Ernesto Blanco v. Creative Management Services, LLC/ Technology Insurance Company ( 2019 )


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  •          FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
    STATE OF FLORIDA
    _____________________________
    No. 1D18-3745
    _____________________________
    ERNESTO BLANCO,
    Appellant,
    v.
    CREATIVE MANAGEMENT
    SERVICES, LLC/ TECHNOLOGY
    INSURANCE COMPANY,
    Appellees.
    _____________________________
    On appeal from an order of the Judge of Compensation Claims.
    Walter J. Havers, Judge.
    Date of Accident: December 4, 2017.
    October 17, 2019
    PER CURIAM.
    Ernesto Blanco appeals the Judge of Compensation Claims’
    order denying his claim for worker’s compensation benefits. The
    JCC did not find credible Blanco’s claim that exposure to
    construction or cement dust from his job site during his short-term
    employment with Creative Management Services caused his
    respiratory condition. The JCC also agreed with the expert medical
    opinion that Blanco’s seventeen-year history of smoking cigarettes
    caused his respiratory condition. Blanco makes several arguments
    for reversal. Finding no error, we affirm.
    Facts
    Blanco smoked cigarettes for seventeen years before he began
    work with CMS. Blanco’s accounts of how much he smoked varied.
    The number of cigarettes he claimed that he smoked daily ranged
    from half a pack per day up to three packs per day. In mid-
    November 2017, his primary care doctor noted that Blanco was
    still smoking heavily and that he reported more frequent use of an
    inhaler. The doctor also recorded in his notes of Blanco’s visit a
    diagnosis of probable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
    Weeks after the November visit to his doctor, Blanco started
    work with CMS to set up booths for an art show. The job required
    Blanco to move furniture, build walls and booths, paint, and hang
    signs. During the eleven days he worked for CMS, Blanco claimed
    that he saw dust and debris in the air at the job site. According to
    Blanco, other workers were milling or grinding concrete at the
    loading dock. Blanco stated that a crew would periodically sweep
    and hose down the area, but it did not control the dust. He claimed
    that he had trouble breathing and was using his inhaler more often
    while at the job site. On the morning of December 5th, Blanco woke
    up and had trouble breathing. His wife called 911 and paramedics
    transported Blanco to the emergency room in respiratory distress.
    Doctors diagnosed him with advanced COPD and an acute
    exacerbation of unspecified asthma. Blanco made a claim for
    worker’s compensation benefits, alleging that the exposure to dust
    and debris at the CMS job site caused him to suffer from COPD.
    The E/C denied compensability on grounds that the alleged on-the-
    job exposure to dust was not the major contributing cause of
    Blanco’s respiratory condition.
    Analysis
    Blanco raises five arguments challenging the JCC’s order
    denying benefits. We affirm on all and write only to address his
    arguments about the admission of expert testimony and the
    evidence supporting the JCC’s order denying benefits.
    Blanco contends that no competent, substantial evidence
    supports the JCC’s decision to deny benefits. We disagree. Blanco
    had the burden to prove his claim. We review the JCC's findings of
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    fact to determine whether competent, substantial evidence
    supports the JCC's findings. See, e.g., Mylock v. Champion Int'l,
    
    906 So.2d 363
     (Fla. 1st DCA 2005). A decision in favor of the party
    without the burden of proof need not be supported by competent,
    substantial evidence. See Fitzgerald v. Osceola Cty. Sch. Bd., 
    974 So. 2d 1161
    , 1164 (Fla. 1st DCA 2008); Mitchell v. XO Commc'ns,
    
    966 So.2d 489
    , 490 (Fla. 1st DCA 2007). As this court observed in
    Mitchell, “a JCC may reject in whole or in part even
    uncontroverted testimony the JCC disbelieves.” 
    Id.
     (citing
    following a no contest plea).
    Here, the JCC concluded that Blanco did not meet his burden
    to show that exposure to dust and debris at the CMS job site was
    the major contributing cause of his respiratory condition. The JCC
    rejected Blanco’s testimony about the alleged cause of his
    condition. The JCC had a chance to observe Blanco’s demeanor and
    found that he lacked credibility. He also found that Blanco was an
    unreliable witness based on the substantially incomplete and
    contradictory medical histories he provided to his doctors. As a
    result, the JCC concluded that Blanco failed to meet his burden to
    show that he suffered an accident from exposure “in the course and
    scope of his employment.” The JCC was in the best position “to
    evaluate and weigh the testimony and evidence based on its
    observation of the bearing, demeanor, and credibility of the
    witnesses.” Shaw v. Shaw, 
    334 So. 2d 13
    , 16 (Fla. 1976). For this
    reason, we find no abuse of discretion by the JCC in his finding
    that Blanco failed to meet his burden of proof.
    Even so, Blanco challenges the JCC’s admission of testimony
    in support of the E/C. Blanco argues that the JCC should have
    excluded the medical opinion offered by the E/C’s independent
    medical examiner, Dr. McCluskey. He opined that Blanco’s
    seventeen-year smoking habit was the major contributing cause of
    his need for treatment of his respiratory condition in December
    2017—rather than his alleged exposure to debris during the eleven
    days he worked for CMS. The JCC found the expert’s testimony
    persuasive. But Blanco claims that Dr. McCluskey was not
    qualified to render the opinion because he is not a board-certified
    internist or pulmonologist.
    3
    We review the JCC’s decision for an abuse of discretion. See
    King v. Auto Supply of Jupiter, Inc., 
    917 So. 2d 1015
    , 1017 (Fla. 1st
    DCA 2006). And we observe “that the determination of a witness’s
    qualifications to express an expert opinion is peculiarly within the
    discretion of the trial judge, whose decision will not be reversed
    absent a clear showing of error.” Anderson v. State, 
    863 So. 2d 169
    ,
    179 (Fla. 2003) (citations omitted).
    Based on our review of the record, we find no abuse of
    discretion here. Dr. McCluskey testified that he is board-certified
    in occupational medicine and has a PhD in toxicology. He also
    testified about his extensive experience in determining the cause
    of exposure injuries like Blanco’s alleged injury. But despite Dr.
    McCluskey’s medical training and expertise, Blanco argues that
    Dr. McCluskey could not serve as an expert because he is not
    “board certified” in internal medicine or pulmonology. Yet section
    440.13(5)(a), which provides for the selection of an IME, does not
    limit that selection to a board-certified physician.
    Still, Blanco argues that Dr. McCluskey was not qualified to
    render an opinion on the cause of Blanco’s respiratory condition
    because he is not a pulmonologist. * Blanco’s argument presumes
    that only a pulmonologist—a specialist in the treatment of
    respiratory disease—was qualified to testify on the disputed issue
    of causation of Blanco’s condition. But Blanco ignores that Dr.
    McCluskey is a board-certified occupational medicine specialist
    with extensive experience in exposure cases leading to pulmonary
    problems. In Chavez v. State, 
    12 So. 3d 199
    , 205 (Fla. 2009), the
    Florida Supreme Court explained that, under the rules of evidence,
    “[a] witness may be qualified as an expert through specialized
    knowledge, training, or education, which is not limited to
    academic, scientific, or technical knowledge.” Even though Dr.
    McCluskey is not board certified as a pulmonologist, his board
    certification in occupational medicine, his extensive training, and
    * Blanco did not present any argument or evidence to show
    that Dr. McCluskey rendered an opinion “outside his . . . area of
    expertise, as demonstrated by licensure and applicable practice
    parameters” as prohibited under the specific IME provision in
    Chapter 440. See § 440.13(5)(a), Fla. Stat. (2017).
    4
    experience in exposure cases establish his qualifications to opine
    on the disputed issue of causation.
    But even if Dr. McCluskey were properly qualified as an
    expert, Blanco argues that the JCC had to strike Dr. McCluskey’s
    IME report as untrustworthy per se. In denying Blanco’s motion to
    strike the IME report, the JCC relied on Heckford v. Fla. Dep’t of
    Corrections, 
    699 So. 2d 247
     (Fla. 1st DCA 1997) (finding IME
    report admissible under the business records exception). In
    arguing for reversal, Blanco relies on McElroy v. Perry, 
    753 So. 2d 121
    , 126 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000). There, the court held that the IME
    report at issue—prepared solely for litigation—fell in the suspect
    category of trustworthiness as identified by Professor Ehrhardt in
    Florida Evidence § 803.6 at 695 (1999 ed.). McElroy, 
    753 So. 2d at 125
    . Although one of the IME physicians in McElroy testified about
    his opinions, the court found that it did not follow that “his written
    report, which is hearsay, becomes admissible.” 
    Id. at 126
    .
    Apparently overlooking the Heckford opinion cited by the
    JCC, the McElroy court noted that its review of the case law
    revealed no Florida cases addressing the IME report as a business
    record. The court held that IME reports are not admissible under
    the business records exception because they lack the
    trustworthiness that business records are presumed to have.
    Blanco argues that the JCC should have excluded Dr. McCluskey’s
    report as untrustworthy because the E/C obtained the report with
    the specific intent to defend against Blanco’s claims. We disagree.
    The holding in McElroy does not apply in workers’
    compensation cases for at least three reasons. First, Chapter 440
    specifically provides for the selection of IME doctors to resolve
    disputes. See § 440.13(5)(a), Fla. Stat. (2017). Second, the
    admissibility of medical opinions in workers’ compensation
    disputes is limited to certain providers, which includes IME
    doctors. See § 440.13(5)(e), Fla. Stat. (2017). Third, the McElroy
    court expressed concern about the effect of an IME report, which
    may be cumulative, on a jury; in workers’ compensation cases there
    is no jury and the JCC, the factfinder, is also the one who
    determines the admissibility or trustworthiness of the evidence.
    Thus, the JCC did not err by accepting Dr. McCluskey’s opinion on
    causation.
    5
    AFFIRMED.
    B.L. THOMAS, ROWE, and M.K. Thomas, JJ., concur.
    _____________________________
    Not final until disposition of any timely and
    authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or
    9.331.
    _____________________________
    Divya Khullar of Khullar, P.A., Tamarac, for Appellant.
    Rayford H. Taylor of Hall Booth Smith, P.C., Atlanta, for
    Appellees.
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