C.A. Meyer Paving & Construction v. McFalls
C.A. Meyer Paving & Construction v. McFalls
Opinion of the Court
C.A. Meyer Paving and Construction (Meyer) and The Travelers Insurance Company (Travelers) appeal the deputy commissioner’s determination that the results of a blood alcohol test were privileged under section 316.066(4), Florida Statutes, therefore, there was no lawful evidence that Billy Lee McFalls, the deceased employee, had a blood alcohol level of .10% or greater, and that had there been evidence of blood alcohol level in excess of .10%, there was sufficient competent evidence to rebut the presumption of section 440.09(3), Florida Statutes. We reverse.
Billy Lee McFalls died in a single vehicle, single occupant accident in the course and scope of his employment with Meyer on February 2, 1981. McFalls was returning to Orlando from Dade City, where he
Following the accident, death benefits were timely paid to McFalls’s widow, until May 10, 1982 when Meyer and Travelers controverted the claim based upon excessive blood alcohol content under section 440.09(3), Florida Statutes (1979). The deputy commissioner accepted McFalls’s widow’s argument that the accident report privilege of section 316.066(4), Florida Statutes, applied. The deputy commissioner, therefore, found there was no lawful evidence of intoxication. The deputy commissioner further found that even if there were evidence of blood alcohol in excess of .10%, sufficient competent evidence rebutted the presumption of section 440.09(3), Florida Statutes. The deputy commissioner cited evidence of McFalls’s proximity to his employer prior to this departure, showing no signs of intoxication or alcohol consumption; McFalls’s sobriety at the time he picked up the parts; the travel and delivery time showing no deviance from his employer’s instructions; the absence of alcoholic beverage containers or receipts in the vehicle; and the insufficient amount of time McFalls would have had to have consumed sufficient alcohol to achieve .196% blood alcohol content.
Section 316.066, Florida Statutes (1979), requires that the driver of a vehicle involved in an accident resulting in bodily harm forward a written report of the accident to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. The requirement is excused when an investigating officer makes a written report of the accident. Section 316.066(4) provides that “[a]ll accident reports made by persons involved in accidents shall be without prejudice to the individual so reporting_ No such report shall be used as evidence in any trial, civil or criminal, arising out of an accident ....” As recently held in Brackin v. Boles, 452 So.2d 540 (Fla. 1984), the purpose of section 316.066(4) is to clothe with statutory immunity only such statements as the driver is compelled to make under section 316.066(1) and (2). The results of a blood alcohol test are not privileged, regardless of whether the taking of the test was directed by an investigating officer who prepared an accident report. Brackin, at 542.
Having found the blood alcohol test results admissible, the presumption of section 440.09 would preclude the award of benefits absent substantial evidence to the contrary. We cannot agree that there was substantial evidence to rebut the presumption of section 440.09(3). Co-workers’ testimonies that McFalls was not drinking on the morning of the accident and that no one
Accordingly, the deputy commissioner’s order is REVERSED.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.