Foster Wheeler Constructors, Inc. v. Parker

939 P.2d 52, 148 Or. App. 6, 1997 Ore. App. LEXIS 585
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMay 7, 1997
Docket94-07649; CA A91873
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 939 P.2d 52 (Foster Wheeler Constructors, Inc. v. Parker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Foster Wheeler Constructors, Inc. v. Parker, 939 P.2d 52, 148 Or. App. 6, 1997 Ore. App. LEXIS 585 (Or. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

*8 LANDAU, J.

Employer seeks review of an order of the Workers’ Compensation Board requiring employer to pay temporary total disability (TTD) compensation for a seven-week period, from June 7,1994, to July 28,1994, and assessing a penalty for employer’s unreasonable delay in paying the TTD. The crux of employer’s case is that it should not be required to pay TTD because, sometime after the seven-week period, it was determined that claimant already had become medically stationary and thereby became ineligible for the benefits. Claimant argues, and the Board held, that it does not matter that claimant later was found to have been medically stationary. We agree with claimant and the Board and therefore affirm.

Unfortunately, the relatively straightforward legal issue presented by this case comes to us packaged in a fairly complicated factual posture. We state those facts that are relevant as found by the Board.

In July 1992, claimant injured his left elbow while working for employer as a boilermaker. He first sought treatment in October 1992, from Dr. Swanson, who restricted claimant from doing any high rigging work for at least one month. Claimant stopped working. In January 1993, employer accepted claimant’s injury as a disabling claim for left elbow epicondylitis and began paying claimant temporary partial disability, beginning November 3,1992. In April 1993, Swanson concluded that claimant was not expected to be medically stationary for another three to six months and restricted claimant to work not involving his left hand. In July 1993, Swanson reported that claimant would have permanent impairment and would not be able to return to regular work without surgery. He released claimant to light-duty work, restricting claimant from any repetitive use of his left arm.

In August 1993, employer issued a back-up denial, based on what it believed to have been material misrepresentations about claimant’s past medical history. Employer stopped paying time-loss benefits. Claimant worked at two temporary, light-duty jobs in September 1993, and October *9 1993, for six and three days respectively. Following that, he remained unemployed.

Meanwhile, claimant challenged employer’s back-up denial. By order dated June 7, 1994, administrative law judge (ALJ) Peterson set aside the denial and ordered the claim to remain in accepted status. Employer appealed that order to the Board. While the appeal was pending, employer did not resume payment of time-loss benefits. At that point, however, there had been no determination that claimant had become medically stationary or that he had been released for regular work. Employer nevertheless believed that claimant’s return to work in September and October of the previous year entitled it to terminate unilaterally the payment of such benefits. Claimant requested a hearing on employer’s refusal to pay time-loss benefits.

On July 28, 1994, claimant saw employer’s doctor, who reported that claimant was medically stationary and released him for regular work. Claimant’s own doctor concurred in that report. Claimant returned to work shortly thereafter, and the claim was closed by determination order awarding benefits for time loss from October 1992, through July 28,1994. Employer sought reconsideration of the determination order, arguing that claimant actually had become medically stationary even earlier, in August 1993.

On December 14, 1994, while the reconsideration of the determination order closing the claim and review of AU Peterson’s order overturning the back-up denial still were pending, ALJ Thye held that employer was obligated to pay time-loss benefits through the medically stationary date of July 28, 1994, because, under ORS 656.313(l)(a)(A), time-loss benefits must continue to be paid until the earlier of either the date of closure or the date the order being appealed is reversed. Because the Board had not yet ruled on ALJ Peterson’s order, the date of closure was, AU Thye concluded, the earliest date that employer could cease paying time-loss benefits.

Three weeks later, the department issued its decision on employer’s request for reconsideration of the determination order closing the claim as of the July 28,1994, medically stationary date. The department agreed with employer *10 and held that claimant became medically stationary on August 11,1993. That decision was affirmed by AU Schultz, and claimant did not seek Board review. In May 1995, the Board affirmed ALJ Peterson’s order overturning the backup denial.

The Board then took up review of AU Thye’s order requiring employer to pay time-loss benefits until July 28, 1994. Employer argued that, in the light of the subsequent order of AU Schultz, finding that claimant became medically stationary on August 11, 1993, it cannot be required to pay time-loss benefits beyond that date. In the alternative, it argued that it cannot be required to pay time-loss benefits beyond September 1993, at the latest, because that is when claimant returned to work. The Board rejected both arguments and upheld AU Thye’s order requiring payment of time-loss benefits to July 28,1994, and awarding penalties. It is that Board order that employer now asks us to review.

Employer asserts the same arguments to us that it asserted to the Board. It first contends that, when claimant returned to work in September 1993, his entitlement to time-loss benefits ended under ORS 656.268, and, because he never “reestablished” his entitlement to those benefits, employer thereafter was under no obligation to pay them. We disagree. ORS 656.268 provides, in relevant part:

“(3) Temporary total disability benefits shall continue until whichever of the following events first occurs:
“(a) The worker returns to regular or modified employment;
“(b) The attending physician gives the worker a written release to return to regular employment;
“(c) The attending physician gives the worker a written release to return to modified employment, such employment is offered in writing to the worker and the worker fails to begin such employment.”

Under that statute, if a worker returns to regular or modified work, the obligation to pay TTD benefits ceases. That is not the end of the matter, however. ORS 656.268(3)(a) does not exist in a statutory vacuum. ORS 656.212 and related implementing regulations provide that, when a worker who has *11 returned to modified work remains partially disabled and is not medically stationary, the obligation to pay temporary partial disability (TPD) continues. In that regard, the version of OAR 436-60-030(11) that applied at the relevant time provided, in part:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
939 P.2d 52, 148 Or. App. 6, 1997 Ore. App. LEXIS 585, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/foster-wheeler-constructors-inc-v-parker-orctapp-1997.