Court of Appeals Issues Short Form Decision Affirming Award of Industrial Benefits

In Swift Pork Co. v. Garcia-Diaz, No. 10-1805 (Iowa App. April 27, 2011), the court of appeals, in a single paragraph, affirmed the decision of the agency that claimant had demonstrated that claimant's injury was to the body as a whole.  In the underlying decision before the agency, Dr. Stoken had indicated that claimant had Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) despite meeting only five of the eight criteria in the AMA Guides.  Dr. Pollack had found that there was no CRPS. The court of appeals, based on this factual dispute, and the credibility finding by the agency, affirms the agency's permanent total disability finding.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Court of Appeals Affirms Denial of Workers' Compensation Benefits; Rules on Credit Issue

Thomas v. Archer Daniels Midland Company , No. 23-0323 (Iowa App. Nov. 8, 2023) Claimant initial suffered a compensable injury to his right eye in 2017.  He subsequently sustained several injuries in 2018 while stepping off a pontoon boat, which he attributed to a lack of depth perception as a result of his eye issues.  The deputy ruled in favor of claimant, but the commissioner reversed, finding that the 2018 injuries were not a sequelae of the original eye injuries.   The Court of Appeals concluded that the decision of the commissioner was supported by substantial evidence and affirmed the decision of the commissioner.  The Court noted that medical causation was a question of fact vested in the commissioner's discretion and noted that although claiant speculated that his fall was caused by his right eye injuries, claimant could not specifically recall what happened and there were no witnesses to provide context.  The speculation of medical experts that vision loss caused the fall
Read more

2021 Workers' Compensation Appeal Decisions

  2021 Workers' Compensation Appeals Decisions The following are appeal decisions decided by the commissioner in 2021, by month. December 2021 Carmer v. Nordstrom , No. 1656062.01 (App. Dec. 29, 2021) - Claimant was found to have sustained an injury to her right shoulder and a sequela injury to her left shoulder.  Both of these injuries were found to be scheduled member injuries, but the injuries were found to be industrially compensable under 85.34(2)(v). Claimant was found to have a 70% industrial disability (Palmer). On appeal, the commissioner affirms that there was a sequela injury to the left shoulder, crediting Dr. Segal's report over that of Dr. Milani.  Most importantly, the commissioner affirms the fact that because the two shoulder injuries were the result of a single incident, this injury was to be treated industrially under 85.34(2)(v).  The commissioner notes that "shoulder" injuries were not added to the list of injuries that were to be treated a schedu
Read more

2024 Workers' Compensation Appeal Decisions

  2024 Workers' Compensation Appeal Decisions April 2024 Burden v. United Parcel Service , No. 21013153.01 (App. April 24, 2024) - Claimant was found credible by the deputy, who concluded claimant had suffered a left knee injury as well as a neck injury.  Because claimant continued to work for more wages than at the time of the injury, the claim was considered functionally and claimant found to have a 27% whole body impairment (Walsh). Defendants argued that claimant had not sustained a compensable neck injury on appeal and urged that Dr. Taylor's IME should not have been credited over claimant's treating physician.  The commissioner affirms the decision of the deputy.  The commissioner noted that claimant had stated he had symptoms that were indicative of cervical spine involvement early in the injury process.  The commissioner noted that the treating neurosurgeon had clearly identified a cervical injury and that this bolstered the credibility of Dr. Taylor's IME. 5 m
Read more