Iowa Workers' Compensation

In Mercy Hospital Iowa City v. Goodner , No. 12-0186 (Iowa App. Jan. 9, 2013), the Court of Appeals affirmed the finding of the commissioner that claimant was permanently totally disabled.  The court also concluded that defendants were judicially estopped from contesting liability for the claim, and that defendants were responsible for paying for one half of the cost of family therapy sessions for claimant.  The court reversed the finding of the agency that payment for bariatric surgery for claimant should be paid by the defendants. Claimant, a doctor was exposed to mononucleosis as a result of her work.  She later developed depression and chronic fatigue syndrome.  Defendants' doctors indicated that she may not have had mononucleosis, but did have fatigue and memory loss.  Claimant's doctors indicated that she had developed mononucleosis and this was one of a multitude of triggers for chronic fatigue syndrome.  Following these developments, claimant bega...

The Iowa Court of Appeals rejected defendants' argument that the opinion of claimant's expert had to be evaluated under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals. Frank v. FITS Mfg., No. 09-1419 ( Iowa App. May 26, 2010) http://www.iowacourts.gov/court_of_appeals/Recent_Opinions/20100526/0-186.pdf. Frank involved a claimant who developed respiratory problems, ostensibly at work. Claimant's expert witness, a pulmonologist from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, believed that the constrictive bronchiolitis that claimant developed was related to her work. Defendants' experts, an industrial hygienist and an occupational physician, did not believe that the fumes at the workplace caused or contributed to claimant's condition. The defendants' specifically asked the Court of Appeals to adopt the Daubert standard as the law in Iowa. The court rejected this invitation, finding that the Iowa Supreme Court had previously declined to apply Daubert in L...