Heart attacks now compensable without regard to "Victor Wine?"
For over 40 years, heart attacks and other "internal failures of the cardiovascular system" occurring on the job have generally not been compensable under the Florida Workers' Compensation Act. Known as the "Victor Wine" rule (taken from the name of the case which decided the issue), it required the employee to demonstrate that his heart attack resulted from an "unusual strain or overexertion" not routine to the type of employment he was accustomed to performing - the purpose being to separate those heart attacks that were truly work-related from those that weren't.
In a footnote to this rececent decision, however, one panel of the First District Court of Appeal called into question whether the "Victor Wine" test remains good law. The Court noted that under this 2003 amendment to the law, an employee must now prove that his on-the-job accident caused more than 50% of his injury and resulting need for treatment. Requiring him to comply with the "Victor Wine" test as well, said the Court, "seems unduly burdensome and inappropriate."
Resolution of the issue will have to await another day, however. Because the claimant's accident in that case occurred before 10/1/2003, the effective date of the statutory amendments, the Court concluded that it need not address the question.
