State News : Florida

In a recent decision, the Florida First District Court of Appeal reaffirmed that the payment of fees and costs to a claimant’s attorney is not a benefit within the meaning of the workers’ compensation statutes which serves to toll the statute of limitations. American Airlines Group v. Lopez, 2024 WL 2306999 (Fla. 1st DCA May 22, 2024). As an initial matter, Section 440.19(1), Florida Statutes provides that all petitions for benefits are barred unless they are filed within two years of the date on which the injured employee knew or should have known that their injury arose out of work performed in the course and scope of their employment. Section 440.19(2) provides that payment of any indemnity benefit or the furnishing of medical treatment tolls the statute of limitations for one year from the date such benefits were provided. In other words, the applicable statute of limitations period in Florida is the later of two years from the date of the accident or one year from the date of the last indemnity payment or authorized treatment.

In the Lopez case, the claimant suffered a compensable accident on August 8, 2019, and filed two petitions for benefits on July 24, 2020. The Employer/Carrier/Servicing Agent provided both medical and indemnity benefits. The last medical bill was paid September 22, 2020, and the last indemnity payment was made November 13, 2020. The issue of entitlement to attorney’s fees and costs remained pending from the claimant’s July 24, 2020 petitions, though this was resolved via stipulation on April 28, 2021, and the stipulation was approved by the Judge of Compensation Claims on May 3, 2021. On December 1, 2021, more than two years after the subject accident and more than one year after the last medical or indemnity payment, the claimant filed another petition followed by a third petition on June 6, 2022.[1] The E/C/SA asserted a statute of limitations defense, which was rejected by the JCC on the grounds that the payment of attorney’s fees is considered a monetary benefit to the claimant, which tolled the statute of limitations for one year.   

On appeal, the First DCA held that the JCC erred in holding that payment of attorney’s fees and costs is a “benefit” which has the effect of tolling the statute of limitations. The court applied the statutory interpretation principle of expression unius est exclusion alterius – the expression of one thing is the exclusion of another – in holding that the statute clearly sets forth the two events which serve to toll the statute of limitations: payment of indemnity benefits or furnishing authorized medical treatment. By expressly including these two events in the statute, the court reasoned that the Florida legislature necessarily excluded all others. Accordingly, as payment of an attorney’s fee is not payment of indemnity benefits or furnishing medical treatment, the statute of limitations had run, and the claimant’s petitions were untimely and barred.