Case Name: HARBOR FREIGHT TOOLS, INC. and Safety National Casualty Corp./Corvel, Appellants, v. Patricia WHITEHEAD, Appellee.
Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2018-05-18
Citations: 244 So. 3d 410
Docket Number: No. 1D17–3194
Parties: HARBOR FREIGHT TOOLS, INC. and Safety National Casualty Corp./Corvel, Appellants,
v.
Patricia WHITEHEAD, Appellee.
Judges: 
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Third Series
Volume: 244
Pages: 410–410

Head Matter:
HARBOR FREIGHT TOOLS, INC. and Safety National Casualty Corp./Corvel, Appellants,
v.
Patricia WHITEHEAD, Appellee.
No. 1D17-3194
District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.
May 18, 2018
Rehearing Denied June 14, 2018
Daniel M. Schwarz and Gina M. Jacobs of Cole, Scott & Kissane, P.A., Plantation, for Appellants.
Daniel J. Glary, Jacksonville, for Appellee.

Opinion:
Per Curiam.
A judge of compensation claims awarded workers' compensation benefits based on the so-called "120-day rule," which generally precludes carriers from denying compensability if they begin paying benefits and do not challenge compensability within 120 days. See § 440.20(4), Fla. Stat. (2015) ; see also Sierra v. Metropolitan Protective Servs., 188 So.3d 863, 866-67 (Fla. 1st DCA 2015). But "[a] claimant's 'defense' of waiver to an [employer's] ability to deny compensability of an accident or specific injury/condition pursuant to the '120-Day Rule' is an affirmative pleading which must be timely raised and specifically plead[ed]." Teco Energy, Inc. v. Williams , 234 So.3d 816, 823 (Fla. 1st DCA 2017). Here the claimant did not specifically plead application of the 120-day rule. The judge of compensation claims therefore erred in awarding benefits based on the rule.
REVERSED .
Lewis, Kelsey, and Winsor, JJ., concur.