Case ID: so2d_414/html/0012-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "WENTWORTH, Judge.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

BLACKBURN HOME IMPROVEMENTS and Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., Appellants, v. Elude LEBEL, Appellee.
    No. AE-352.
    District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.
    April 29, 1982.
    Rehearing Denied June 8, 1982.
    
      Robert W. Elton, of Smalbein, Eubank, Johnson, Rosier & Bussey, Daytona Beach, for appellants.
    Edward H. Hurt, of Hurt & Parrish, and Bill McCabe, of Shepherd, McCabe & Cooley, Orlando, for appellee.
   WENTWORTH, Judge.

Employer/carrier appeal a'workers’ compensation order which we affirm except as to the determination that employer/carrier is responsible for payment of claimant’s attorney’s fees. Section 440.34(2)(b), Florida Statutes (1979), provides for the assessment of such a fee in cases “where the deputy commissioner issues an order finding that a carrier has acted in bad faith . . . . ” In the present case the deputy has made no express finding of “bad faith,” and the order does not otherwise indicate whether the attorney’s fee award was predicated on such a conclusion. Section 440.34(2)(a) and (c) establish other instances where an employer/carrier is responsible for a claimant’s attorney’s fee; however, the present case does not involve the application of these provisions. We therefore remand this cause for the deputy to indicate whether the attorney’s fee award was predicated upon a finding of “bad faith.”

The order appealed is affirmed in part and the cause is remanded.

ERVIN and SHIVERS, JJ., concur.