Appeal of the Hartford Insurance

162 N.H. 91
CourtSupreme Court of New Hampshire
DecidedMay 26, 2011
DocketNos. 2010-233; 2010-234
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 162 N.H. 91 (Appeal of the Hartford Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Appeal of the Hartford Insurance, 162 N.H. 91 (N.H. 2011).

Opinion

HICKS, J.

The petitioner in these consolidated cases, The Hartford Insurance Company (Hartford), appeals orders of the Compensation Appeals Board (CAB) denying recovery from the State Special Fund for Second Injuries, see RSA 281-A:54, :55 (2010), for injuries to Claire Hamel and John Rygiel. We vacate and remand.

The following facts were found by the CAB or are supported in the record. Hamel was employed by EAD Motors or its predecessor from 1973 through July 17, 2006. Her job involved small motor subassembly and assembly.

In 1995, Hamel was temporarily disabled for psychiatric reasons and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. EAD Motors continued to employ her with notice of her disability. In 2005, EAD was notified that Hamel could not use a respirator because of her severe claustrophobia.

Hamel continued to work for EAD until July 17, 2006, the date of her second injury. The second injury fund certification by her attending physician listed her diagnosis as “[cjervical degenerative disc disease and left cubital tunnel syndrome.”

The New Hampshire Department of Labor (DOL) denied Hartford’s request, as the employer’s insurance carrier, for second injury reimbursement in July 2009. On de novo appeal of that decision, the CAB also denied reimbursement from the fund.

Rygiel began employment with Mobilemed Support Services, LLC (Mobilemed) in 1994. His job involved driving a large truck to transport a mobile MRI unit, setting up the unit and breaking it down. Since 1994, Rygiel has had Type II diabetes requiring the use of medication. As part of a commercial vehicle driver examination in 2001, it was noted that Rygiel had liver disease. On March 5,2003, Rygiel had the fifth toe on his right foot amputated due to a burn from a heating pad. According to his doctor, Rygiel could not feel the heating pad as a result of his diabetic neuropathy. Following the amputation of Rygiel’s toe, Mobilemed obtained legal advice prior to his return to work.

On December 11, 2006, Rygiel sustained an employment-related injury to his wrist. On July 14, 2009, the DOL denied Hartford’s request, as the employer’s insurance carrier, for reimbursement from the second injury fund. A de novo appeal to the CAB also resulted in the denial of second injury fund reimbursement.

Hartford appeals both the Hamel and Rygiel decisions by the CAB. Our standard of review is established by statute. Appeal of Jenks, 158 N.H. 174, 177 (2008).

[A]ll findings of the [CAB] upon all questions of fact properly before it shall be deemed to be prima facie lawful and reasonable; [93]*93and the order or decision appealed from shall not be set aside or vacated except for errors of law, unless the court is satisfied, by a clear preponderance of the evidence before it, that such order is unjust or unreasonable.

RSA 541:13 (2007). Accordingly, our review of the CAB’s factual findings is deferential. Jenks, 158 N.H. at 177. We review its interpretations of statutes, however, de novo. Id.

On questions of statutory interpretation, this court is the final arbiter of the intent of the legislature as expressed in the words of a statute considered as a whole. . . . We interpret legislative intent from the statute as written and will not consider what the legislature might have said or add language that the legislature did not see fit to include. We construe liberally the Workers’ Compensation Law in order to give the broadest reasonable effect to its remedial purpose. Thus, when construing the statute, we resolve all reasonable doubts in favor of the injured worker.

Appeal of Gamas, 158 N.H. 646, 648 (2009) (citations omitted).

“The second injury fund was created to encourage employers to hire or retain employees with permanent physical or mental impairments of any origin by reducing the employer’s liability for workers’ compensation claims.” Appeal of CNA Ins. Cos., 143 N.H. 270, 272-73 (1998). The statutes at issue here are RSA 281-A:54 and RSA 281-A:2, XIV (2010). RSA 281-A:54, 1, provides:

If an employee who has a permanent physical or mental impairment, as defined in RSA 281-A:2, XIV, from any cause or origin incurs a subsequent disability by injury arising out of and in the course of such employee’s employment on or after July 1, 1975, which results in compensation liability for a disability that is greater by reason of the combined effects of the preexisting impairment than that which would have resulted from the subsequent injury alone, the employer or the employer’s insurance carrier shall in the first instance pay all awards of compensation provided by this chapter. However, the commissioner shall reimburse such employer or insurance carrier from the special fund created by RSA 281-A:55 for all compensation payments subsequent to those payable for the first 104 weeks of disability. Provided, however, that prior to the first 104 weeks of disability, the employer shall be reimbursed 50 percent after the first $10,000 paid on all compensation for temporary total, temporary [94]*94partial, permanent partial, permanent total, medical, or rehabilitation benefits for all injuries occurring on or after January 1, 1991.

RSA 281-A:2, XIV, in turn, defines “[permanent physical or mental impairment,” for purposes of RSA 281-A-.54, to mean “any permanent condition that is congenital or due to injury or disease and that is of such seriousness as to constitute a hindrance or obstacle to obtaining employment or to obtaining employment if the employee should become unemployed.”

The State first contends that de novo review is inappropriate here because the CAB “made factual findings regarding the gravity, in an employability context, of Hamel’s and Rygiel’s permanent conditions” and “then found that neither condition was so serious as to ‘constitute a hindrance or obstacle to obtaining employment’ should Hamel or Rygiel become unemployed.” (Quoting RSA 281-A:2, XIV.) The State argues that these determinations required the CAB to undertake “only a factual analysis of the evidence before it, not a legal analysis of which law applied,” and that de novo review is therefore not warranted. We disagree. Implicit in the CAB’s determination that neither employee’s condition was serious enough to be a “hindrance or obstacle to obtaining employment,” RSA 281-A:2, XIV, is an interpretation of what that statutory language means. That is an issue of statutory interpretation we review de novo.

Hartford argues that the CAB erred in interpreting RSA 281-A:2, XIV. It contends that the determination of whether a condition satisfies the statute “requires an objective analysis to determine whether a prospective employer in the open labor market would likely conclude that the underlying medical condition could rise to the level of a hindrance or obstacle to employment.” It then argues that the CAB, instead of conducting that analysis, “focused entirely on the ability of Hamel and Rygiel to have maintained and performed their jobs and then assumed, from their work experiences with the employers who had retained them, that they would face no obstacles or hindrances to employment if they were ... to become unemployed.”

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162 N.H. 91, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/appeal-of-the-hartford-insurance-nh-2011.