Case Name: Benny L. WALDORF, Appellant, v. JEFFERSON COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD and Gallagher Bassett Services, Appellees
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1993-07-22
Citations: 622 So. 2d 515
Docket Number: No. 92-273
Parties: Benny L. WALDORF, Appellant, v. JEFFERSON COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD and Gallagher Bassett Services, Appellees.
Judges: ZEHMER, C.J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 622
Pages: 515–519

Head Matter:
Benny L. WALDORF, Appellant, v. JEFFERSON COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD and Gallagher Bassett Services, Appellees.
No. 92-273.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.
July 22, 1993.
Rehearing Denied Aug. 25, 1993.
Lorin J. Lee, The Morton Law Center, P.A., Tallahassee, for appellant.
J. Craig Knox of Fuller, Johnson & Farrell, P.A., Tallahassee, for appellees.

Opinion:
WEBSTER, Judge.
The sole issue raised in this workers' compensation case is whether the judge of compensation claims erred as a matter of law by choosing an improper method by which to calculate claimant's average weekly wage. Because the nature of claimant's employment does not fit neatly into any of the alternatives afforded by section 440.14, Florida Statutes (1989), for computation of average weekly wage; and because we conclude that the method used by the judge of compensation claims to arrive at an average weekly wage was fair and reasonable under the circumstances; we affirm.
In February 1991, claimant was injured while in the course of his employment as a substitute school bus driver. At the time of his injury, claimant was employed pursu ant to an annual contract, which expired at the end of the school year. Claimant would be called to work on an "as needed" basis, to replace one of the regular drivers who, for whatever reason, was unable to work. However, claimant had the right to decline to work when called. There was no guarantee regarding either minimum number of hours or minimum pay. Claimant, like the other substitute drivers, was paid $6.53 per hour for each hour actually worked. Although there was no guaranteed minimum number of hours, substitute drivers could not work more than twenty per week. Substitute drivers did not normally work during the summer months. Claimant had worked as a substitute driver for at least the two previous years, under the same terms of employment.
During the entire 1990-91 school year prior to his accident, claimant had worked only sixty-six hours. He had worked one day in September, nine days in January and six days in February. His total gross pay for the school year had been $430.98. This figure was not shown to be inconsistent with that of other substitute drivers. As the school board's transportation supervisor testified, this was because "[s]ome-times you need them [substitute drivers] every day and sometimes you don't need them once a month or sometimes you don't even need them that often. It's according to if you got people out sick."
In addition to his job as a substitute school bus driver, which everyone referred to at the hearing as a "part-time" job, claimant had for many years had his own television repair business, which he considered his principal employment. At the hearing, claimant's counsel agreed that the television repair business was not relevant to the determination of claimant's average weekly wage because of section 440.02(24), Florida Statutes (Supp.1990), which reads: " 'Wages' means the money rate at which the service rendered is recompensed under the contract of hiring in force at the time of the injury and includes only the wages earned on the job where the employee is injured and does not include wages from outside or concurrent employment ." (emphasis added).
The parties and the judge of compensation claims recognized that none of the alternative methods for computing average weekly wage set out in section 440.14 really applied to the facts of claimant's employment as a substitute school bus driver. Claimant argued that, because he had not worked "during substantially the whole of 13 weeks immediately preceding the injury," the method set out in section 440.-14(l)(a) could not be used. There were no "similar employees"; therefore, section 440.14(l)(b) could not be used. Claimant was not a "seasonal worker," so section 440.14(l)(c) could not be used. He argued that, because he had worked only four weeks out of the thirteen preceding his accident, the average of those four weeks should be his average weekly wage.
The employer and servicing agent responded that, coincidentally, virtually all of claimant's work for the school year had been performed during the four weeks preceding his injury. Therefore, using the average of those four weeks would result in a considerable windfall to claimant. They argued, instead, that the average weekly wage would much more nearly reflect claimant's actual wage-earning experience if it were based upon the thirteen weeks preceding his injury, notwithstanding the fact that he had only worked during four of those weeks. The judge of compensation claims accepted that argument, and found that claimant's average weekly wage (based upon the thirteen weeks preceding the accident) was $31.16. It is from this determination that claimant appeals.
We agree that none of the alternative methods set out in section 440.14 for determining average weekly wage adequately covers claimant's employment as a substitute school bus driver. Clearly, as to that job, claimant "was a part-time worker at the time of the injury, . had adopted part-time employment as his customary practice . and . under normal working conditions . probably would have remained a part-time worker during the peri od of disability." Section 440.14(l)(f), Fla. Stat. (1989). Moreover, claimant's counsel agreed that, because of the definition of "wages" in section 440.02(24), claimant's concurrent employment in his television repair business was irrelevant. Thus, it would appear that section 440.14(l)(f), relating to part-time employment, would apply. However, that section provides no real guidance regarding the computation of claimant's average weekly wage.
We have previously noted that the "duty [of the judge of compensation claims] is to reasonably and fairly determine average weekly wage." Orange-Co of Florida v. Waldrop, 454 So.2d 724, 725 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984). In performing that task, the judge of compensation claims is "not a cipher or a calculating robot, but . a judge of [the] claimant's unique employment situation." Florida Cast Stone v. Dehart, 418 So.2d 1271, 1272 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982).
In Silver Springs, Inc. v. Scardo, 408 So.2d 844 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982), we recognized that section 440.14(l)(f) did "not direct the [judge of compensation claims] to consider part-time status in any particular manner." Id. at 845. We recognized, further, that "the part-time worker provision was not added to displace the basic preferred methods of calculating a wage base, but for the rather obvious purpose of preventing a part-time worker from collecting compensation based on the wages of a full-time worker." Id. Accordingly, we concluded that "the only meaningful interpretation of [section 440.14(l)(f) ] is that it should modify the application of each of the basic compensation methods described in [s]ection 440.14(l)(a)-(d)." Id.
Had the judge of compensation claims adopted the approach urged by claimant and used the average of only the four weeks immediately preceding claimant's injury, the resulting average weekly wage would have been $101.22, despite the fact that, for the entire school year (twenty-four weeks) preceding claimant's injury, claimant's total gross wages had been only $430.98. Clearly, such a windfall is not contemplated by the statute. Given the unusual nature of claimant's employment as a substitute school bus driver, we believe that the method of computing claimant's average weekly wage applied by the judge of compensation claims was fair and reasonable to all parties; and that it does not conflict with legislative intent, as expressed in section 440.14. Accordingly, we affirm.
AFFIRMED.
ZEHMER, C.J., concurs.
ERVIN, J., dissents with written opinion.