Brown v. Tampa Family Health Centers / CCMSI

JCC Massey (Tampa) (Derrick Cox & Caitlin Golden) (5-5-2026) – Denied and dismissed PFB with prejudice. The claimant, while clocked out for lunch (11:47 am), attended a baby shower for another employee in the break room. While on her way to sit down, she tripped over a chair leg and fell sometime between 12:30 p.m. and 12:45 p.m. She clocked back in at 12:54 p.m. and finished the rest of her shift. The baby shower was not sponsored or put together by the employer, and the claimant’s attendance at the shower was not required by the employer. The E/C denied compensability of the accident and resulting injuries, arguing that the claimant was not in the course and scope of her employment at the time of the accident. The JCC determined that the claimant was not in the course and scope of her employment at the time of the accident, and therefore the accident did not arise out of her employment. The JCC further determined that the claimant’s attendance at the baby shower was purely personal and not related to work, incidentally or otherwise, and subsequently rejected the claimant’s argument that the baby shower was an ordinary workplace activity. Thus, the JCC concluded that the baby shower was a “social activity” as contemplated by the plain language of section 440.092(1).   Click here to view Order