Florida’s 3rd District Court of Appeal affirmed a recent judgement in favor of an injured worker who prevailed in a third-party lawsuit against a large fast-food chain after suffering an eye injury while cleaning equipment in the restaurant. While normally work-related injury claims would fall strictly under the purview of workers’ compensation, this was a third-party claim because the injured plaintiff did not work directly for the defendant. Rather, his employer was a contractor of the fast-food chain. This was the reason plaintiff was able to file – and prevail – in a workplace injury lawsuit, despite the fact the incident occurred in the course and scope of employment. 
Although the court affirmed judgment, it did reduce the overall amount of damages, finding the awards for past and future medical damages to be excessive and unsupported by facts. Still, this did not significantly reduce plaintiff’s total damage award which was $838,00 (or 90 percent of liability) plus $100,000 in attorneys fees and costs.
Plaintiff in Burger King Corp. v. Lastre-Torres suffered severe eye injury while cleaning the hood of a fryer. He was reportedly using a degreaser to accomplish this job, and some of that chemical dripped down into his eye. He alleged he’d requested a face mask numerous times prior to his injury, but his requests had been refused by his employer. As the appellate court noted, this was disputed by defendant, who presented evidence that inspections were done weekly and masks for cleaning were on site. Nonetheless, the appellate court noted, it was not in a position to re-try the facts – only to review potential abuses of discretion and errors of law. Continue reading ›
Florida Injury Lawyer Blog
