Special Disability Trust Fund, Department of Labor & Employment Security v. George Stuart, Inc.

ERVIN, Judge.

The Special Disability Trust Fund (Fund) appeals from an order of the deputy commissioner, directing the Fund to reimburse appellee, employer/carrier (e/c), sixty percent of the wage-loss benefits paid by the latter to an employee having a preexisting permanent impairment. We reverse because the deputy’s order retroactively applied the 1983 amendment to Section 440.-15(3)(b)4, Florida Statutes,1 to the employee’s work-related injury, which occurred before the effective date of the amendment to the statute, as the basis for ordering reimbursement.

On February 3, 1983, Ben Frey, an…