Court offers ray of hope in the major contributing cause defense.

The 1st DCA held that the 120-day defense must be timely and specifically plead by claimants and may not be raised sua sponte by the Judge of Compensation Claims. The court held that the claimant’s pre-existing osteoarthritis was a qualifying pre-existing condition and was not the major contributing cause of the need for total knee replacement. The court stated that “[t]he inquiry is whether the condition independently required treatment either before or after the compensable accident.” This differs from the previous analysis held in Osceola County Sch. Bd. v. Pabellon-Nieves, which stated that a pre-existing condition under 440.09(1)(b) must have required “some level of treatment” before the workplace accident in question. 

_{Case Law Alerts, 2^nd Quarter, April 2018}

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