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Spry v. Professional Employer Plans

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District
Jul 7, 2008
985 So. 2d 1187 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2008)

Summary

holding that judge of compensation claims "departed from the essential requirements of law by ordering discovery without considering evidence as to its relevance"

Summary of this case from Tallo v. Illes

Opinion

No. 1D07-6028.

July 7, 2008.

L. Anton Rebalko, Coral Springs, for Petitioner.

H. George Kagan of Miller, Kagan, Rodriguez Silver, P.L., West Palm Beach, for Respondents.


In this workers' compensation case, Respondents moved to compel disclosure of Petitioner/Claimant's financial information. The judge of compensation claims (JCC) granted the motion; Claimant now seeks certiorari review of that ruling. We hereby grant the petition for certiorari because Respondents did not demonstrate the relevance of the information, and disclosure would cause irreparable harm.

This Court grants such a certiorari petition "when a discovery order departs from the essential requirements of law, causing material injury of an irreparable nature which cannot be remedied on appeal from a final order." Commonwealth Land Title Ins. Co. v. Higgins, 975 So.2d 1169, 1176 (Fla. 1st DCA 2008). Irreparable harm is a condition precedent to invoking certiorari jurisdiction, and so should be considered first. Id. (citing Jaye v. Royal Saxon, Inc., 720 So.2d 214, 215 (Fla. 1998)).

Here, Petitioner's disclosure of the requested information will cause irreparable harm, simply because it is financial information; the Florida Supreme Court has recognized that "the disclosure of personal financial information [via discovery] may cause irreparable harm to a person forced to disclose it, in a case in which the information is not relevant." Friedman v. Heart Inst, of Port St. Lucie, Inc., 863 So.2d 189, 194 (Fla. 2003) (citations omitted).

And the JCC departed from the essential requirements of law by ordering discovery without considering evidence as to its relevance. Case law holds that, in considering whether to permit discovery, a judge should consider whether the information sought is relevant or reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. Brandsmart v. Schaffer, 855 So.2d 145, 146 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003). The relevance of financial information should be determined only after an evidentiary hearing, because "the Florida Constitution protects the financial information of individuals if there is no relevant or compelling reason to compel disclosure." Borck v. Borck, 906 So.2d 1209, 1211 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005). The party seeking discovery must provide evidence to show that the information is relevant. Vega v. Swait, 961 So.2d 1102 (Fla. 4th DCA 2007). In the instant case, although a hearing was held, Respondents presented no evidence as to the relevance of Claimant's financial information. Accordingly, the JCC could not have considered any such evidence, and so granting discovery was a departure from the essential requirements of law.

For these reasons, we GRANT the petition for certiorari review, and QUASH the order granting Respondents' motion to compel discovery.

KAHN and THOMAS, JJ., concur.


Summaries of

Spry v. Professional Employer Plans

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District
Jul 7, 2008
985 So. 2d 1187 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2008)

holding that judge of compensation claims "departed from the essential requirements of law by ordering discovery without considering evidence as to its relevance"

Summary of this case from Tallo v. Illes

holding that compliance with discovery order to disclose petitioner's wholly irrelevant financial information in a workers' compensation claim would cause irreparable harm

Summary of this case from State v. Planned Parenthood Sw. & Cent. Fla., Inc.

holding that judge of compensation claims “departed from the essential requirements of law by ordering discovery without considering evidence as to its relevance”

Summary of this case from Inglis v. Casselberry

holding JCC departed from essential requirements of law by requiring disclosure of financial documents without considering evidence regarding relevancy of information

Summary of this case from Jackson v. Computer Science Raytheon

granting certiorari and quashing order granting motion to compel discovery of plaintiffs financial information when the defendant failed to establish any relevance of that information to the issues in the case

Summary of this case from Diaz-Verson v. Aldinger

providing that the burden of proving that a person's private financial information is relevant is on the party seeking the information

Summary of this case from McFall v. Welsh
Case details for

Spry v. Professional Employer Plans

Case Details

Full title:Dawn SPRY, Petitioner, v. PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYER PLANS d/b/a IHOP and…

Court:District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District

Date published: Jul 7, 2008

Citations

985 So. 2d 1187 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2008)

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