Bennett v. Columbia Health Care

134 S.W.3d 84, 2004 Mo. App. LEXIS 736, 2004 WL 1118827
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 18, 2004
DocketWD 62312
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 134 S.W.3d 84 (Bennett v. Columbia Health Care) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bennett v. Columbia Health Care, 134 S.W.3d 84, 2004 Mo. App. LEXIS 736, 2004 WL 1118827 (Mo. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinions

VICTOR C. HOWARD, Judge.

Columbia Health Care (Employer) and Zurich American Insurance Co. (Carrier) (herein collectively referred to as “Appellant”) appeal from the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission’s final award of compensation to Marianne Bennett (Claimant). Appellant raises three points on appeal. First, Appellant claims that by failing to address proximate causation and whether Claimant’s work was a substantial factor in her injury, the Commission did not follow this court’s mandate on remand. Next, Appellant argues the Commission erred in ruling Claimant suffered a com-pensable event, because the ruling is not supported by substantial and competent evidence and is contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence, in that the Commission misstated the testimony of the medical experts and relied on unsupported testimony. Finally, Appellant asserts the Commission erred in ordering Employer to pay Claimant’s medical bills, because some of the bills do not relate to Claimant’s alleged injury.

Affirmed.

Background

Claimant worked for Employer as a nurse’s aide for nineteen years.1 On May 21, 1997, she filed a Claim for Compensation, alleging an injury to her right knee on November 26, 1996. On November 24, 1998, she filed an amended Claim for Compensation alleging additional accident dates of January 31, 1997, and May 13, 1997.

Prior to the date of her alleged 1996 injury, Claimant had a history of problems with her right knee, which had required medical treatment. At the hearing before the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), Claimant testified that she had undergone surgery for torn cartilage in her right knee in 1979.

Regarding the injury at issue in this appeal, Claimant testified to two incidents on November 26,1996. First, she testified that as she was making a patient’s bed, she was walking around the bed, and she felt a pop in her right knee. Later that day, she felt another pop in her right knee as she was walking up a flight of stairs. Claimant worked the rest of her shift, but she called in during the night, and the charge nurse on duty told her to go to the emergency room. She did not return to work the next day. The emergency room physician’s notes state that Claimant was not carrying anything as she was walking up the stairs. An incident report filed on November 27, 1996, stated that Claimant was carrying clothing protectors at the time her knee popped on the stairs.

At the time of the incidents on November 26, 1996, Claimant believed, and re[87]*87marked to her supervisor, that her knee hurt because of her arthritis. As stated previously, Claimant had a history of prior problems with her knee. She had surgery on her right knee for chondromalacia of the patella and removal of a loose body in 1979.

On January 2,1997, Dr. William C. Allen performed a surgical debridement of Claimant’s knee. She returned to work on January 29, 1997. On January 31, 1997, Claimant testified that her knee again “locked up” while she was pushing a wheelchair. On May 13,1997, according to Claimant’s testimony, her knee again “locked up” at work. Claimant has not worked since May 17, 1997. In January 1998, she underwent a total right knee replacement.

A hearing was held November 2, 2000, before an ALJ in Boone County. The parties stipulated to jurisdiction, venue, coverage by the Missouri Workers’ Compensation Law, rate of compensation, and Carrier’s full coverage of the Missouri Workers’ Compensation liability of Employer.

The ALJ issued a decision on January 16, 2001. The ALJ noted that none of the evidence presented indicted that Claimant was suffering from an occupational disease. As such, the ALJ confined his analysis to the question of whether Claimant’s injury was compensable as caused by an “accident” arising out of her employment. The ALJ found Claimant did not suffer any “accident” because she had not sustained any fall, loss of balance, slip, or unusual twisting or straining immediately prior to those times when her knee “popped” or gave way. The ALJ also found that the activity, in which Claimant was engaged, walking around the premises (including up and down stairs), was an activity to which she was equally exposed outside of her employment. As such, the ALJ held that her injury was not work-related.

He further found that Claimant “did not sustain an accident arising out of and in the course of her employment on any of the three dates in question.” Although both sides had presented medical testimony offering an opinion as to the relationship between the injury and the Claimant’s employment, the ALJ did not discuss any of the medical testimony. Instead, the ALJ decided the case strictly on the fact that walking and going up stairs are normal activities of daily life to which the claimant was equally exposed outside of her employment, and that there was no fall, twisting, jerking or loss of balance. Claimant sought review by the Commission, which affirmed the ALJ’s award denying compensation. The Commission’s final award essentially adopted the ALJ’s award without substantial analysis or discussion.

Claimant appealed the Commission’s decision, and this court reversed and remanded for further findings. We ordered the Commission to address the pertinent issues prescribed by section 287.030, RSMo, including substantial factor and proximate cause. We also determined that serious questions remained as to whether Claimant’s work duties were a substantial factor in causing her injury or whether the injury was merely the natural progression of the preexisting degeneration of her knee. This court noted that in order for an injury to be compensable, the Commission must find that work was a substantial factor in causing the injury.

Specifically, in Bennett I, we reviewed the broadening interpretation of the definition of the term “accident” since our Supreme Court’s pronouncements in Wolfgeher v. Wagner Cartage Service, Inc., 646 S.W.2d 781 (Mo. banc 1983). We noted the shift away from the requirement that [88]*88an injury arise from an unusual, sudden or abnormal event to the requirement that an employee need only show that his injury is job related. Bennett v. Columbia Health Care, 80 S.W.3d 524, 528-29 (Mo.App. W.D.2002). We further stated “the injury need not result from any unusual or abnormal event. Rather, it is sufficient to show only that the performance of usual and customary duties led to a breakdown or a change in pathology. The worsening of a preexisting condition is a change in pathology.” Id. at 529 (citing Winsor v. Lee Johnson Constr. Co., 950 S.W.2d 504, 509 (Mo.App. W.D.1997)). We noted that the ALJ’s findings, which were adopted by the Commission, erroneously applied the law concerning what constitutes a compensable accident because the findings espoused “the position that, to be compensable, Bennett’s injury had to be immediately preceded by either a sudden fall (precipitated by slipping or tripping) or by some unusual strain upon her knee caused by bending, twisting, or kneeling.” Id.

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Bennett v. Columbia Health Care
134 S.W.3d 84 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2004)

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Bluebook (online)
134 S.W.3d 84, 2004 Mo. App. LEXIS 736, 2004 WL 1118827, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bennett-v-columbia-health-care-moctapp-2004.