Georgia Pacific Corp. v. Butler
Georgia Pacific Corp. v. Butler
Opinion of the Court
Contending that its handling of this workers’ compensation claim is “lacking in the display of unreasonableness required
We affirm. Four episodes mar the employer’s handling of this claim: the employer ended temporary total benefits by declaring MMI, of which there was then no evidence; then implausibly misconstrued, as suggesting a medical consultation already inconclusively gotten, the Division specialist’s recommendation of a medical consultation on temporary partial disability; again resisted, some months later, claimant’s renewed claim for medical care; and, after finally capitulating on the medical care issue, waited more than two weeks to confirm that claimant’s disc surgery had validated his year-long claims of continuing pain, so finally paying past due benefits. Considered individually these episodes may not seem extraordinary. But in cumulative effect they represent a year’s betting by the servicing agent that claimant was of sound body when in fact he was not. The deputy could well have found this stonewalling offensive to the standards enunciated in Florida Erection Services, Inc. v. McDonald, 395 So.2d 203 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981) and its progeny, most particularly Holiday Care Center v. Scriven, 418 So.2d 322 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982), and sufficient to constitute “bad faith.”
AFFIRMED.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.