Opinion ID: 1916968
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: portion unconstitutional

Text: This leaves for our consideration the third class of cases, being those in which the necessary medical benefits do not have a reasonable value in excess of $1,000, and in which no death or permanent injury results, but in which: ... the injury or disease consists in whole or in part of ... a fracture to a weight-bearing bone, [or] a compound, comminuted, displaced or compressed fracture... . § 627.737(2) Although this alternative threshold test was undoubtedly well intended, it unfortunately constitutes a denial of equal protection of the laws by discriminating among members of the class of persons injured in automobile accidents who have survived such accident with less than $1,000 in medical expenses and no permanent injury. One who is involved in an accident and sustains a broken little toe may maintain, under this provision, an action for pain and suffering, since the little toe contains a weight bearing bone. On the other hand, although one's skull is not considered a weight bearing bone, it is normally a more vulnerable and consequential area of injury. A person involved in an accident who suffered a fractured skull which is not a compound, comminuted, displaced or compressed fracture, may not maintain an action for pain and suffering under this provision, unless the fracture is considered to be a permanent injury. The same is not true as to the weight-bearing little toe. One who suffers a soft tissue injury may not seek recompense for pain and suffering unless it can be proved that the injury is permanent; yet these have been shown to be among the most serious of bodily injuries. Under the provisions of § 627.737(2) dealing with this category of cases, a person sustaining a fracture as described in the statute (as the broken little toe described above) would be allowed to proceed with suit, but a person who receives a severe wrenching of the neck and spine and the associated soft tissue injury would not be allowed to proceed with suit unless the injury were a permanent one or the medical cost exceeded $1,000. A threshold of any permanent injury separately constitutes a uniform classification, even though in many instances it might also reach the $1,000 medical expense threshold. Damages for pain and suffering would be allowed the person who suffered the fractured bone, although he may have relatively little such pain; on the other hand, the person with the soft tissue injury who may suffer great pain and discomfort is allowed no redress in the courts under this provision. Such results cannot reasonably be said to rest on a rational basis, but are clearly arbitrary and unreasonable, and for that reason this provision of F.S. § 627.737(2), F.S.A. denies equal protection of the laws insofar as it provides a threshold based upon the above-cited irrational list of injuries (not resulting in death or permanent injury) where the $1,000 medical expense threshold has not been crossed. We so hold. The unconstitutionality of this particular portion of the provision, however, does not render the entire section invalid on the earlier discussed equal protection ground. As noted above, the other three alternative means of crossing the threshold by $1,000 reasonable medical expenses or by reason of death or permanent injury are constitutionally valid. The invalid portion of this provision may be severed from the balance of the section without destroying the effectiveness of the act as a whole, since two alternative means of crossing the threshold remain to give vitality to the section. Valid portions of an enactment may be given effect after elemination of unconstitutional portions of the same act so long as the valid and invalid portions are not essentially and inseparably connected in substance or so interdependent that the Legislature would not have passed one without enacting the other. State ex rel. Lamar v. Dillon, 32 Fla. 545, 14 So. 383 (1893); State ex rel. Moodie v. Bryan, 50 Fla. 293, 39 So. 929 (1905). If, when the unconstitutional part of a statute is stricken, that which remains is complete in itself and capable of being executed in accordance with the apparent legislative intent, the valid portion of the statute will be sustained. State ex rel. Lamar v. Dillon, supra ; State ex rel. Moodie v. Bryan, supra ; City of Miami v. State, 158 Fla. 56, 27 So.2d 829 (1946). Applying these tests to the instant provision we hold that the invalid portion of § 627.737 (2), as separate, independent thresholds alone, namely, the fracture of a weight-bearing bone or the compound, comminuted, displaced or compressed fracture, may properly be severed from the remainder of that section, and therefore that the remaining portions of that section are constitutionally valid and enforceable. Nor do the provisions of F.S. § 627.736(4), F.S.A., providing that workmen's compensation benefits received must be credited against the first-party benefits which are provided, violate equal protection, despite the fact that benefits received from other collateral sources need not be so credited. Unlike workmen's compensation benefits, the other common collateral sources, such as insurance policies and the like, require separate payments by the individual; neither are they generally available by virtue of a statutory scheme similar to our Workmen's Compensation Act. [16] Although a difference in treatment is present, there is no arbitrary or unreasonable classification, or any invidious discrimination. Appellants also complain of denial of equal protection by virtue of exclusions inherent in the act's definition of a motor vehicle, on the ground that taxis, motorcycles, busses and commercial vehicles do not come within the provisions of the no-fault act. As we have indicated above, there is a reasonable basis upon which the Legislature may exclude these types of vehicles from the coverage of the act; the classification is not arbitrary or capricious, and thus does not violate the equal protection provision. Merely because the Legislature has seen fit to remedy a perceived evil in one area, it is not compelled to extend that remedy to all areas in which it might be applied. State v. White, 194 So.2d 601 (Fla. 1967). To compel the Legislature to pursue an all or nothing approach would in effect forbid the Legislature from determining, on a limited basis, how well or badly a proposed course of action worked when put into practice. We have examined the other claimed violations of equal protection asserted by the appellants (despite their lack of standing to raise these points) and find them to be devoid of merit. The no-fault insurance act has not been shown to violate the equal protection of the laws, except as to the alternative threshold requirements of F.S. § 627.737(2), F.S.A., of particularized injuries involving weight bearing bones, etc., as outlined above.