Alphonso v. Bridge Terminal Transport

852 So. 2d 501, 2002 La.App. 4 Cir. 2768, 2003 La. App. LEXIS 2175, 2003 WL 21752734
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 9, 2003
DocketNo. 2002-CA-2768
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 852 So. 2d 501 (Alphonso v. Bridge Terminal Transport) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alphonso v. Bridge Terminal Transport, 852 So. 2d 501, 2002 La.App. 4 Cir. 2768, 2003 La. App. LEXIS 2175, 2003 WL 21752734 (La. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

| .DENNIS R. BAGNERIS, SR., Judge.

This disputed Workers’ Compensation claim was filed after the employer discontinued benefits. The Workers’ Compensation Judge (“WCJ”) found in favor of the employer, Bridge Terminal Transport, and against the employee, John H. Alphonso. Specifically, the WCJ denied Mr. Alphonso’s benefits and found that Mr. Alphonso forfeited his rights to workers’ compensation benefits under La. R.S. 23:1208. For the reasons ascribed below, we affirm the WCJ’s finding that Mr. Alphonso failed to prove that he continued to be disabled as a result of his job-related injury; we reverse the WCJ’s finding that Mr. Alphonso forfeited his rights to workers’ compensation under La. R.S. 23:1208; and we remand the case for the WCJ to determine whether Mr. Alphonso is capable of returning to his pre-injury employment and whether he is entitled to rehabilitation services. In all other respects, the judgment is affirmed.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Mr. Alphonso was employed as a truck driver for Bridge Terminal Transport (“BTT”). On March 14, 2000, Mr. Alphonso allegedly sustained injuries to his back and neck when he was involved in an accident with another 18-wheeler.

IsBTT paid medical benefits and weekly wage benefits from March 2000, through August 8, 2000 at a weekly rate of $384.00. Benefits were reinstated on September 6, 2000, and continued through March 6, 2001. Mr. Alphonso’s benefits were terminated in March 2001 based on video surveillance, which purportedly illustrated that Mr. Alphonso was more active than what he was leading his doctors to believe. Mr. Alphonso filed this disputed claim on August 20, 2001.

On April 19, 2002, a trial was held at which only Plaintiff testified. The admissibility of all other evidence was stipulated to and submitted in either written or video form. Based on the testimony and evidence introduced, the WCJ found that: (1) Mr. Alphonso failed to prove that he continued to be disabled as a result of his March 14, 2000 job-related injury; (2) the tumor identified on Mr. Alphonso’s spine is not a result of his injury and neither does it, nor his injury of March 14, 2000, prevent him from engaging in employment; (3) BTT’s decision to terminate benefits in March 2001 was proper; and (4) Mr. Alphonso’s conduct, acts and representations violated La. R.S. 23:1208 and has forfeited his right to workers’ compensation benefits. On July 31, 2002, Mr. Alphonso filed a motion for a new trial, which was denied without a hearing. Mr. Alphonso now appeals this final judgment.

On appeal, Mr. Alphonso alleges four assignments of error. Specifically, he alleges the WCJ erred by: (i) finding that he was not physically disabled for his duties as the driver of an 18-wheeler; (ii) finding that he committed fraudulent statements in applying for his compensa[504]*504tion benefits; (Hi) failing to find that BTT was unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for terminating his weekly benefits and medical benefits; and (iv) denying his post-trial procedural rights.

|aDISCUSSION

Standard of Review

It is well settled that factual findings in workers’ compensation cases are subject to the “manifest error” or “clearly wrong” standard of appellate review. Seal v. Gaylord Container Corp., 97-0688, p. 4 (La.12/2/97), 704 So.2d 1161, 1164. In applying the manifest error— clearly wrong standard, the appellate court must determine not whether the trier of fact was right or wrong, but whether the fact finder’s conclusion was a reasonable one. Seal, 97-0688 at p. 4, 704 So.2d at 1164. Where two permissible views of the evidence exist, a fact finder’s choice between them can never be manifestly erroneous or clearly wrong. Id. If the fact finder’s findings are reasonable in light of the record reviewed in its entirety, the court of appeal may not reverse, even if convinced that had it been sitting as the trier of fact, it would have weighed the evidence differently. Banks v. Industrial Roofing & Sheet Metal Works, 96-2840, p. 8 (La.7/1/97), 696 So.2d 551, 556.

Louisiana Workers’ Compensation law is to be liberally construed in favor of coverage. Daigle v. Sherwin-Williams Co., 545 So.2d 1005, 1006 (La.1989). To establish entitlement to workers’ compensation benefits, a claimant must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that an accident occurred during the course and scope of his employment; the accident caused his injuries; and the injury caused his disability. West v. Bayou Vista Manor, Inc., 371 So.2d 1146, 1147 (La.1979). For an employee to establish entitlement to temporary total disability benefits, he must prove by clear and convincing evidence, unaided by a presumption of disability, that he is physically unable to engage in any employment, regardless of its nature, and including employment while working in pain. La. R.S. 23:1221(1)(c). Coats v. American Tel. and Tel. Co., 95-2670, p. 8 (La.10/25/96), 681 So.2d 1243, 1247. The burden of proving the existence of a fact by clear and convincing evidence requires that its existence be highly probable, that is, much more probable than its non-existence. Scherer v. Interior Plant Design, 98-702, pp. 4-5 (La.App. 3 Cir. 10/28/98), 724 So.2d 797, 800.

Issue One: Whether the WCJ erred by finding that Mr. Alphonso failed to prove that he continued to be disabled as a result of his job-related injury of March 14, 2000.

Mr. Alphonso argues that the standard of review is not whether he is generally “disabled” or generally capable of “engaging in employment,” but whether he is disabled for the specific purpose of continuing the employment in which he was employed at the time of the accident. Specifically, Mr. Alphonso contends that he never asserted that there was no work he could perform; rather, he contends that his injuries and pain medication prevent him from returning to the physically demanding and Federally regulated commercial trucking industry.

Louisiana Revised Statute 23:1221 provides the following on when compensation shall be paid for temporary total disability or permanent total disability:

(1) Temporary total.
(a) For any injury producing temporary total disability of an employee to engage in any self-employment or occupation for wages, whether or not the same or a similar occupation as that in which the [505]*505employee was customarily engaged when injured, and whether or not an occupation for which the employee at the time of injury was particularly fitted by reason of education, training, or experience, sixty-six and two-thirds percent of wages during the period of such disability.
(b) For purposes of Subparagraph (l)(a) of this Paragraph, compensation for temporary disability shall not be awarded if the employee is engaged in any employment or self-employment regardless of the nature or character of the employment or self-employment including but not limited to any and all odd-lot | ^employment, sheltered employment, or employment while working in any pain.

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852 So. 2d 501, 2002 La.App. 4 Cir. 2768, 2003 La. App. LEXIS 2175, 2003 WL 21752734, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alphonso-v-bridge-terminal-transport-lactapp-2003.