Iowa Workers' Compensation

In a case involving only procedural issues, the Court of Appeals affirmed the finding of the district court that it did not have jurisdiction to hear an interlocutory appeal of a case that presented the issue of whether workers' compensation or the Municipal Fire and Police Retirement System of Iowa (MFPRSI) governed the issue of compensation for claimant.   City of Davenport v. Timm , No. 13-1357 (Iowa App. Nov. 13, 2014).  Claimant was a police officer who was injured while enrolled in the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy.  She returned to work, but because she was limited to simple office tasks, she was asked to resign, and told that if she did not resign she would be terminated. Following her resignation, claimant applied for a disability pension with MFPRSI and learned that her resignation disqualified her from benefits under that system.  She then filed for benefits under Chapter 85.  The city moved to dismiss the workers' compensation proceeding for lack of...

In Cooper v. Kirkwood Community College , No. 11-1755 (Iowa App. Feb. 13, 2013), the court affirmed the decision of the commissioner that claimant's injury did not arise out of or in the course of employment.  The case had been before the Court of Appeals previously, at which time the court concluded that claimant was required to wait until the agency had made a determination on rehearing before filing a petition for judicial review.  When a subsequent petition was filed, the district court concluded that the petition had been timely filed, but found that claimant's conditions did not arise out of her employment. Defendants first argued that because the second petition for judicial review was filed until after the dismissal of the first petition, it had been untimely filed.  The court disagreed, and indicated that because of the earlier interlocutory appeal, the 20 day "deemed denied" period for the rehearing was tolled pending the decision of the district court and...