Court of Appeals Decides Case on Rate and Maximum Medical Improvement
In Menard v. Jones, No. 12-0027 (Iowa App. Sept. 6, 2012), the court of appeals addressed two issues. The defendants appealed a question of whether claimant had reached maximum medical improvement, and claimant appealed a question relating to part-time. On rate, the court in Swiss Colony v. Deutmeyer had indicated that in part-time cases, there needed to be evidence of what type of work was part-time in the industry in which the claimant was engaged. The court in Jones indicated that the fact that claimant was hired to work on 4 hours a day (and that the employer admitted he was part-time), was not enough to actually establish that he was only performing part time work under the statute. Since there was no evidence in the record to establish what full time employment was in claimant's field, the court concluded that the case had to be remanded on this issue. On the maximum medical improvement issue, both the treating physician and IME doctor had recommended further treatme