Florida rejects lawsuit filed by woman held at gunpoint at a Steak 'n Shake

June 13, 2025

A three-judge panel said she needed to seek a determination about whether she could receive workers’ compensation before filing the Brevard County lawsuit.

Pointing to workers’ compensation insurance laws, an appeals court Friday ruled against a woman who filed a lawsuit after she was held at gunpoint and forced into a backroom during a robbery at a Steak ‘n Shake restaurant where she worked.

A three-judge panel of the 5th District Court of Appeal said Amber Nicole Spears needed to seek a determination about whether she could receive workers’ compensation benefits before filing the Brevard County lawsuit against Steak ‘n Shake.

Spears said she suffered severe emotional distress because of the robbery, according to Friday’s ruling.

Spears argued that claims for such mental distress, when not accompanied by physical injuries, are outside of the workers’ compensation system. But the appeals court, overturning a circuit judge’s decision, said employees must first seek a determination about whether they are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits before filing lawsuits.

The workers’ compensation system is designed to resolve issues about workplace injuries outside of the usual court system.

“Claimants must first seek remedial relief within the workers’ compensation system, rather than filing a civil tort claim in a Florida court,” Judge Scott Makar wrote in an opinion joined by Judges F. Rand Wallis and John MacIver.

“Claimants may not unilaterally determine that their claims are not compensable in the workers’ compensation system and sue their employers; the whole point of the workers’ compensation system is to avoid piecemeal litigation in state courts and, instead, have one unified compensation system.”

The ruling sent the lawsuit back to circuit court and said it should be dismissed if Spears has not filed a claim for workers’ compensation benefits in the “interim.”