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What's Hot in Workers' Comp

Fifth District Court of Appeal Clarifies Civil Suit Bar: Workers Must First Seek Comp Benefits Before Suing Employers

Steak ‘N Shake, Inc. v. Amber Nicole Spears, Fla. 5th DCA, No. 5D2024-0148, June 13, 2025

July 1, 2025

by Blake J. Hood

A three-judge panel of the Fifth District Court of Appeal issued an intriguing opinion concerning employers’ civil suit immunity and compensability determinations. The opinion sets forth a process for claimants seeking to file civil liability suits against their employers and identifies the final arbiters of workers’ compensation compensability determinations. It does so, acknowledging that no other court has addressed this specific issue.

Under Florida law, with limited exceptions, employers are immune from civil liability when employees are injured at work. § 440.11(1), FLA STAT. (2024). Employees, likewise, may seek only those remedies available under the workers’ compensation statute, though such remedies are available under a no-fault basis, again with limited exceptions. This is the so-called “bargain” struck in Florida’s legislative system: limited economic remedies for employers in exchange for employees’ access to no-fault remedies. 

In Steak ‘N Shake, Spears was held at gunpoint while at work and was forced into a backroom where a gunman threatened to kill her. The gunman grabbed Spears by the shoulder and neck during the encounter. Spears experienced severe emotional distress as a result of the robbery, but rather than pursue a claim for workers’ compensation benefits, she sued her employer for civil damages. She argued that her case was not compensable because elsewhere in Florida’s Workers’ Compensation Act mental injuries are deemed non-compensable if they are not accompanied (or caused) by physical injuries. § 440.093, FLA. STAT. (2024). The employer/carrier argued, however, that Spears could not make the compensability determination on her own and was required to at least request benefits within the workers’ compensation system as a necessary condition to filing a civil suit. The civil trial court agreed with Spears and ruled that she was permitted to file a civil suit premised on its determination that her accident and injuries were not compensable.

The Fifth District Court of Appeal disagreed. As the opinion acknowledges, the District Court has exclusive jurisdiction over most workers’ compensation cases. Of note, however, is the opinion’s author, Judge Makar, who was appointed to the First District Court of Appeal in 2012 and recommissioned to the Fifth District Court of Appeal in 2023. Thus, Judge Makar, while no longer sitting on the First District Court, authored this opinion with extensive familiarity with workers’ compensation jurisprudence. Moreover, other circuit courts and District Courts of Appeal routinely issue rulings and opinions on cases that broach workers’ compensation issues. 

It is with this background that the three-judge panel confronted a new question and announced a new rule, at least within the Fifth District: employees may not file tort claims against their employers in circuit court without first seeking a determination of whether they are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits. The court highlighted language in Florida Statutes § 440.13(1)(d), which states that compensability questions are determined by only two entities, a “carrier” or “judge of compensation claims.” A Florida circuit judge, therefore, lacks such authority.

As well, claimants may not unilaterally determine that their claims are non-compensable; they may not serve as their own judge of compensation claims and thus bypass the limitations of recovery under the Workers’ Compensation Act. 

In the Steak ‘N Shake case, while Spears alleged in her civil suit that she had no physical injury that required medical treatment, the Fifth District Court of Appeal held that, in the first instance, such factual matters about compensability must be reviewed by a carrier or judge of compensation claims. Because Spears did not initially submit a claim under the workers’ compensation system as her first step in seeking a remedy, neither the carrier nor a judge of compensation claims made a compensability determination. The Fifth District Court, thus, held that she thereby “leapfrogged” the statutory framework, and it remanded the case to the trial court to find whether a claim for workers’ compensation benefits had been filed with the carrier in the interim. If not, the carrier would be entitled to dismissal.

It should be noted that this case does not appear to disturb the well-established line of cases holding that claimants may pursue civil suits against their employers when the employers/carriers affirmatively deny compensability. Thus, employers/carriers will still be estopped from taking mutually exclusive positions regarding compensability and civil immunity in different legal forums. In other words, even under Steak ‘N Shake, employers and carriers may not deny compensability of a workers’ compensation claim and subsequently assert civil immunity if the claimant sues in civil court. 

This Fifth District Court of Appeal case does hold, however, that employees must first pursue workers’ compensation benefits, receive an adverse determination from either a carrier or a judge of compensation claims, and only then has the right to pursue civil remedies against their employers for accidents and injuries that, at first glance, appear to be work related.  

 

What’s Hot in Workers’ Comp, Vol. 29, No. 7, July 2025, is prepared by Marshall Dennehey to provide information on recent legal developments of interest to our readers. This publication is not intended to provide legal advice for a specific situation or to create an attorney-client relationship. We would be pleased to provide such legal assistance as you require on these and other subjects when called upon. ATTORNEY ADVERTISING pursuant to New York RPC 7.1 Copyright © 2025 Marshall Dennehey, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted without the express written permission of our firm. For reprints or inquiries, or if you wish to be removed from this mailing list, contact tamontemuro@mdwcg.com.

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Uber Techs., Inc., 300 A.3d 430 (Pa.Super. 2023) (en banc) (“Chilutti I”) Chilutti I involved a husband and wife who sued Uber and its subsidiaries after the wife, a wheelchair bound passenger using Uber’s rideshare service, fell, struck her head, and lost consciousness due to her uber driver failing to provide a seatbelt and making an aggressive turn during the trip. The Chilutti’s filed a negligence lawsuit against Uber and its subsidiaries. In response, the defendants moved to compel arbitration, arguing that “the couple’s conduct on the company’s website and application — when they registered for the ridesharing service — signified that they agreed to be bound by the mandatory arbitration provision found in the hyperlinked terms and conditions.” The trial court granted the defendants’ petition and stayed the proceedings pending the results of arbitration, and the Chilutti’s appealed. On appeal, the Superior Court addressed two issues. First, it addressed the issue of whether it had jurisdiction to hear the appeal. A divided Superior Court determined that it did, with its basis for the holding being that the order from which the Chilutti’s appealed was a collateral order. Next, the Superior Court set out to address the merits of the Chilutti’s substantive claim. The Superior Court concluded that the parties lacked a valid agreement to arbitrate. Its rationale was that Uber’s website and application did not provide reasonably conspicuous notice of the terms to the Chiluttis. In reaching this decision, the en banc Superior Court held that browsewrap arbitration agreements are enforceable in Pennsylvania only if the registration website and application screens explicitly inform consumers that they are waiving the right to a jury trial, the registration process cannot be completed until the consumer is fully informed of this waiver, and, when the agreement is available via hyperlink, the waiver appears at the top of the first page of the terms in bold, capitalized text. Since the ruling, Pennsylvania courts have applied Chilutti I to determine if browsewrap agreements are enforceable.  For instance, the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas invoked Chilutti I to reject an agreement that lacked an express jury-trial waiver on the assent screen.  See Miller v. Festival Fun Parks, LLC, 92 WDA 2025 (C.P. Alleg. Cnty. Mar. 24, 2025). Similarly, the Superior Court has held that notice which failed to explicitly state the consumer was waiving a jury-trial right did not “me[e]t the strict burden set forth by our en banc Court in Chilutti I.” Pierce v. FloatMe Corp., 348 A.3d 1077, 1088 (Pa. Super. 2025). While the issue of enforceability of browsewrap agreements appeared to have been resolved by Chilutti I, Pennsylvania courts’ grip on this issue has been slackened by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s January 21, 2026, opinion in Chilutti II. See Chilutti v. Uber Techs., Inc., 349 A.3d 826 (Pa. 2026) (“Chilutti II”). Therein, the Supreme Court did not address the merits of the Chiluttis’ substantive claim, but rather the issue of whether the Superior Court had appellate jurisdiction to immediately review the orders staying litigation pending arbitration. The Court ultimately vacated the en banc opinion on jurisdictional grounds, holding that the Superior Court did not have appellate jurisdiction because the trial court’s order from which the Chiluttis appealed did not qualify as a collateral order and, thus, the Superior Court erred in holding to the contrary and lacked jurisdiction to entertain the merits” of the Chiluttis’ substantive claim. As such, Chilutti II has rendered Chilutti I nonbinding, and the issue of enforceability of online arbitration agreements remains unresolved. However, in light of the fact the Supreme Court did not address or comment on the merits of the Chiluttis’ appeal, Chilutti I is still meaningful. Specifically, it provides guidance as to the standards a company should strive to meet to ensure they have obtained users’ assent so that they are able to enforce online arbitration agreements. Additionally, it may serve as persuasive authority in judges’ evaluations of petitions and/or motions to compel browsewrap arbitration agreements until this particular issue is properly put before our appellate courts. Keanna works in our Pittsburgh, PA office. She can be reached at (412) 803-1174 or KASeabrooks@MDWCG.com.

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