Iowa Workers' Compensation

In Bos v. Climate Engineers , No. 17-0159 (Iowa App. Nov. 22, 2017), the commissioner had concluded that claimant did not have a claim for depression following a shoulder injury and rejected the report of claimant's family physician that the depression was connected to the underlying injury.  The commissioner also allowed the admission of a vocational report from defendants even though the expert had not been named in a timely fashion and had not been produced until 18 days before hearing.  The district court affirmed the commissioner's action with respect to the doctor's findings, but rejected the admission of the late vocational report and remanded to the agency for further opinion. Both parties appealed to the Court of Appeals.  On the evidentiary issue, the court found that even though the opinion of the family doctor had been unrebutted, the commissioner was within his rights to reject that evidence.  The commissioner had found that it had been several months from

Reihe v. Midwest Viking, Inc. , No. 17-0214 (Iowa App. Nov. 8, 2017), deals with the somewhat unusual situation where a district court remanded a matter to the workers' compensation commissioner for entry of an order nunc pro tunc correcting a compromise settlement agreement.  Claimant argues that the district court improperly considered extrinsic evidence and that reformation of the contract was barred by judicial estoppel. The settlement proposal that was agreed to indicated that defendants would pay roughly $75,000 less deductions of payment made to date (2/23/15), which totaled $21,080.12.  The settlement documents indicated the settlement was roughly $75,000 less weekly payment made from 3/5/15 until settlement approval.  Defendants would have received considerably more in credits under the original agreement than under the terms of the settlement documents.  The settlement documents were approved and defendants sent a check to claimant in an amount equivalent to the origina

In Norton v. Hy-Vee, No. 16-1299 (Iowa App. Nov. 8, 2017), claimant's back and neck injury resulted in a 25% loss in hours in her work as a pharmacy tech.  Despite the injuries, she continued to work and was described as a motivated and valuable employee both before and after the injury.  Claimant argued that she was permanently and totally disabled, inasmuch as she would not have been able to work absent the accommodations provided by Hy-Vee.  The employer argued that claimant did not have a significant industrial disability because she continued to work.  The deputy and commissioner found that claimant was entitled to a 70% industrial disability.  The commissioner found that the award of permanent disability was based on claimant's ability to continue as a pharmacy tech and her ability to find new employment should she leave Hy-Vee. The district court affirmed, finding that the agency had correctly interpreted decisions focusing on claimant's ability to earn in the compet