Second Injury Fund Denial Affirmed by District Court

Blake v. Second Injury Fund of Iowa, No. 20-1382 (Iowa App. Sept. 22, 2021)

Claimant suffered an injury at work and alleged that she had suffered a first injury in the form of eye problems.  Claimant suffered from Graves disease, and the question in the case was whether she had suffered a qualifying first injury.  The commissioner found that claimant's eye problems were not a qualifying first injury and dismissed the claim against the Fund.  Claimant appeals.

Claimant argued that under Gregory, claimant's eye problems were a permanent disability and thus a qualifying injury.  The court found that Gregory  was inapplicable because in that case an earlier hand injury combined with injuries to other unenumerated body parts was before the court whereas in Blake, the condition was an unenumerated condition leading to problems with a scheduled member, in this case, the eye.  

The court noted that in Nelson, the court had noted that an injury that merely affects a scheduled member was insufficient to qualify as an injury that triggers the Fund's liability.  The court concluded that claimant's Grave's disease, which affected her body as whole, but "merely affects" an enumerated member did not constitute a first qualifying injury.  There is no discussion in the decision of the liberal construction of the act.

NOTE:  The decision contains a footnote which notes that when Gregory was decided, a shoulder injury was a nonscheduled injury.  Under the 2017 amendments to the act, the court indicates that the legislature had amended the act to change a should injury to an scheduled injury.