Flynn v. J.B. Hunt Transportation

389 S.W.3d 67, 2012 Ark. App. 111, 2012 Ark. App. LEXIS 201
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 1, 2012
DocketNo. CA 11-525
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 389 S.W.3d 67 (Flynn v. J.B. Hunt Transportation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Flynn v. J.B. Hunt Transportation, 389 S.W.3d 67, 2012 Ark. App. 111, 2012 Ark. App. LEXIS 201 (Ark. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

CLIFF HOOFMAN, Judge.

| Appellant William Flynn appeals from the Workers’ Compensation Commission’s opinion finding that his alleged back injury was not compensable. On appeal, Flynn argues that substantial evidence does not support the Commission’s decision. We affirm.

A hearing was held before an administrative law judge (ALJ) on April 5, 2010, to determine, among other things, whether Flynn sustained a compensable injury to his low back as the result of cumulative trauma over time or a specific incident on or about February 5, 2009. Flynn appeared pro se. He testified that he began working as a truck driver for J.B. Hunt in November 2007 and that he had a strong back at that time. He testified that from 1976 until February 2009, he had helped his wife on the farm with hay baling every summer and cut and split firewood in the winter. A preemployment physical in November 2007 noted that he had no previous surgeries, deformities, or limitations of motion to his spine.

Flynn claimed he had his first experience with serious back pain in February 2008, |9after having been assigned to a defective truck with a bad seat and a bad mattress. He complained about this and sent letters to his superiors describing the problem, although by then it had been resolved by his being moved to another truck. He claimed that within a few days of changing trucks, the back pain went away. Flynn stated that he stayed in the good truck until Christmas 2008, when he complained that his supervisor was trying to get him to do something that he felt was unsafe. The supervisor responded by telling him that he had a complaint about his driving. Flynn returned to Lowell, Arkansas, for a review of the complaint and was told that the truck he was driving had been sold and he would get another truck. He was assigned to one of the best trucks in the fleet for a few weeks before being told to return to Lowell and turn that truck in because it needed its engine rebuilt. However, he claimed that maintenance records show that the truck was cleaned, detailed, and sent back out. After turning that truck in, Flynn was eventually assigned a truck out of Memphis. He testified that this truck was in bad condition, but he had to accept it in compliance with J.B. Hunt’s policy.

Flynn left Memphis in this truck on February 1, 2009, driving to Louisiana. On February 2, he reported that the defects in this truck were causing him back pain. He was instructed to continue driving and complete his load. He testified that on February 4 at approximately 5:30 p.m., a combination of circumstances resulted in an injury when he was required to use the air horn and the brakes to avoid a collision with a vehicle that was entering the highway. He described that while applying the brakes and the air horn, the truck hit a bump of some kind in the road and the steering column collapsed, causing the ^steering wheel and his body to suddenly move forward. He said this resulted in very sudden and severe pain in his back. Flynn pulled off the highway and into a closed gas station. He parked there for the night and informed dispatch of the situation. His dispatcher asked him if he could continue, and he said he would try to deliver the load. At 6:80 a.m. on February 5, Flynn attempted to drive the truck, but he could not operate the clutch because he did not have enough use of his left leg without severe pain in his back. He had driven no more than ten minutes when he pulled off into a rest area. Later that morning, a security guard knocked on the door of the truck, but Flynn could not get up from lying down. He testified that he could not raise his back, head, or legs. He yelled to answer the knock, and the man got in the truck and called an ambulance. Flynn testified that the ambulance personnel helped him out of the truck, administered morphine, and transported him to Santa Rosa Medical Center.

Flynn testified that the hospital wanted him to stay overnight for x-rays and an MRI, but they had to have it approved by his employer. Flynn talked with two J.B. Hunt employees and was told that they wanted him to get treatment at a hospital closer to home. He was injected with steroids and painkillers, and he flew home. Flynn testified that he was in severe, debilitating pain at this time, and he could barely crawl from his bed to the bathroom with his wife’s help. He said that he even had serious pain lying in bed, and once the medication from the hospital wore off he was just as bad, if not worse, as when he was removed from the truck. After six days, J.B. Hunt got him an appointment to see Dr. Snider.

|4On February 12, 2009, Flynn saw Dr. Snider, who gave him an injection, prescribed medication, and ordered physical therapy. Dr. Snider’s assessment was that Flynn had a lumbar strain. Flynn testified that the injection and the pills gave him mobility so he could do physical therapy. He saw Dr. Snider again on February 26, and Dr. Snider decided he should be off work for six weeks. Flynn said he was later told that the insurance company was not paying for any more physical therapy sessions and that he had to go back to the doctor. He said when he went back to Dr. Snider on March 19, he got a return-to-work letter for March 2B. Flynn testified that he called his dispatcher that day and faxed him a copy of the letter. He claimed the dispatcher said he would call back the next day but he did not. After not hearing from him for a couple of days, Flynn called the dispatcher and asked him what was going on. Flynn was told that he was fired due to a driving complaint.

After four or five days without pain medication, Flynn went to see his family doctor, Dr. Dugan. He got a prescription and was told he needed to see an orthopedist. Flynn saw Dr. Dugan again in March 2010, and Dr. Dugan said that the prescription he was on was not a solution and that he still needed to see an orthopedist. He was referred to Dr. Clarke and saw him on March 9, 2010. X-rays were taken which Dr. Clarke said showed “a minor grade 1 spondylolisthesis at L5-S1 with pars defect,” “minor degenerative changes,” and “maybe a very minor compression fracture of T12.”

Flynn testified that he currently experiences a constant backache, and he feels like there is a lump on the inside of his lower mid-back. He has muscle spasms almost on a daily basis, but they are not as serious since he started taking ibuprofen. The spasms are on his | aright side above the “lump” and below his shoulder blade. He cannot stand for more than a couple hours at a time or sit for more than four hours. Even lying down hurts sometimes. He says the pain has been noted as migrating because there are two injuries— the disc and the fracture. On cross-examination, Flynn admitted that there was no mention of the steering-column incident in the emergency room records or Dr. Snider’s records.

Wesley Griffin testified that he handles legal matters for J.B. Hunt, and that complaints against drivers come to the people that work for him. He testified that Flynn had five driving complaints in the twelve months ending in February 2009. These related to improper turns, improper lane changes, following too close, and things of that nature. Griffin said that after the fourth complaint, Flynn was suspended for three days in December 2008, and he was told that any further complaints would result in further discipline, including termination. Griffin testified that the final complaint was on February 4, 2009. Griffin said that the decision to terminate Flynn was made on February 4, 2009, but he was not terminated until March 23, 2009. He said that J.B.

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Bluebook (online)
389 S.W.3d 67, 2012 Ark. App. 111, 2012 Ark. App. LEXIS 201, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/flynn-v-jb-hunt-transportation-arkctapp-2012.