking a declaration that his work for the school board was unrelated to that performed by the school board's school bus maintenance personnel. The school board filed a cross motion for summary judgment on the ground it was immune under Florida's Worker's Compensation Law. Following a hearing on the motions the trial court denied Taylor's motion and granted the motion of the school board. A final judgment in favor of the school board was entered and Taylor appeals.

This case turns on the intended scope of the "unrelated works" exception to the immunity from suit provision in Florida's Workers' Compensation Law. §§ 440.01-440.60, Fla. Stat. (1999). Under the worker's compensation law, an employer is immune to suit for its negligence when the injured employee is covered under the chapter. Similarly, the employer is immune to suit when its employee is injured by another employee in certain instances. The Legislature has created an exception to that immunity: "fellow employee immunities shall not be applicable ... to employees of the same employer when each is operating in furtherance of the employer's business but they are assigned primarily to unrelated works within private or public employment." § 440.11, Fla. Stat.¹ The trial court granted a summary judgment in favor of the school board on the grounds that the alleged negligent employees, school board transportation department mechanics, and Taylor, a school bus attendant whose responsibilities included operation of the wheelchair lift which caused his injury, were assigned to related works. As the trial court reasoned, because both the former and the latter were employees of the school board involved in the same project, they had in common the "provision...