Iowa Workers' Compensation

The Supreme Court, in DART v. Young , No. 14-0231 (Iowa June 5, 2015) , held that an independent medical evaluation under section 85.39 could not be completely paid under the "costs" section of the commissioner's administrative rules at 876 IAC 4.33(6).  The court affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeals, although discussing the issue in more detail.  The case was decided on a 4-3 vote, with Justices Hecht, Appel and Zager in dissent. The facts in DART  were relatively straightforward.  Defendants accepted claimant's back injury, but did not obtain a rating of impairment under section 85.39.  Claimant obtained an evaluation of her own, and sought to tax the expense of this evaluation as costs under 876 IAC 4.33(6).  The commissioner and the district court ordered that the evaluation to be paid in full under 4.33(6), and the district court affirmed.  The Court of Appeals reversed, finding that ordering payment for the exam as costs would defeat t...

Claimant was a carpenter who started doing carpentry work for Stark Construction when he had an injury.  When he reached the hospital, claimant indicated he was employed by Don Risdahl Builders and was self-employed.  Claimant later filed a claim against Stark, who affirmatively alleged that he was an independent contractors.  The deputy found claimant was an independent contractor and the commissioner reversed.  At the district court level, the court reversed the agency, finding that claimant was an independent contractor. The Court of Appeals reversed the action of the district court and affirmed the action of the commissioner in Stark Contruction v. Lauterwasser , No. 13-0609 (Iowa App. April 16, 2014).  Initially, the court found that since the law did not vested the agency with power to interpret the term "employee," no deference was due the commissioner in determining how the term was to be defined.   On appeal, claimant contended that the dist...

In Waldinger Corp. v. Mettler , 817 NW2d 1 (Iowa 2012), the Supreme Court finds that multiple healing periods are consistent with section 85.34(1) of the statute, and overrules its earlier decision in Ellingson v. Fleetguard , 599 N.W.2d 440 (Iowa 1999).  Mettler involved a relatively straightforward situation where claimant was found to have reached maximum medical improvement (MMI) by his doctors, was paid permanency benefits, and was later found to be in need of additional surgery for his ankle problems. That surgery was performed, and a few years later a third surgery was performed, following which claimant was off work from September 18, 2007 until December 7, 2007.  In addition to awarding permanency benefits, the commissioner found that claimant was entitled to healing period benefits following the third surgery.  Ultimately, the Court of Appeals concluded that the commissioner had no special expertise in interpreting the statute and held, based on Ellingson , t...

In John Deere Dubuque Works v. Caven , No. 1-286 (Iowa App. 2011), the Court of Appeals interpreted the commissioner's rule on costs, 876 IAC 4.33(6), for the first time.  In the underlying decision in Caven , the commissioner concluded that the rule, which allows the hearing deputy, in his or her discretion, to award the "reasonable costs of obtaining no more the two doctors' or practitioners' reports," was not limited to payment of $150.00 for a doctors' or practiioners' report.  Prior to the Caven decision, the commissioner's office had interpreted 4.33(6) as being limited to $150.00, similar to 876 IAC 4.33(5), despite the fact that the language of the rule contained no such limitation. The argument made before the court on appeal was that the commissioner exceeded his authority in allowing payment for the entire cost of obtaining two reports.  The Court of Appeals disagreed, finding that section 86.40 of the Code indicates that all costs before ...