Fogleman v. Labor Commission

2015 UT App 294, 364 P.3d 756, 801 Utah Adv. Rep. 16, 2015 Utah App. LEXIS 313, 2015 WL 8540189
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedDecember 10, 2015
Docket20141137-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 2015 UT App 294 (Fogleman 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
Fogleman v. Labor Commission, 2015 UT App 294, 364 P.3d 756, 801 Utah Adv. Rep. 16, 2015 Utah App. LEXIS 313, 2015 WL 8540189 (Utah Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

PEARCE, Judge:

{1 Sandra Gail Fogleman seeks judicial review of the denial of her application for permanent total disability compensation. We conclude that the Utah Labor Commission's Appeals Board (the Board) did not err in affirming an administrative. law judge's denial of Fogleman's claim for permanent total disability compensation. We also conclude that the Board did not err by declining to award Fogleman compensation for the treatment of conditions it found to be medically unrelated to her industrial accident. Accordingly, we decline to disturb the Board's decision,

BACKGROUND 1

~ T2 Kolob Care and Rehabilitation Centers (Kolob) is a medical care facility. 2 Fogleman worked as Kolob's receptionist, Her duties included greeting visitors, answering the telephone, filing paperwork and interacting: with vendors. - Additionally, Fogleman handled Kolob's mail, which required her to visit an on-site mailbox by walking through a parking lot and up a "slight incline across some stepping stones."

13 While delivering mail to the mailbox one day, Fogleman fell and landed on her hands and knees (the Work Accident), Fo-gleman believes that an unstable stepping stone " 'flipped' causing her to fall." Because Fogleman was carrying the mail in her left hand, "[slhe felt most of the force of the fall on her right knee, hip and hand."

T4 After a coworker cleaned her wounds, Fogleman finished her work shift, Later that day, Fogleman visited an urgent care provider. The clinic assessed Fogleman with "contusions and abrasions" on her hands and knees. Fogleman's hands eventually healed, but her knee and hip pain continued.

T5 At a doctor's appointment roughly six months after the Work Accident, Fogleman complained of "pain and numbness in her right leg extending to the foot," in addition to her ongoing knee and hip pain. A lumbar magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed "multilevel degenerative disc disease" in Fo-gleman's spine. | - |

16 Fogleman received diagnoses for her allments from a number of other physicians. One doctor concluded that Fogleman was "probably 100%" impaired from the Work Accident. Another found that the "original complaints were reasonably caused by [the Work Accident] but that current presentation no longer correlates with ... the original condition," That physician also concluded, "The current clinical findings are atypical of the original medical condition and cannot reasonably be causally associated."

T7 Fogleman applied for workers compensation benefits, and as part of the proceedings, the parties submitted Fogleman's medical history. Due to the divergent medical *759 conclusions in Fogleman's medical records, the administrative law judge (the ALJ) assigned a medical panel to examine Fogleman and opine on her condition. -

¶ 8 The panel examined Fogleman and reviewed her medical records. | The panel issued a report, finding, | _. ‘

[Fogleman's] hands have significantly improved and are no longer painful. She has occasional numbness when using the hands in certain ways. The contusions suffered to the hands at the time of injury have healed. The [pain in her] knees contin-uels] to be a problem . ... There is pain in the anterior aspect of the knee, patellar crepitus,; and a mild limp. Although MRI examinations have failed to show injury to the joint surfaces of the knees, medications and physical therapy have been administered without a pain relieving effect, the right knee continues to be painful, It has been given the diagnosis of traumatic chondrosis and chondromalacia.... This has not been demonstrated on the MRI examinations.
Since the injury, she has also developed right hip pain.... This hip pain was not noted on the initial examination, but, [in later examinations] it had become. notable.... It continues to be a painful problem.

In response to a specific questlon posed by the ALJ, the medical panel concluded that there was "a causal connection between the injuries to the knees, hands, and right hip and [the Work Accident]," but that there was "no connection betwéen the back pain and sciatica and [the Work Accident]."

T9 The medical panel also responded to other specific questions. The medical panel opined that; (1) Fogleman had suffered a two percent whole-person impairment as a result of the Work Accident; (2) "[the majority of patients, after such an injury, would have returned to full function some weeks after [the Work Accident]"; and (8) Fogle-man's "depression and anxiety compound her current concerns.". The panel also stated that "[nlo objective test[s] have shown clear injury.... [But] Fogleman has not been able to return to work function." The panel ree-ommended maximum restrictions on any work Fogleman might perform of. "no deep knee bends, no lifting greater than 80 pounds except on an occasional basis, and no excessive stair climbing (more than 3 times per four hour shift)."

{10 The ALJ deemed "the opinion of the medical panel to be the persuasive evidence to resolve the conflicts in medical conclusions between various physicians in the case." Based on the medical panel report, the ALJ found that as a result of the Work Accident, Fogleman suffered an injury to her hands, right hip, and knees; that the injury to her hands had completely healed; and that her hip and knees had "reached a point of medical stability." The ALJ concluded that Fo-gleman suffered a two percent whole-person impairment as a result of the Work Accident. The ALJ also adopted the medical panel's finding with regard to Fogleman's maximum work restrictions.

111 The ALJ granted Fogleman temporary total dlsablhty compensation from the date of the Work Accident to the date of the Work Accident impairments' medical stabilization. The ALJ also awarded permanent partial disability compensation for Fogle-man's Work Accident impairments and awarded compensation for medical treatment related to Fogleman's hand and hip injuries.

¶ 12 However, the ALJ denied Fogleman's permanent total disability claim, The ALJ concluded that Fogleman had not established any of the three elements a claimant is required. to prove to qualify for permanent total disability compensation, See Utah Code Ann...§ 34A-2-418(1)(b) (LexisNexis Supp. 2015) 3 The ALJ ruled that Fogleman had not established that she had sustained a significant impairment or combination of impairments as a result of the Work Accident, *760 the first element of a permanent total disability compensation claim. See id. § 34A-2-413(1)(b)(i). The ALJ found that the injury to Fogleman's hands, knees, and hip had stabilized and only created "minimal [physi-call restrictions" for Fogleman, The ALJ did not include Fogleman's back injury in the significant impairment analysis because it was not "medically caused by [the Work Accident]."

{13 The ALJ also held that Fogleman had not established a permanent total disability or that the Work Accident was, the. "direct cause" of a permanent total disability, the second and third elements of a permanent total disability compensation claim. See id. § §4A-2-418(1)(b)(if)-(iii).

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Bluebook (online)
2015 UT App 294, 364 P.3d 756, 801 Utah Adv. Rep. 16, 2015 Utah App. LEXIS 313, 2015 WL 8540189, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fogleman-v-labor-commission-utahctapp-2015.