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264 So. 2d 81

Docket No. 71-302.

Seidel v. Hill

Richard SEIDEL, Appellant, v. Dr. Gordon E. HILL, Appellee.

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 1972-06-29

Relies on 184 So. 2d 428 - McNayr v. Kelly · 119 So. 2d 417 - Bloomfield v. Mayo · 110 So. 2d 401 - State Plant Board v. Smith

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1972-06-29

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 1994

1 federal appellate · 4 state decisions

20197219801990decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1*82 L.P. Evans, Jr., and Dan G. Wheeler, Jr., of Wheeler & Evans, Miami, for appellant.

¶2Thomas B. Mimms, Jr., of Fleming, O'Bryan & Fleming, Fort Lauderdale, for appellee.

¶3PER CURIAM.

¶4We affirm the final summary judgment entered in favor of the defendant, Dr. Hill, in a libel action. We have reviewed the record and considered the able arguments and authorities submitted by counsel. We judicially conclude that the writing attributed to Dr. Hill was made and published, in fact and law, as a part or participation in quasi-judicial proceedings involved with Florida Workmen's Compensation Law, Ch. 440, F.S. 1969, F.S.A. As such, it was absolutely privileged and thus not actionable. We affirm upon authority of Robertson v. Industrial Insurance Company, Fla. 1954, 75 So.2d 198; McNayr v. Kelly, Fla. 1966, 184 So.2d 428; Hauser v. Urchisin, Fla. 1970, 231 So.2d 6; Bencomo v. Morgan, Fla.App. 1968, 210 So.2d 236; Jones v. Life Insurance Company of Florida, Fla.App. 1968, 215 So.2d 889.

¶5Affirmed.

¶6WALDEN and CROSS, JJ., concur.

¶7MAGER, J., concurs specially.

¶8MAGER, Judge (concurring specially):

¶9In my opinion the record does not reflect sufficient facts upon which it can be determined to any degree of certainty that the writing in question was made "as a part or participation in quasi-judicial proceedings involved with the Florida Workmen's Compensation Law". As to the type of "proceeding" before the Florida Industrial Commission, the record merely reflects the filing of a workmen's compensation claim; an inference that the claim was assigned to a judge of Industrial Claims; the treatment by a physician (defendant) during the pendency of such claim; the filing of a medical report in connection with such treatment with the Workmen's Compensation Division pursuant to F.S. Section 440.13(1), F.S.A. during the pendency of such claim; and the closing out of the claim. This procedure or "proceeding" in my opinion falls far short of constituting a quasi-judicial proceeding to which an absolute privilege would as a matter of law attach. See Bloomfield v. Mayo, Fla.App. 1960, 119 So.2d 417.

¶10It is my opinion, however, that the writing in question was qualifiedly or conditionally privileged, O'Neal v. Tribune Company, Fla.App. 1965, 176 So.2d 535, and that the plaintiff as a matter of law failed to show the existence of actual malice and consequently the judgment of the trial court should be affirmed. See State Plant Board v. Smith, Fla. 1959, 110 So.2d 401.

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