Cases

The Division of Workers' Compensation (Division) imposed an administrative penalty against the Appellant for late payment of benefits. Appellant objected to penalty assessment and asserted that the penalty assessed could only be made by referring the case to a JCC consistent with the terms of Section 440.021, Florida Statutes.  The Division asserted that a review of the penalty assessment could only be made in accordance with Section 440.525(3), Florida Statutes, and pursuant to the terms of Section 120.57, Florida Statutes. 

Court determined that jurisdiction to determine penalties where the question is the amount of penalties would be adjudicated in accordance with Section 440.021, Florida Statutes, i.e., when an audited entity challenges the penalty assessment itself - the amount of the penalty - referral is required to the JCC in accordance with Section 440.021, Florida Statutes.  In this case, the audited entity was not challenging the amount of the penalty but rather whether the penalty could be assessed in the first instance. Therefore, review of the penalty could only be made pursuant to Section 440.525(3), F.S. 

When faced with two different, but applicable statutes, courts favor a construction that gives affect to both statutes rather than construing one statute as being meaningless or repealed by implication.  The two applicable statutes in this case should be read together to make available both a DFS audit report-focused review process as contemplated in Section 440.525(3) (an APA-based process) and a 440.021 review process before the JCC for resolving narrower disputes involving only the amount of the penalty or interest assessment.