Court Opinion

ID: 4264927
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2018-04-18 13:05:44.451741+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:24:10.079436
License: Public Domain

FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
                STATE OF FLORIDA
                 _____________________________

                         No. 1D16-4767
                 _____________________________

PETER PORTU,

    Appellant,

    v.

CITY OF CORAL GABLES, JOHNS
EASTERN COMPANY, INC., and
CORVEL CORPORATION,

    Appellees.
                 _____________________________

On appeal from the Office of the Judges of Compensation Claims.
Margret G. Kerr, Judge.

Date of Accident: November 18, 2009.

                          April 18, 2018

PER CURIAM.

     Peter Portu appeals the workers’ compensation order
denying attorney’s fees and costs. We reverse as to attorney’s
fees. We affirm as to costs because Portu did not preserve his
claim for appeal.

     Section 440.34(3), Florida Statutes (2009), entitles a
claimant to attorney’s fees when the “carrier files a response to
petition denying benefits”; the claimant has a “successful
prosecution of the petition”; and thirty days elapse from “the date
the carrier . . . receives the petition.” Franco v. SCI at Palmer
Club at Prestancia, 989 So. 2d 709, 710 (Fla. 1st DCA 2008)
(quoting statute). Each of those factors is present here. The fact
that the petition sought a higher impairment rating than the
employer eventually agreed to does not change the statutory
factors. On remand, the judge of compensation claims must
award fees.

    AFFIRMED in part; REVERSED in part.

KELSEY, WINOKUR, and WINSOR, JJ., concur.

                 _____________________________

    Not final until disposition of any timely and
    authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or
    9.331.
               _____________________________

Kimberly A. Hill of Kimberly A. Hill, P.L., Fort Lauderdale, for
Appellant.

Luis F. Estrada of Angones, McClure & Garcia, P.A., Miami, for
Appellees.

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