Title: Sosenko v. American Airmotive Corporation
Citation: 156 So. 2d 489
Docket Number: 32463
State: Florida
Issuer: Florida Supreme Court
Date: September 11, 1963

156 So. 2d 489 (1963)
Theodore SOSENKO, Petitioner,
v.
AMERICAN AIRMOTIVE CORPORATION, United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, and the Florida Industrial Commission, Respondents.
No. 32463.

Supreme Court of Florida.
September 11, 1963.
Johnson, Gaine &amp; Kaiser and Thomas J. Gaine, Miami, for petitioner.
Summers Warden, Miami, for American Airmotive Corp. and U.S. Fidelity and Guaranty Co.; Burnis T. Coleman and Patrick H. Mears, Tallahassee, for Florida Industrial Commission, respondents.
TERRELL, Acting Chief Justice.
May 9, 1961, while in line of duty, a scaffold on which petitioner was working collapsed, throwing petitioner to a cement deck causing him serious injury. He experienced immediate pain in his right foot and was promptly provided medical care. He was found to have sustained a fracture of the right os calcis which the employer accepted as being compensable. He was carried to Hialeah Hospital and placed under the care of Dr. Ledford Gregory for a period of eight days. As a result of the accident, petitioner became totally disabled and was compensated by the carrier for temporary total disability.
Petitioner is 38 years of age with formal schooling through the eleventh grade. He *490 had worked more than eight years as a spray painter for the New York Central Railroad. For more than three years he followed the same employment with National Air Lines. He had been working for his present employer for approximately two months in the same line of work.
Upon discharge from Hialeah Hospital petitioner walked on crutches at home, in severe pain. While on crutches the blood would flow to his foot requiring that it be elevated above his head. Due to the pain he lost sleep and was required to take sleeping pills. He was depressed and upset because of his foot condition and the fear that he would never be able to return to his old occupation. His occupation required much climbing and walking and he worried about that. Because of his pain, fear of not getting his job back and his dwindling finances, he became despondent.
August 11, 1961, Dr. Gregory informed petitioner that he could return to light work provided he did little standing or walking and no climbing. At this time petitioner's foot was swollen and painful and he resolved to wait two weeks before seeking work.
August 13, 1961, about 2:00 A.M., after petitioner had engaged in a normal day's activities and a casual evening with friends, he experienced chest pains and was admitted to the North Shore Hospital where his condition was diagnosed as an acute myocardian ischemia and posterior wall infarct. During this time the carrier paid claimant compensation for temporary total disability for his ankle injury but denied payment of remedial treatment and hospital expenses for the heart attack. Claim was made only for medical benefits and not for temporary or permanent disability benefits.
Claimant was treated for his heart attack by Dr. Morris E. Kuckku and was examined for the carrier by Dr. Morton M. Halpern. After his heart attack, he returned to American Airmotive in January 1962. He worked four days and because of excessive pain in his foot and ankle, he had to stop working. He returned for treatment and his ankle was operated upon.
There are two transcripts of the hearing before the deputy commissioner and petitioner is uncertain which one was before the full commission on review. A stipulation was entered into on May 29, 1962, and an order entered providing for the court reporter's notes to be transcribed and become the official transcript. This contains about 70 pages which is all of the testimony.
Pursuant to petitioner's claim for medical expenses, the deputy commissioner found that there was a causal connection between the heart attack of August 13, 1961, and the compensable ankle injury of May 9, 1961, and accordingly ordered the carrier to pay the remedial claims. The deputy commissioner largely based his ruling upon the medical opinions of Doctors Kuckku and Halpern. In his order the deputy found in part:
Upon review the full commission reversed the deputy commissioner and dismissed the claim on the dual grounds that there was no competent substantial evidence to sustain the deputy commissioner's finding that the heart attack was causally related to the original ankle injury and because the deputy commissioner's findings failed to accord with the essential requirements of law relating to the compensability of the so-called "heart cases" as set forth in the case of Victor Wine &amp; Liquor, Inc. v. Beasley, Fla. 1962, 141 So. 2d 581. The full commission's order reflects that it was aware of the fact that the rule in the Victor Wine case specifically applied to heart attacks suffered by an employee during the course of his employment in cases wherein the heart attack was the primary injury upon which the workmen's compensation claim was filed. The full commission reached its conclusion denying recovery with the following language:
The first question presented for our determination is whether or not the full commission erred in applying the rule of the Victor Wine case, supra, to the facts of the instant case. In the Victor Wine case this court said:
It is clear from the facts of the Victor Wine case that the rule adopted therein involved only a determination as to whether an injury to the claimant was compensable under the workmen's compensation act in the first instance. Our holding in that case did not necessarily carry with it an answer to the question of whether compensation would be extended to a subsequent injury related in some way to a primary injury which was previously held compensable.
Many authorities recognize the distinction between the causation rules affecting a primary injury and causation rules which determine how far the range of compensable consequences are to be carried once the primary injury is clearly established as being causally connected with the employment. Larson in his workmen's compensation work has stated the applicable rule, which we adopt as our own, as follows:
See also Johnnie's Produce Co. v. Benedict &amp; Jordan, Fla. 1960, 120 So. 2d 12, and City of Lakeland v. Burton, Fla. 1941, 147 Fla. 412, 2 So. 2d 731.
From the above it is clear that the full commission applied the wrong rule of law to the facts in the instant case and, therefore, its decision must be set aside. Having determined that the full commission has erred in applying the rule of the Victor Wine case to a subsequent injury related in some way to the compensable primary injury does not, however, conclude this matter because we must determine whether or not the deputy commissioner's findings were supported by competent substantial evidence and whether or not they conform to the essential requirements of law.
We have carefully examined the testimony of record and are convinced that the deputy commissioner's findings of fact quoted in part herein contain an accurate synopsis of the testimony of Doctors Gregory, Kuckku and Halpern. The record in this cause is replete with competent substantial evidence sufficient to sustain the deputy commissioner's conclusion that the petitioner's compensable ankle fracture "was a competent, accelerating or precipitating cause" of the petitioner's heart attack. Unfortunately, it is not clear from the deputy commissioner's order whether or not he applied the rule of law which we have discussed herein as being applicable to this cause. From our examination of the deputy commissioner's order we cannot say with certainty that had he applied said rule he would have found petitioner's heart attack was the "direct and natural result" of the compensable primary injury. Further, it is not clear from the deputy commissioner's findings whether the subsequent injury can be considered attributable to petitioner's own negligence or fault to such *493 an extent that said negligence or fault became an independent intervening cause of the subsequent injury.
For the reasons above stated, the petition for writ of certiorari is hereby granted and the order of the full commission quashed with directions that this cause be remanded to the deputy commissioner with directions that he proceed with a re-evaluation of the testimony of record and enter new findings and conclusions not inconsistent with the principles of law expressed herein.
It is so ordered.
ROBERTS and THORNAL, JJ., and GORDON, Circuit Judge, concur.
THOMAS, J., dissents.