Bade-Brown v. Labor Commission

2016 UT App 65, 372 P.3d 44, 810 Utah Adv. Rep. 5, 2016 WL 1395228, 2016 Utah App. LEXIS 74
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedApril 7, 2016
Docket20141052-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 2016 UT App 65 (Bade-Brown v. Labor Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bade-Brown v. Labor Commission, 2016 UT App 65, 372 P.3d 44, 810 Utah Adv. Rep. 5, 2016 WL 1395228, 2016 Utah App. LEXIS 74 (Utah Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

Memorandum Decision

ROTH, Judge;

T1 Charlotte Lynn Bade-Brown (Petitioner) seeks review of the Labor Commission's (the Commission) order partially denying her claim for benefits under Utah's Workers Compensation Act. We decline to disturb the Commission's order.

BACKGROUND

12 On July 9, 2007, Petitioner was test-driving a vehicle for her employer, Low Book Sales and Leasing. While she was driving on the interstate, the vehicle "began to die." As Petitioner attempted to pull the car over, a dump-truck "hit her in the rear driver's side." Petitioner was taken to the emergency room and was diagnosed with "a head contusion," "back strain, cervical strain, and a chest wall contusion." Between July 2007 and March 2011, Petitioner reported experiencing "headaches" as well as pain in her neck, thoracic back, and low back. She eventually underwent surgery on April 18, 2011, to relieve the pain.

13 On November 28, 2012, she applied for a hearing with the Commission, seeking temporary total disability compensation for the period of April 13, 2011, through April 11, 2012. On October 29, 2018, the Administrative Law Judge (the ALJ) issued its Amended Interim Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law in which it determined, among other things, that there was a controversy regarding the "medical cause of Petitioner's current neck, thoracic back, headaches, and low back problems," as well as the "date of medical stability." Accordingly, the ALJ ordered that the "medical aspects of the case" be referred to an independent medical panel.

{ 4 The medical panel found "no medically demonstrable causal connection between the [Petitioner's] current headaches, neck, thoracic, and low back pain" and the July 2007 accident. The panel concluded that while Petitioner "may have suffered straing/sprains of the cervical, thoracic, and Iumbar spines" and "may have had cervicogenic headaches" due to the accident, those symptoms "would have resolved within the first few months *48 after the accident." It based this conclusion on evidence that the initial pain was "mostly in [her] chest" and that the "wide spread pain" did not "appear in her medical record until several months after the accident." The panel also noted that Petitioner had had "multiple seans visualizing all of the potentially affected body areas" and that none of them indicated anything other than: "mild degenerative changes appropriate for her age." The panel then concluded that Petitioner's medical condition stabilized within six months of the accident and assigned January 1, 2008, as the medical stabilization date. ~

~ T5 Petitioner timely objected to the medical panel's report, However, the ALJ determined in its May 2014 Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Order that "[al preponderance of the medical evidence supports a finding that there is no medical causal connection" between Petitioner's headaches, back and neck pain, and the accident. The ALJ also found that the preponderance of the evidence established that Petitioner reached medical stability as of January 2008, like the medical panel had found. Because Petitioner sought disability benefits for a period beginning in April 2011, the ALJ. determined that Petitioner was not entitled to "any additional temporary total disability compensation" and dismissed with prejudice Petitioner's claims for "temporary total disability compensation, medical treatment, and permanent partial disability. compensation."

T6 Petitioner filed a motion for review with the Commission, arguing that the ALJ abused its discretion by admitting the medical panel report into evidence despite glaring deficiencies in the report, and that the report should have been excluded or, alternatively, that a hearing should have been held to resolve the deficiencies, Petitioner also argued that a hearing should have been held to investigate potential bias of the medical panel's chairman, alleging that the chairman was biased against injured workers. In response, the Commission determined that the medical panel's conclusion about medical causation was "supported by the medical evidence," that it was "the product of impartial [review]," and that, as the ALJ had determined, Petitioner was not entitled to benefits between April 2011 and April 2012, In particular, the Commission found that Drs. Anden, Passey, and Knoebel, who had previously examined Petitioner, had all concluded, as did the medical panel, that Petitioner's "current complaints" were the product of. "a separate condition that was not medically caused by the accident." It also noted that only one doctor-Dr. Humpher-_ys-had found Petitioner's "ongoing neck and back problems" to be "causally connected to the accident." The Commission agreed with Petitioner, however, that the medical panel's conclusion regarding the January 2008 medical stability date was "not supported by the medical evidence" and that the medical panel's Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI) 1 date determination appeared instead to be simply "an estimation based on the panel's experience." The Commission determined that it was therefore "not bound by that finding in the panel's report." Nonetheless, the Commission determined that because there was no causal connection between Petitioner's "current" complaints and the accident, the "medical panel's opinion on the date of medical stability does not alter any entitlement she may have to such benefits.,"

17 Petitioner filed a motion for reconsideration, which the Commission denied. Petitioner seeks judicial review.

ISSUES‘ AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

T8 Petitioner presents two challenges to the Commission's order, First, she argues that the Commission erred by affirming the ALJ's refusal to exclude the: medical panel report. Second, she argues, in the alternative, that the Commission abused its discretion by not remanding the case for a hearing to resolve the alleged deficiencies in the medical panel report and to investigate *49 potential bias of the medical panel. We review the Commission's refusal to exclude a medical panel report or remand for an objection hearing "under an abuse of discretion standard, providing relief only if a reasonable basis for that decision is not apparent from the record." Borja v. Labor Comm'n, 2014 UT App 123, ¶ 9, 327 P.3d 1223 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).

ANALYSIS

T9 Petitioner argues that the Commission abused its discretion by admitting the medical panel report into evidence. She first contends that the medical panel report should have been excluded because of its "glaring" failure to "find [al medically supportable [MMI]" date. She next contends that the reports the medical panel (and, later, the Commission) relied on to make its MMI and causation determinations had "glaring deficiencies themselves." She then asserts that the medical panel report should also have been excluded on the basis of potential bias. While she contends that these defficien-cles can only be cured by excluding the medical panel report, she alternatively argues that the Commission should not have denied her request for a hearing to resolve these objections.

(10 As we explained in Johnston v. Labor Commission, 2013 UT App 179, 307 P.3d 615, Utah Code section 34A-2-601 "contemplates three potential scenarios in which a medical panel report can be admitted into evidence." Id.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2016 UT App 65, 372 P.3d 44, 810 Utah Adv. Rep. 5, 2016 WL 1395228, 2016 Utah App. LEXIS 74, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bade-brown-v-labor-commission-utahctapp-2016.