Court of Appeals Rejects Penalty Case Under Amended Statute
The Court of Appeals addressed the issue of penalty under the 2009 revisions to the penalty statute in Podgorniak v. Asplundh Tree Service , No. 12-0644 (Iowa App. Jan. 24, 2013). Claimant had been awarded a running healing period, and after defendants' physicians opined that claimant had reached maximum medical improvement, healing period benefits were terminated. The arbitration decision found that penalty benefits were appropriate, and this action was reversed by the commissioner. The commissioner's decision found that the action of the employer was "fairly debatable." The district court affirmed the denial of penalty. The court first found that an issue concerning the specific amounts and dates of healing period benefits that were due had not been preserved by claimant and did not address this issue. The court discusses the 2009 amendments to the statute, and first considered an argument that since the words "fairly debatable" were not included i...