Former correctional officer can’t benefit from ‘heart-lung’ statute

A divided Florida appellate court found that a former part-time correctional officer who suffered a heart attack was not entitled to a workers compensation presumption because he did not have a second pre-employment physical before he was hired full time.

The court upheld an administrative law judge’s determination that Stephen Sargent needed to undertake a second physical examination when he became a full-time officer to be eligible for the presumption, according to Sargent v. Bradford County Sheriff’s Office, filed Wednesday in the Court of Appeal for the 1st District of Florida in Tallahassee.

The Bradford County Sheriff’s Office hired Sargent in 2012 as a part-time correctional officer. He was required to pass a pre-employment physical before he was hired. He was officially promoted to a full-time correctional officer in April 2014, prior to which the sheriff’s office did not require him to undergo a second physical.

In January 2020, Mr. Sargent had a cardiac event and filed a workers compensation claim. The sheriff’s office initially accepted compensability but later denied it.

Mr. Sargent challenged the denial, arguing that he was entitled to the benefit of the so-called “heart-lung” statute, which creates a presumption in favor of correctional officers and others that any “condition or impairment” that is “caused by tuberculosis, heart disease or hypertension resulting in total or partial disability or death shall be presumed to have been accidental and to have been suffered in the line of duty unless the contrary be shown by competent evidence.”

To benefit from the presumption, a correctional officer must pass a physical examination and show no evidence of prior disease.

A judge of compensation claims found that Mr. Sargent could not rely upon his initial pre-employment physical examination — because it was performed when he applied for a part-time position rather than full-time.

The Court of Appeal upheld that decision.

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