Wiggs Const. v. Knowles
| Decision Date | 13 November 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. BK-142,BK-142 |
| Citation | 497 So.2d 942,11 Fla. L. Weekly 2380 |
| Parties | 11 Fla. L. Weekly 2380 WIGGS CONSTRUCTION and F.C.C.I. Claims Service, Appellants, v. Dorald KNOWLES, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
L.C. Shepard, Jr., and Debra Levy Neimark, of Adams, Coogler, Watson & Merkel, West Palm Beach, for appellants.
Gerald A. Rosenthal, of Rosenthal & Findler, West Palm Beach, for appellee.
Appellants employer/servicing agent seek review of a workers' compensation order finding the claimant suffered a heart attack in the course of and arising out of his employment, and awarding him compensation benefits, medical bills and attorney's fees.
Appellants contend the appellee failed to prove his heart attack was caused by work activities that were not routine to his job. We affirm, finding that on the day of appellee's injury he performed work that was not routine to the job for which he was hired.
Appellee, a 58-year-old carpenter, suffered a myocardial infarction on June 26, 1984, while employed by appellant Wiggs Construction Co. Appellee testified he had worked 30 years as a carpenter, doing mostly light "trim" carpentry or supervising other workers. The job at Wiggs Construction in which he was employed at the time of his infarction was "do it all" carpentry, including "rough" carpentry normally assigned to younger men with greater physical strength and endurance. On the day of his injury, appellee was the upper-level man in a three-man team responsible for hoisting 4 by 8 foot plywood sheets weighing 75 pounds each up from the ground to the roof of a two-story building. He was required to grab the plywood sheets from a man standing below him, who, in turn, grabbed the sheets from another man on the ground.
Appellee testified that when the larger and heavier 4 by 8 foot sheets of plywood were used in a job, the lifting normally required two men. On that day, however, appellee stated, there were not enough workers to provide a second man to help him pull the plywood up to the roof. The day before, appellee's first day on this job with Wiggs Construction, appellee and his coworkers had been hoisting the lighter 2 by 8 foot sheets of plywood onto a different section of the roof.
Appellee and a coworker testified that on the day of the injury, the weather was exceptionally hot and humid. Work began at 8 a.m., and after about three and one-half hours of hoisting plywood, appellee's coworker climbed down to the ground to get water. Appellee followed him down, felt as though he were suffering from heat exhaustion, and then began to have chest pains. He was taken to a hospital emergency room, and was later diagnosed as having suffered a myocardial infarction.
The employer/servicing agent controverted appellee's claim for compensation benefits and medical bills on the ground that the heart attack was not compensable.
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