Disability Law

Parties File Jurisdictional Briefs in Estoppel Case

By David A. McCranie, Esq.

The claimant/plaintiff in Tractor Supply Company v. Kent, a case which I wrote about here, has filed a notice to invoke the discretionary jurisdiction of the Florida Supreme Court.  In that case, the Fifth District Court of Appeal held that just because a workers' compensation carrier has previously denied an employee's workers' compensation claim, the employer is not necessarily estopped from asserting workers' compensation immunity as an affirmative defense to the employee's subsequent liability claim against the employer. 

Kent argues that the Fifth District's decision "expressly and directly conflicts" with three previous decisions from the First District Court of Appeal.  (I had suggested in my initial post that the Fifth District's decision in Kent was actually inconsistent with its own previous decision in Byerly v. Citrus Publishing, Inc., 725 So.2d 1230 (Fla. 5th DCA 1999).  Even if true, however, intra-district conflict is insufficient to permit Supreme Court review.  There must be inter-district conflict in order for the supreme court to have jurisdiction under Art V, §3(b)(3), Fla. Const.).  You can read his jurisdictional brief here.

The employer/defendant, of course, suggests there is no conflict.  You can read the employer's jurisdictional brief here.

Full post as published by Florida Workers’ Compensation Law Blog on January 28, 2008 (boomark / email).