Iowa Workers' Compensation

  Havill v. Quaker Oats Company , No. 21-1740 (Iowa App. June 15, 2022) In this tinnitus case, the workers' compensation commissioner dismissed the claim, finding that the claim was barred by the statute of limitations.  The commissioner concluded that claimant knew or should have known of the nature, seriousness and possible compensable nature of the condition by fall of 2016 and yet did not file a claim until June of 2019.  In reaching this conclusion, the commissioner found that given the incidents and diagnoses made of tinnitus by the fall of 2016 and the fact that claimant sought care at that time, combined with a condition severe enough that claimant had an emotional reaction and needed to lie down, was sufficient to demonstrate claimant knew of the nature, seriousness and possible compensable character of the injury at that time.  The district court affirmed the decision of the commissioner.   The Court of Appeals finds that substantial evidence supp...

  American Home Assurance v. Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Co. , No. 20-0769 (Iowa App. July 21, 2021) In this action, two insurers were involved in a workers' compensation action.  The deputy initially ordered American Home to pay claimant 125 weeks of PPD benefits and this award was affirmed.  American Home paid the benefits.  Claimant subsequently sought review reopening, at which time American Home discovered it was not the insurer on the date of injury in question. American Home filed an Application and Consent Order for Payment of Benefits under 85.21 and subsequently filed a petition for contribution under 85.21 for benefits paid to date as well as benefits due as a result of the pending RR petition.  Liberty filed a motion for summary judgment, indicating that contribution or reimbursement could only be obtained after an 85.21 order was issued and because an order was not issued until January 3, 2017, no benefits issued prior to that date were recoverabl...

  Tripp v. Scott Emergency Communication Center , No. 21-0841 (Iowa June 3, 2022) Mental injuries in the workers' compensation context have long been treated differently than physical injuries despite the fact that the statute does not explicitly create such a distinction.  In Dunlavey v. Economy Fire & Casualty Co. , 526 N.W.2d 845 (Iowa 1995), the Court concluded that mental injuries that did not involve a physical component were compensable under the statute.  The Court, however, concluded that a claimant must demonstrate both medical causation and "legal causation."  The latter phrase requires an employee to show that the mental injury resulted from "workplace stress of greater magnitude than the day-to-day mental stresses experienced by other workers employed in the same or similar jobs, regardless of employer."  In Brown v. Quik Trip , 641 N.W.2d 725 (Iowa 2002), the Court relaxed the legal test in situations where the claimant's mental injury was ...