State News : Florida

In a recent case, Steak ‘N Shake, Inc. v. Spears, Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal affirmed that employees who sustain alleged injuries in the workplace cannot bypass the workers compensation system to bring a tort claim against their employer. In this case, the injured worker suffered severe emotional distress after a robbery in the workplace where she was held at gunpoint, forced into a backroom, and had her life repeatedly threatened by the gunman. Importantly, although the gunman grabbed the injured worker by her neck and shoulder, she admitted she did not sustain any physical injuries. Florida workers compensation law contains an express limitation on benefits available for mental and nervous injuries. Specifically, Section 440.093(1), Florida Statutes, states:

A mental or nervous injury due to stress, fright, or excitement only is not an injury by accident arising out of the employment. Nothing in this section shall be construed to allow for the payment of benefits under this chapter for mental or nervous injuries without an accompanying physical injury requiring medical treatment. A physical injury resulting from mental or nervous injuries unaccompanied by physical trauma requiring medical treatment shall not be compensable under this chapter.

                The employee chose not to file a workers compensation claim and instead filed a civil tort suit directly against her employer for emotional distress suffered as a result of the robbery. In response, Steak ‘N Shake claimed entitlement to workers compensation immunity, arguing that because the employee failed to request workers compensation benefits, she had not taken the first step to determine whether she sustained compensable injuries during the robbery. At the trial court level, the court sided with the employee and ruled that the tort claim was outside the scope of Florida workers compensation law, as the employee had not sustained any physical injuries, meaning she was “never entitled to workers compensation benefits.”

                On appeal, the Fifth DCA reversed the trial court's decision and held that an employee may not pursue a tort claim against their employer in circuit court without first seeking a determination as to whether they sustained a compensable injury and are entitled to workers compensation benefits. The Fifth DCA highlighted Section 440.13(1)(d), Florida Statutes, which defines “compensable” to mean “a determination by a carrier or judge of compensation claims that a condition suffered by an employee results from an injury arising out of and in the course of employment.” In other words, only insurance carriers and workers compensation judges—not circuit court judges or injured employees themselves—have the authority to determine compensability. Because the injured worker chose to file in circuit court rather than file a workers compensation claim, no carrier or judge of compensation claims had made a determination as to whether her injuries were compensable. Neither the injured worker herself nor the trial court judge had the authority to make this determination, and the trial court order allowing the tort case to proceed against the employer was vacated and remanded.

                What this means for Florida employers is that employees must first seek workers’ compensation benefits before filing a civil tort suit against their employer. They cannot make a compensability determination on their own or seek to have a circuit court judge do it for them. This is true even in cases of purely emotional or mental injuries, which generally are not compensable under Florida law. In Spears, or in a similar case where the facts would play to jurors’ emotions and could result in an excessive jury verdict, this gives employers options for deciding how to handle these difficult claims.