07-5658 ANDERSON COLUMBIA and FCCI INSURANCE COMPANY, v. EDDIE BREWER, JR., SUNTRUST BANK, AS PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ESTATE OF ERIC HOFFMAN, DECEASED, and HAROLD S. RICHMOND

SUPREME COURT CASES

Laws-info.com » Cases » Florida » Florida First District Court » 2008 » 07-5658 ANDERSON COLUMBIA and FCCI INSURANCE COMPANY, v. EDDIE BREWER, JR., SUNTRUST BANK, AS PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ESTATE OF ERIC HOFFMAN, DECEASED, and HAROLD S. RICHMOND

State: Florida

Court: Florida First District Court

Docket No: 07-5658

Case Date: 10/22/2008

Preview:IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL FIRST DISTRICT, STATE OF FLORIDA ANDERSON COLUMBIA and FCCI INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellants, v. EDDIE BREWER, JR., SUNTRUST BANK, AS PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ESTATE OF ERIC HOFFMAN, DECEASED, and HAROLD S. RICHMOND, Appellees. _____________________________/ CASE NO. 1D07-5658 NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE MOTION FOR REHEARING AND DISPOSITION THEREOF IF FILED

Opinion filed October 22, 2008. An appeal from the Circuit Court for Leon County. William L. Gary, Judge. Christopher P. Boyd, Latasha Garrison-Fullwood, David M. Gagnon, and Rhonda B. Boggess of Taylor, Day, Currie, Boyd & Johnson, Jacksonville, for Appellants. Paul M. Meredith, St. Augustine; and Robert C. Crabtree, Tallahassee, for Appellees.

LEWIS, J. Appellants, Anderson Columbia, Inc. ("Anderson Columbia") and FCCI Insurance Co. ("FCCI"), seek review of an Order Denying Entitlement to Lien and

Discharging Lien. Eddie Brewer, Jr., Appellee, was injured by a paving machine within the course and scope of his employment with Anderson Columbia. Appellants claim that because they have been paying workers' compensation benefits to Appellee for the paving machine injury, they are entitled, under section 440.39, Florida Statutes (1989), to a portion of the funds he received in a legal malpractice settlement with the attorneys who mishandled his claim against the paving machine manufacturer. Because section 440.39 does not grant employers and their insurance carriers such a right, we affirm. Shortly after his on-the-job injury, Appellee retained representation to pursue a products-liability action against the paving machine manufacturer. Appellee's attorneys for the products-liability action neglected to file suit before the four-year statute of limitations ran on that claim. As a result, Appellee initiated an action against them for legal malpractice and breach of contract. During the pendency of that action, Appellants filed a Notice of Payment of Workers' Compensation Benefits & Claim of Lien, pursuant to section 440.39, Florida Statutes (1989). After settling the action against his former attorneys, Appellee filed a motion to discharge the lien, which was granted. In discharging Appellants' lien, the trial court held that the defendants in the legal malpractice action were not third-party tortfeasors within the meaning of section 440.39(2). We agree. 2

This appeal presents a question of statutory interpretation. Employers and their workers' compensation insurers have no common law right to subrogation of claims brought by injured employees against third-party tortfeasors. Shaw v. Cambridge Integrated Serv. Group, Inc., 888 So. 2d 58, 62 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004). Their right to subrogation is recognized solely as a creature of statute, and as such, is limited by the terms and conditions set forth in the Workers' Compensation Act. Id. As in any case involving application of a statute, we are bound to give effect to the legislative intent as expressed through the plain statutory language. Borden v. East-European Ins. Co., 921 So. 2d 587, 595 (Fla. 2006). Only when that language is ambiguous or "of doubtful meaning" should other considerations enter into the analysis. See Vegas v. Globe Sec., 627 So. 2d 76, 85 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993). In any event, courts are not to "add, subtract, [or] distort the words" the Legislature has written. State v. Byars, 804 So. 2d 336, 338 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001). Section 440.39 governs the rights and duties of an employer or its insurance carrier ("E/C") and a claimant in the event that the claimant's injuries are attributable to the negligence or wrongdoing of another. Section 440.39(1) provides as follows: If an employee, subject to the provisions of the Workers' Compensation Law, is injured or killed in the course of his employment by the negligence or wrongful act of a third-party tortfeasor, such injured employee . . . may accept compensation benefits under the provisions of this law, and at the same time such injured employee . . . may pursue his 3

remedy by action at law or otherwise against such third-party tortfeasor. However, if the E/C has paid or is paying workers' compensation benefits to the injured employee, it "shall be subrogated to the rights of the employee . . . to the extent of the amount of compensation benefits paid or to be paid . . . ."

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