Case Name: Martin BAKERMAN, Petitioner, v. THE BOMBAY COMPANY, INC., et al., Respondents
Court: Florida Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2007-06-21
Citations: 961 So. 2d 259
Docket Number: No. SC05-358
Parties: Martin BAKERMAN, Petitioner, v. THE BOMBAY COMPANY, INC., et al., Respondents.
Judges: LEWIS, C.J., and ANSTEAD and PARIENTE, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 961
Pages: 259–270

Head Matter:
Martin BAKERMAN, Petitioner, v. THE BOMBAY COMPANY, INC., et al., Respondents.
No. SC05-358.
Supreme Court of Florida.
June 21, 2007.
Barbara Green, Miami, FL, and Robert N. Pelier, Coral Gables, FL, for Petitioner.
Robert E. Biasotti of Carlton Fields, P.A., St. Petersburg, FL, and Christine R. Davis of Carlton Fields, P.A., Tallahassee, FL, for Respondent.
Valerie A. Fernandez and Steven G. Gieseler, on behalf of Pacific Legal Foundation, Coral Gables, FL, as Amicus Curiae.

Opinion:
QUINCE, J.
We have for review Bombay Co. v. Bakerman, 891 So.2d 555 (Fla. 3d DCA 2004), which expressly and directly conflicts with the decision of this Court in Turner v. PCR, Inc., 754 So.2d 683 (Fla.2000). We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(3), Fla. Const. For the reasons explained below, we quash the decision of the Third District in Bombay.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
In September 1997, Martin Bakerman was injured in a fall from a ladder while employed at a Bombay Company retail store. Employees of the store constantly used the ladder to stock and retrieve sales merchandise from shelves in the Bombay storeroom. The storeroom in which the ladder was used was small and crowded, with shelves of merchandise extending several feet overhead. The ladder used was a wooden A-frame type that had been in use in the storeroom for a number of years. The poor condition of the ladder was apparent. It was old, wobbly, and undersized for its purpose, such that employees would have to balance on top of the ladder in order to retrieve merchandise from the uppermost shelves. Because of its bad condition, the ladder would increasingly sway from side to side when someone climbed it. The only way to stop the swaying was to hold on to the shelves with one hand while retrieving merchandise with the other hand. It was sometimes necessary, as in this instance, to stand on the top step of the ladder in order to reach customer merchandise from the upper shelves. Furthermore, the ladder's feet were not fitted with rubber traction shoes and were cut at an angle for increased stability while in the open position. However, because there was insufficient space in which to open the ladder, it was usually leaned against the shelves with its legs closed. It was estimated that the ladder was used dozens of times each day by the employees, and Bakerman himself had used it hundreds of times without incident.
Bakerman complained about the danger to his store manager, who also used the ladder. The store manager testified that she, in turn, had repeatedly complained to Bombay Company's district manager and asked for a new ladder. The district manager testified that he did not recall the requests.
While at the top of the ladder trying to retrieve merchandise, Bakerman momentarily let go of the shelves and fell from the ladder. This fall pulverized the bones of Bakerman's left heel. Bakerman received workers' compensation benefits during his recovery but later sued Bombay, claiming that Bombay's actions constituted an intentional tort. At trial, Bombay asserted workers' compensation immunity in an unsuccessful motion for a directed verdict. By denying Bombay's motion for a directed verdict, the trial judge determined that the issue presented a question for the jury — whether the employer knew or should have known that its failure to replace the defective ladder was substantially certain to result in the injury or death of an employee. The jury concluded that the conduct was substantially certain to result in Bakerman's injury. As a result, the jury found Bombay sixty-seven percent liable and Bakerman thirty-three percent liable. After reduction for comparative fault, judgment was entered in favor of Bakerman for $118,228.20. Bombay appealed.
On appeal, Bombay asserted that the evidence was legally insufficient to support the verdict. On rehearing of its initial decision, the Third District reversed the trial court judgment and remanded the case for entry of judgment in favor of Bombay. The district court referred to this Court's decision in Turner v. PCR, Inc., 754 So.2d 683 (Fla.2000), to emphasize that the cases finding liability under the intentional tort exception contain "a common thread of evidence that the employer tried to cover up the danger, affording the employees no means to make a reasonable decision as to their actions." Bombay, 891 So.2d at 557 (quoting Turner, 754 So.2d at 691). Lacking any allegation of concealment' of the danger and finding that the danger was evident to Bakerman, the Third District determined that the evidence was legally insufficient to support liability under the intentional tort exception to workers' compensation immunity and remanded the case for entry of judgment in favor of Bombay.
ANALYSIS
The question before us is whether the substantial certainty test of the intentional tort exception to workers' compensation immunity has as an indispensable requirement that the employer conceal danger from the employee. This is a question of law subject to the de novo standard of review. See D'Angelo v. Fitzmaurice, 863 So.2d 311, 314 (Fla.2003) ("The standard of review for the pure questions of law before us is de novo."); see also Armstrong v. Harris, 773 So.2d 7, 11 (Fla.2000) ("[T]he standard of review for a pure question of law is de novo.").
Florida Workers' Compensation law sets forth a comprehensive scheme that provides disability and medical benefits to workers who are injured on the job during the course of their employment. See generally § 440.01-440.60, Fla. Stat. (2006). The system is "based on a mutual renunciation of common-law rights and defenses by employers and employees alike." § 440.015, Fla. Stat. (2006). Injured employees who fall within the scope of its provisions are to be swiftly provided compensation and necessary medical benefits by the employer, irrespective of fault as a cause of the injury. See § 440.09, 440.10(2), Fla. Stat. (2006). In exchange, employers that comply with the provisions of the chapter are given immunity from civil suit by the employee, except in the most egregious circumstances. See § 440.11, Fla. Stat. (2006).
When an employer commits an intentional tort against an employee, it may be subject to civil action under a narrow exception to workers' compensation immunity. In Fisher v. Shenandoah General Construction Co., 498 So.2d 882 (Fla.1986), we held that "[i]n order for an employer's actions to amount to an intentional tort, the employer must either exhibit a deliberate intent to injure or engage in conduct which is substantially certain to result in injury or death." Id. at 883. In Turner v. PCR, Inc., 754 So.2d 683 (Fla.2000), this Court reaffirmed the existence of an intentional tort exception to workers' compensation immunity, requiring an objective analysis to "measure whether the employer engaged in conduct which was substantially certain to result in injury." Id. at 691. The district court in Turner affirmed the trial court's grant of summary judgment for the employer, noting that the specific type of accident that resulted in the employee's death had never before occurred at the employer's plant. Applying the substantial certainty standard, this Court quashed that decision. Although we emphasized that the employee maintains the ultimate burden of demonstrating substantial certainty to the jury, we found that there was a genuine issue of material fact produced by the experts' affidavits. "Under an objective test for the substantial certainty standard, an analysis of the circumstances in a case would be required to determine whether a reasonable person would understand that the employer's conduct was 'substantially certain' to result in injury or death to the employee." Id. at 688.
In the instant action, Bakerman contends that the Third District's decision conflicts with this Court's decision in Turner by adding a concealment of danger requirement to the objective substantial certainty standard. In reviewing the instant case on rehearing, the Third District acknowledged the applicable law and noted that the issue presents a jury question as to whether the employer had engaged in conduct that was substantially certain to result in injury or death. Bombay, 891 So.2d at 557. However, the Third District additionally said:
Of particular interest here, the Turner decision also points out that the cases finding liability under the intentional tort exception contain a "common thread of evidence that the employer tried to cover up the danger, affording the employees no means to make a reasonable decision as to their actions." 754 So.2d at 691 (citing Connelly v. Arrow Air, Inc., 568 So.2d 448 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990), and Cunningham v. Anchor Hocking Corp., 558 So.2d 93 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990), and Emergency One, Inc. v. Keffer, 652 So.2d 1233 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995)).
That element is missing here. Here, as in Emergency One, the dangerous condition was evident to the employee and there was no concealment of the danger. For that reason we conclude that the evidence was legally insufficient to support liability under the intentional tort exception to workers' compensation immunity. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment and remand for entry of judgment in favor of Bombay.
Bombay, 891 So.2d at 557 (emphasis added). Thus, the court in Bombay effectively held concealment to be an indispensable criterion of the substantial certainty analysis of the intentional tort exception. As a result, an employer will enjoy immunity from civil suit unless the employee can affirmatively show that there was concealment of danger by the employer.
While Turner notes the existence of con: cealment by the employer in some of the cases, Turner does not hold that as a matter of law concealment is a necessary element of the substantial certainty analysis. Neither Cunningham v. Anchor Hocking Corp., 558 So.2d 93 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990), nor Connelly v. Arrow Air, Inc., 568 So.2d 448 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990), which were cited in Turner, held that a concealed danger is required before an employee may recover for intentional tort. In Cunningham, which involved injuries resulting from exposure to toxic chemicals, the First District reversed the decision of the trial court and held that the allegations of the complaint were sufficient to "state a cause of action" and "should not have been dismissed." 558 So.2d at 97. The district court never suggested that concealment was a required element, but instead emphasized that "the allegations are that injury was a 'substantial certainty' and that there was repeated, continued exposure that was intentionally increased and worsened by appellees' deliberate and malicious conduct." Id. The employer's misrepresentation of the danger was only one of several allegations permitting the claims of battery, fraud, and deceit to survive the employer's motion to dismiss.
Likewise, in Connelly, an action involving the crash of a DC-8 airplane, it was never suggested that an employer must conceal the dangerous condition from the employee before an action can be maintained for conduct that falls outside workers' compensation immunity. There, the Third District reversed a summary judgment in favor- of the employer, finding it "quite reasonable to conclude, as a matter of law,- that a passenger aircraft which is routinely overloaded and poorly main tained . will — to a substantial certainty — eventually succumb to the incessant forces of gravity causing serious injury to, or the death of, those aboard." 568 So.2d at 451. Concealment of the danger from the employees was evidently not a factor in the court's conclusion. Having found that the objective test of substantial certainty was met without a showing of concealment, the court then stated in dicta:
Further, where the employer, as in this case, withholds from an employee, knowledge of a defect or hazard which poses a grave threat of injury so that the employee is not permitted to exercise an informed judgment whether to perform the assigned task, the employer will be considered to have acted in a "belief that harm is substantially certain to occur."
Id. (emphasis added).
Under Connelly, the added element of concealment merely provides a presumption that the action of the employer was substantially certain to result in injury to the employee. Thus, contrary to the Third District's decision in Bombay, Cunningham and Connelly stand for the proposition that concealment can be an important, but not essential, factor in the larger analysis of whether the circumstances demonstrate a substantial certainty of harm.
Even though case law on the intentional tort exception to workers' compensation immunity is devoid of any defined test that will establish substantial certainty as a matter of law, it is evident that concealment of the dangerous condition is only one of several factors in a nonexclusive list. However, in deciding the instant case, the Third District cited our decision in Turner for the proposition that concealment of the danger is a required element to a finding of liability under the intentional tort exception. Based on this proposition, the Third District concluded that the evidence was legally insufficient to support liability under the intentional tort exception to workers' compensation immunity. Although the decision in Turner noted that there have been cases that "share a common thread of evidence that the employer tried to cover up the danger, affording the employees no means to make a reasonable decision as to their actions," the decision did not ultimately conclude that concealment of the danger is a necessary requirement to satisfying the substantial certainty standard. Turner, 754 So.2d at 691. Accordingly, the Third District erred by basing its decision solely on whether the employer concealed the danger.
As the Third District stated in its decision in the instant case, "the evidence presented a jury question on whether the employer had engaged in conduct which was substantially certain to result in injury or death." Bombay, 891 So.2d at 557 (citing Turner, 754 So.2d at 687 n. 4). We agree that this was an issue for the jury to decide. At trial, the jury was instructed on what it should consider in making its decision, including the following:
Whether the Bombay Company engaged in conduct which was substantially certain to result in injury or death. The mere probability that injury or death might result from an employer's conduct is not sufficient to hold the employer liable for the accident. If however, the greater weight of the evidence does support the claim of Martin Baker-man, then you should consider the defense raised by the Bombay Company.
The court went on to inform the jury that if they found that injury was a substantial certainty, then they would have to determine if Bakerman exercised reasonable care in the use of the ladder. Based on the facts presented, the jury determined that injury was substantially certain to result. Thus, the issue that the district court should have determined was whether there was sufficient evidence to uphold the jury's determination that the plaintiff had demonstrated a substantial certainty that injury would result from the employer's actions or inactions. The district court instead added a new essential element to the substantial certainty test. This was error.
CONCLUSION
Based on the above, we conclude that the Third District erred in reversing the judgment based solely on the plantiff s failure to demonstrate that the employer concealed a danger. Accordingly, we quash the decision of the Third District in Bombay and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
LEWIS, C.J., and ANSTEAD and PARIENTE, JJ., concur.
WELLS, J., dissents with an opinion, in which CANTERO and BELL, JJ., concur.
. We note that this decision will have limited application because the Legislature has amended the statute to add concealment as an essential factor.
. The Fisher complaint alleged that the employer ordered the employee to enter and clean a pipeline containing dangerous methane gas without safety equipment even though the employer knew that the risk would in all probability result in injury or death. Fisher v. Shenandoah Gen'l Constr. Co., 472 So.2d 871, 872 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985), quashed, 498 So.2d 882 (Fla.1986). This Court found the allegations of the complaint insufficient where they spoke in terms of probability rather than certainty. 498 So.2d at 884. However, we later expressly receded from that opinion to the extent that it could be read as rejecting the facts within as a sufficient basis to support an allegation of substantial certainty of injury. Turner v. PCR, Inc., 754 So.2d 683, 691 n. 8 (Fla.2000). Notably, Fisher lacked any factual allegation that the danger had been concealed from the employee or that the employee was unaware of the danger.
. In 2003, the Florida Legislature codified the intentional tort exception to workers' compensation immunity and heightened the standard needed to fall within the exception. Florida's Workers' Compensation law now permits suit against an employer:
(b) When an employer commits an intentional tort that causes the injury or death of the employee. For purposes of this paragraph, an employer's actions shall be deemed to constitute an intentional tort and not an accident only when the employee proves, by clear and convincing evidence, that
1. The employer deliberately intended to injure the employee; or
2. The employer engaged in conduct that the employer knew, based on prior similar accidents or on explicit warnings specifically identifying a known danger, was virtually certain to result in injury or death to the employee, and the employee was not aware of the risk because the danger was not apparent and the employer deliberately concealed or misrepresented the danger so as to prevent the employee from exercising informed judgment about whether to perform the work.
§ 440.1 l(l)(b), Fla. Stat. (2006). The statute does not apply retroactively and thus does not apply to this case.
. Some of the facts presented to the jury that reflect a substantial certainty of injury include: the wooden, A-frame ladder could not be used in the open position because the stock room was crowded and narrow; the ladder would be leaned against the shelves in the closed position; the safety locks on the ladder could only be engaged in the open position; the feet of the ladder were cut at an angle so that they would be stable in the open position; the feet had no rubber traction shoes; the ladder was old, rickety, and would increasingly sway from side to side as one ascended it; it was necessary to stand on the very top of the ladder to retrieve merchandise from the top shelves; the top shelves were estimated to be sixteen to twenty feet high; Bakerman complained about the ladder to the store manager; the store manager requested permission to purchase a new ladder from the district manager; the district manager continually refused permission to purchase a new ladder; Bakerman fell while retrieving a vase from an upper shelf and fractured his heel; and Bombay took no action* to replace the ladder until shortly after Bakerman's fall.