Case Title: Tracy v. Americana Hotel

Citation: 234 So. 2d 641

Docket Number: 38862

State: florida

Court: Florida Supreme Court

Date: 1970-04-08T00:00:00Z

Document:
234 So. 2d 641 (1970)
Roselyn TRACY, Petitioner,
v.
AMERICANA HOTEL, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, and the Florida Industrial Commission, Respondents.
No. 38862.

Supreme Court of Florida.
April 8, 1970.
Rehearing Denied May 27, 1970.
L. Barry Keyfetz, of Ser, Greenspahn & Keyfetz, Miami, for petitioner.
Edwin H. Underwood, Jr., of Wakefield & Underwood, Miami, Patrick H. Mears and J. Franklin Garner, Tallahassee, for respondents.
ADKINS, Justice.
By petition for writ of certiorari, we have for review an order of the Florida Industrial Commission (now known as Industrial Relations Commission) dated June 19, 1969, reversing an order of the Judge of Industrial Claims.
Claimant is a sixty-year-old chambermaid, who was employed by Americana Hotel and *642 was responsible for eleven or twelve large rooms. On July 6, 1966, she commenced her work at 8:00 a.m., performing her normal duties without incident until approximately 2:30 p.m. At this time, Mrs. Tracy discovered that a co-employee had stripped her work cart and removed the towels and linen, which claimant had intended to use at that time.
This incident irritated claimant, as she was attempting to finish her daily work assignment by her normal quitting time of 3:40 p.m.
After obtaining new linen and while still in an emotionally agitated state, claimant "snapped" a sheet across the width of a bed she was in the process of making. The sheet was "snapped" so that it would hit the other side of the mattress. Suddenly, and without warning, claimant experienced a wave of weakness throughout her body and a feeling that her "head was going to blow off." She fell to the floor and remained there until taken by ambulance to the hospital. Claimant had sustained a ruptured aneurysm as a result of a significant rise in her blood pressure.
The Judge of Industrial Claims found claimant sustained a compensable injury when, directly related to her work, her blood pressure was caused to significantly rise suddenly resulting in a ruptured aneurysm and consequent brain damage. On appeal to the Full Commission, the employer contended there was no competent substantial evidence supporting the finding of an "accident" as is contemplated by the workmen's compensation law, there being a complete dearth of any of the usual traumatic evidence such as slipping, falling, or receiving a direct blow or strain. The Full Commission reversed the finding of the Judge of Industrial Claims and held claimant did not sustain a compensable accident.
In Williams v. Terrazzo Associates, 224 So. 2d 257 (Fla. 1969), this Court said:
Based upon the testimony of Dr. Christian Keedy and Dr. O. Whitmore Burtner, the Judge of Industrial Claims found that the precipitating factor causing the rupture was the claimant's anger upon finding her linen missing from her work cart and that such anger, in concert with her physical act of throwing a sheet across a bed, exacerbated her pre-existing hypertensive condition to the point that the rupture occurred. Claimant sustained her injury as an unexpected result flowing from the performance of her employment activity.
The findings of the Judge of Industrial Claims are supported by competent substantial evidence and they accord with reason. The Full Commission substituted its view of the evidence for that of the Judge and its order must be reversed. Painter v. Board of Public Instruction of Dade County, 223 So. 2d 33 (Fla. 1969).
The evidence shows that claimant had a prior history of hypertension for which she had been treated by her personal physician. The Judge of Industrial Claims found that "such hypertension contributed to the formation of the left common carotid arterial aneurysm." The Judge then apportioned the permanent disability arising out of the accident in equal measure with the pre-existing hypertensive disease of the plaintiff. Claimant contends that the Judge erred in apportioning the award.
This question has not been considered by the Full Commission, as the only issue considered in the order reversing the Judge of Industrial Claims was whether or not the incident was an accident under the workmen's compensation law. In order to bring judicial labor to an end and expedite *643 the payment of compensation, we will consider the propriety of the apportionment.
Section 440.02(19), Fla. Stat., F.S.A., contains the following provision:
This Court in Evans v. Florida Industrial Commission, 196 So. 2d 748 (Fla. 1967), construed this provision as follows:
The trial judge's finding of apportionment in the case sub judice is incorrect, since under the Evans case, apportionment only applies where the pre-existing disease is shown to produce disability manifested at time of accident or where due to normal progress, independent of the accident, such disease is shown to produce disability at time of the award. There is no substantial evidence in this case that claimant's hypertensive disease was subject to percentage apportionment as a disabling element.
The order of the Full Commission is quashed. The case is remanded to the Full Commission for further proceedings not inconsistent with the decision herein.
The petition for attorney's fees filed by petitioner, Roselyn Tracy, is granted in the amount of $350.00.
ERVIN, C.J., and CARLTON and BOYD, JJ., concur.
ROBERTS, J., dissents.