Opinion
Case No. 96-3163
Opinion filed October 1, 1997.
Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, Palm Beach County; Richard I. Wennet, Judge; L.T. Case No. CL 92-10809 AN.
Mark S. Thomas of the State of Florida, Agency for Health Care Administration, Tallahassee, for appellant.
Philip L. Valente, Jr., of Valente Natale, L.L.C., West Palm Beach, for Appellee-Michael Estabrook.
We affirm the trial court's denial of the Agency's petition to enforce a Medicaid lien. After an evidentiary hearing, the trial court determined that the Workers Compensation settlement proceeds received by Estabrook were not redress for any expenses which had been paid by Medicaid. On appeal, the trial court's order is entitled to a presumption of correctness, and we cannot conclude on the record before us that the trial court's determination is against the manifest weight of the evidence. See Applegate v. Barnett Bank of Tallahassee, 377 So.2d 1150, 1152 (Fla. 1980); Randy Int'l, Ltd. v. American Excess Corp., 501 So.2d 667, 670 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987)(explaining that a trial judge's findings of fact and conclusions of law come to the appellate court with a presumption of correctness; only if a trial court's decision is manifestly against the weight of the evidence, contrary to the legal effect of the evidence, or unsupported by competent substantial evidence is a reversal required).
STONE, C.J., STEVENSON and SHAHOOD, JJ., concur.