         FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
                STATE OF FLORIDA
                  _____________________________

                          No. 1D17-3194
                  _____________________________

HARBOR FREIGHT TOOLS, INC.
and SAFETY NATIONAL
CASUALTY CORP./CORVEL,

    Appellants,

    v.

PATRICIA WHITEHEAD,

    Appellee.
                  _____________________________


On appeal from an order of the Judge of Compensation Claims.
Ralph J. Humphries, Judge.

Date of Accident: May 3, 2015.

                          May 18, 2018


PER CURIAM.

    A judge of compensation claims awarded workers’
compensation benefits based on the so-called “120-day rule,” which
generally precludes carriers from denying compensability if they
begin paying benefits and do not challenge compensability within
120 days. See § 440.20(4), Fla. Stat. (2015); see also Sierra v.
Metropolitan Protective Servs., 188 So. 3d 863, 866-67 (Fla. 1st
DCA 2015). But “[a] claimant’s ‘defense’ of waiver to an
[employer’s] ability to deny compensability of an accident or
specific injury/condition pursuant to the ‘120-Day Rule’ is an
affirmative pleading which must be timely raised and specifically
plead[ed].” Teco Energy, Inc. v. Williams, 234 So. 3d 816, 823 (Fla.
1st DCA 2017). Here the claimant did not specifically plead
application of the 120-day rule. The judge of compensation claims
therefore erred in awarding benefits based on the rule.

    REVERSED.

LEWIS, KELSEY, and WINSOR, JJ., concur.

                 _____________________________

    Not final until disposition of any timely and
    authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or
    9.331.
               _____________________________

Daniel M. Schwarz and Gina M. Jacobs of Cole, Scott & Kissane,
P.A., Plantation, for Appellants.

Daniel J. Glary, Jacksonville, for Appellee.




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