Universal Engineering Corp. v. Perez

Summary

The Florida Supreme Court remanded an appeal concerning whether a statute of repose could constitutionally bar occupational-disease claims against engineering companies. The court held that the record did not establish when the plaintiffs knew or should have known that their illnesses were occupationally related, which was necessary to determine whether the claims accrued before or after the statute's effective date and whether the savings clause applied. The court left unresolved the applicability of the relevant repose provisions and whether the plaintiffs stated causes of action.

Holdings

1. The court could not determine whether section 95.11(3)(c) was unconstitutional as applied because the record did not establish when the appellees' causes of action accrued. The case had to be remanded for factual findings concerning when the appellees knew or should have known that their diseases were occupational in origin.
2. For an occupational-disease claim, the cause of action accrues when the disease manifests and the employee knows or should know that the disease is occupational in origin, even if the exact substance causing the disease has not yet been identified.
3. If the appellees' causes of action accrued before January 1, 1975, the savings clause applies under Bauld; if they accrued after January 1, 1975, the claims are barred by the statute, subject to the constitutional analysis required by Overland.

Questions Presented

1. Whether section 95.11(3)(c), Florida Statutes (1975), could constitutionally be applied to bar actions that accrued after expiration of the twelve-year repose period but before the statute's January 1, 1975 effective date.
2. Whether the record contained sufficient factual findings to determine when the appellees' occupational-disease causes of action accrued and whether the statutory savings clause applied.
3. When a cause of action for an occupational disease accrues for purposes of beginning the limitations period.

Disposition

remanded