Frank v. Bunker Hill Co.

244 P.3d 220, 150 Idaho 76, 2010 Ida. LEXIS 218
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 29, 2010
Docket34696
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 244 P.3d 220 (Frank v. Bunker Hill Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Frank v. Bunker Hill Co., 244 P.3d 220, 150 Idaho 76, 2010 Ida. LEXIS 218 (Idaho 2010).

Opinion

BURDICK, Justice.

This matter comes before this Court on an appeal from the Industrial Commission’s (“the Commission”) order entered on remand from the case of Frank v. Bunker Hill Co., 142 Idaho 126, 124 P.3d 1002 (2005). On appeal Paul Frank argues that the Commission erred in failing to award him reimbursement for the cost of past and future medical insurance, which he claims is required to pay for his medical expenses incurred as the result of his industrial injury. Frank also appeals the denial of attorney fees for the proceedings held before the Commission. We affirm the Commission.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Frank was injured in a mining accident in November of 1980 while working for the Bunker Hill Company (“Bunker Hill”). Frank, 142 Idaho at 127, 124 P.3d at 1003. Frank filed a worker’s compensation claim and was awarded total permanent disability in 1984. Id. Bunker Hill requested a rehearing and the award was reduced to 55% total and permanent disability. Id. Frank appealed that reduction, which was affirmed by this Court in 1988. Id. See also Frank v. Bunker Hill Co., 117 Idaho 790, 792 P.2d 815 (1988), addendum filed (1990).

On May 22, 1991, Frank filed an application requesting a hearing for redetermination of his disability rating. Id. at 128, 124 P.3d at 1004. The next thirteen years brought a complex and confusing procedural history involving multiple bankruptcies, which it is un *78 necessary to reiterate here. 1 On March 24, 2004, the Commission entered an order denying reconsideration. Id. at 129, 124 P.3d at 1005. Frank appealed to this Court, and on November 23, 2005, this Court affirmed the Commission’s dismissal of Frank’s claim for additional disability compensation, while remanding for a determination of whether the amount Frank had been overpaid (during the period he had been awarded total permanent disability) could be offset against his subsequent medical costs that should have been paid by his employer, and for a determination of whether Frank was entitled to additional medical benefits. Id. at 132, 124 P.3d at 1008.

On remand the Commission found that the $10,633.25 that had been overpaid to Frank could be offset against Frank’s subsequent reasonable medical expenses that his employer was liable for. 2 On September 12, 2007, the Commission issued its Order on Remand Re: Additional Medical Benefits, finding that Frank’s employer was not liable for Frank’s past or future medical insurance premiums, that Frank had incurred $15,412.66 in medical care costs which his employer was responsible for and that offsetting the amount Frank had been overpaid resulted in a balance owing to Frank in the amount of $4,779.41. The Commission denied Frank’s requested attorney fees. Frank filed his notice of appeal before this Court on October 23, 2007.

Bunker Hill History

On January 14, 2010, the Commission issued its Order on Remand Re: Determination of Proper Parties, adding Bunker Limited Partnership (“BLP”) to the captioning of the case. This was in resolution of longstanding confusion as to which entity owed Frank a duty as to his workers’ compensation claims.

The Bunker Hill Company began doing business near Kellogg, Idaho, in the early 1900s and was acquired by Gulf Resources and Chemical Corporation (“Gulf’) in a hostile takeover in 1968. Following the takeover, Bunker Hill was a wholly owned subsidiary of Gulf; this was the state of affairs at the time Frank’s accident occurred.

In 1981, Bunker Hill shut down its Kellogg operations, and on November 1, 1982, BLP purchased substantially all of Bunker Hill’s assets, including the name “The Bunker Hill Company” through an Asset Purchase Agreement. Part of the Asset Purchase Agreement included the assumption of workers’ compensation claim liabilities, subject to a limiting provision that is not applicable here. Although BLP acquired the name and nearly all the assets of Bunker Hill, it did not obtain the company itself, which changed its name to Pintlar Corporation (“Pintlar”), and continued to be a wholly owned subsidiary of Gulf. Gulf, Pintlar and BLP all filed petitions in bankruptcy in the early 1990s. BLP’s Plan of Reorganization was approved by the bankruptcy court in 1991. That plan included the establishment of a $40,000 reversionary trust, the income from which would be available to fund the medical claims of former Bunker Hill employees.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

As this Court stated in Giltner, Inc. v. Idaho Department of Commerce and La bor:

On appeal from the Industrial Commission, this Court exercises free review of the Commission’s legal conclusions, but will not disturb findings of fact if they are supported by substantial and competent evidence. Substantial and competent evidence is relevant evidence that a reasonable mind might accept to support a conclusion. The conclusions reached by the Industrial Commission regarding the credibility and weight of evidence will not be disturbed unless the conclusions are clearly erroneous. We will not re-weigh the evidence or consider whether we would have drawn a different conclusion from the evidence presented.

*79 145 Idaho 415, 418, 179 P.3d 1071, 1074 (2008) (internal quotations omitted).

III. ANALYSIS

Frank argues that the Commission erred: (1) in denying him reimbursement for his past and future insurance premiums (where insurance is required in order to pay for his continuing reasonable medical expenses); and (2) in failing to award him attorney fees for the proceedings before the Commission. These issues shall be addressed in turn.

A. The Commission did not err in determining that Frank was not entitled to reimbursement for insurance premiums.

The Industrial Commission ruled that Frank could not recover the cost of his insurance premiums because I.C. § 72-432 provides only for the cost of medical care, not the cost of insurance. Frank argues that he had to get insurance in order to pay for his medical care and, therefore, those costs should be paid by Bunker Hill.

Idaho Code § 72-432 provides, in relevant part:

(1) [T]he employer shall provide for an injured employee such reasonable medical, surgical or other attendance or treatment, nurse and hospital services, medicines, cratches and apparatus, as may be reasonably required by the employee’s physician or needed immediately after an injury or manifestation of an occupational disease, and for a reasonable time thereafter. If the employer fails to provide the same, the injured employee may do so at the expense of the employer.

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Bluebook (online)
244 P.3d 220, 150 Idaho 76, 2010 Ida. LEXIS 218, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/frank-v-bunker-hill-co-idaho-2010.