Clausen Miller Wins Florida Fifth District Appeal
Clausen Miller recently prevailed on appeal before Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal. Following briefing and oral argument by Florida partner Michael J. Raudebaugh of Clausen Miller’s Appellate & Trial Monitoring Practice Group, the Fifth District affirmed, per curiam, the final order of the Circuit Court of the Seventh Judicial Circuit granting summary judgment. This represents the Fifth District’s unanimous agreement with the lower court’s ruling and conforms with how Florida courts have construed workers’ compensation immunity relating to injuries suffered by one subcontractor due to the actions of another subcontractor on the same jobsite.
The underlying action was precipitated by an accident that occurred at a large road construction project in Volusia County. The plaintiff, a Florida Highway Patrol officer, was working an “off-duty” shift assisting with lane closure and other traffic control operations at the behest of the general contractor. While the officer was parked in her patrol vehicle, she was struck by a truck driven by another subcontractor on the project who was engaged in paving work. She brought a negligence suit against the other subcontractor to recover for her injuries. The subcontractor asserted that it was immune from liability pursuant to Florida’s workers’ compensation laws. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendant, finding that the plaintiff and defendant were both subcontractors on the same project. Therefore, the defendant subcontractor was entitled to “horizontal immunity” under Sections 440.10 and 440.11 of Florida Statutes, which mandates workers’ compensation coverage to be the sole remedy for employees of subcontractors working on the same project as against the contractor for that project. Horizontal immunity extends this protection to injuries caused by fellow subcontractors. The trial court and appellate court rejected plaintiff’s arguments that she was excluded from this immunity doctrine because the Florida Highway Patrol was not an actual subcontractor on the project, but rather that she was engaged in law enforcement activities. The appeals court found no error in the trial court’s reasoning and affirmed.
Michael J. Raudebaugh