Iowa Workers' Compensation

In Janssen v. Merry Lanes , No. 15-1511 (Iowa App. Sept. 14, 2016), the Court of Appeals upheld the determination by the commissioner that claimant's injury was to the leg and not the body as a whole.  Claimant suffered an injury to her hamstring while working as a bartender.  The deputy concluded that claimant's injury extended to the body as a whole and awarded permanent total disability benefits.  The commissioner reversed, concluding that claimant's injury was a scheduled member injury to the leg and awarding 72.6 weeks of benefits. Claimant argued that the essence of prior court decisions was that the nerves and veins were system wide injuries which extended beyond a scheduled member.  In support of this assertion, claimant cited Collins v. IDHS , 529 N.W.2d 627 (Iowa App. 1995) and First Fleet Corp. v. Hannam , No. 14-1254 (Iowa App. July 9, 2015).  The court in Janssen reads Collins  as not reaching the question of whether reflex sympathetic dystrophy was an injury

Defendants in O'Reilly Auto Parts v. Kuder , No. 15-0890 (Iowa App. Sept. 14, 2016), filed an appeal of the commissioner's decision refusing to reopen a permanent total disability award.  Defendants claimed that the commissioner committed legal error when considering whether Kuder's economic circumstances had changed, applied an improper burden of proof and reached his decision without support of substantial evidence. Defendants had filed the review reopening action within one month of the appeal decision finding permanent total disability.  Claimant was working part time at the time of the decision granting PTD benefits, but later lost that job when he moved to a smaller community.  Defendants' vocational expert opined that claimant, who had a shoulder injury, had an industrial loss, but that there were many jobs for which claimant was qualified, even with restrictions.  The deputy found that claimant was just as disabled as he was at the time of the original arbitra