The case tested Florida’s workers’ compensation exclusive remedy provision which immunizes an employer and its employees from tort liability for covered, work-related injuries. A worker’s estate sued the worker’s employer for wrongful death after securing an approved settlement for workers’ compensation death benefits. When the insurer refused to pay the $9.5 million wrongful death judgment, the estate filed an action in state court, claiming that the insurer had breached its insurance policy with the employer. The insurer removed the case to federal court and sought summary judgment on numerous bases, including that the estate had elected workers’ compensation benefits as its exclusive remedy and the insurance policy itself excluded coverage of such a tort judgment. A federal appellate court certified questions of unsettled Florida law to the Florida Supreme Court. The Florida Justice Reform Institute and the Florida Chamber of Commerce filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the insurer, arguing that permitting the estate to recover the wrongful death judgment would defeat the purpose of the workers’ compensation system and encourage non-meritorious civil suits by injured employees. The Florida Supreme Court held that the workers’ compensation exclusion in the policy excluded coverage of the estate’s tort judgment against the employer, and that the estate had elected workers’ compensation benefits as its exclusive remedy.
FJRI represented by Katherine E. Giddings and Nancy Mason Wallace of Akerman LLP, and William W. Large.