South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers Blog
Last updated September 10, 2026 · Reviewed by Carolyn Friedman Frank
An employee attacked on the job by a stranger can qualify for workers’ compensation benefits in Florida, the Florida Supreme Court held on July 9, 2026. The decision, Bouayad v. Normandy Insurance Co., quashed a First District Court of Appeal ruling that had taken a far narrower view of workers’ comp for assault at work in Florida. One way to show the attack is work-related, the Court said, is proof that the job duties and work environment exposed the worker to an increased risk of assault.
Florida Statute § 440.09(1) requires an employer to pay benefits for an injury “arising out of work performed in the course and the scope of employment.” The Court read that phrase to require a real connection between the injury and the job, not proof that the task the worker was doing at that moment caused the harm.
A stranger pulling the trigger does not break that connection on its own. Whether the connection exists is the first question our Florida workers’ compensation attorneys ask when a carrier denies a claim arising from an attack on the job.
A Rental Car Manager Shot Walking Between Work Areas at Midnight
Mohammed Bouayad managed a car rental business on the premises of a hotel near Orlando International Airport. Around midnight on June 28, 2019, he was shot several times at close range on a covered outdoor walkway between the company’s kiosk in the hotel atrium and an office near the pool. He made that walk at the end of every shift, carrying rental agreements and any cash. That night he was working late only because he was training new hires after firing three employees, and the shooter, who did not rob him, was never identified.
The insurer denied the entire claim, saying the incident did not arise out of employment. A judge of compensation claims awarded benefits after finding that he was walking alone in an unsecured area, that the spot the shooter came from was dark, and that his duties carried risks such as retaliation from fired employees. The First District vacated that award. Its reasoning was that the only work Bouayad was doing when he was shot was walking, and walking did not cause a shooting.
When Workers’ Comp for Assault at Work in Florida Applies
Florida Statute § 440.02(4) says the phrase “arising out of” “pertains to occupational causation.” Occupational causation is the link between a worker’s job and the injury that Florida law requires before workers’ compensation benefits are owed. The Court held that link looks at the job as a whole, including its risks, and that “arising out of” is not the same thing as “caused by” in the tort sense. It also rejected the First District’s view that the 1994 amendments to Chapter 440 had undermined Strother v. Morrison Cafeteria, a 1980 decision upholding benefits for a cashier robbed by men who followed her home from work.
The opinion describes two independent routes to that connection. The attacker may have had a work-related motive, as in a robbery, or the job duties and work environment may have exposed the worker to an increased risk of assault, in which case proof of motive is not required. The Court also rejected the carrier’s argument that Bouayad had to prove why a targeted attacker chose him. For a clerk alone on an overnight shift, a hotel employee walking an unlit route after closing, or anyone who carries cash between locations, that standard points to evidence these jobs already produce, including the hours, the isolation, the lighting, and the duties that put the worker in that spot at that time.
Attacks That Still Fall Outside Workers’ Comp
The Court stated that “not all workplace assaults are compensable.” It pointed to an earlier case in which a shooting between coworkers grew out of personal animosity, and the employment contributed nothing to it. A dispute brought to work from a worker’s home or private life, and not made worse by the job, still does not arise out of the employment. The ruling also did not award Bouayad benefits, and the Court sent the case back to the First District to review the judge’s findings under the correct standard.
A Florida worker whose own claim is denied moves it forward with a Petition for Benefits filed with the Office of the Judges of Compensation Claims under Florida Statute § 440.192. Where the attack happened on property someone other than the employer controls, a separate third-party injury claim against the property owner may also be available, since Florida Statute § 440.11 limits lawsuits against the employer and not against everyone else. Friedman Rodman Frank & Estrada represents injured workers in workers’ compensation claims across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Collier Counties.
Talk With a Miami Workers’ Comp Attorney After an Attack at Work
A carrier’s letter calling an attack personal starts a dispute that a judge of compensation claims decides, and Bouayad sets the standard that judge now applies. Friedman Rodman Frank & Estrada has represented injured people across South Florida since 1976. Call (305) 448-8585 or contact our Miami office for a free consultation. We work on contingency, so you pay nothing unless we recover for you.