Gilcrease v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

843 So. 2d 415, 2002 La. App. LEXIS 4300, 2002 WL 32087512
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 11, 2002
Docket36,523-WCA
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 843 So. 2d 415 (Gilcrease v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gilcrease v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 843 So. 2d 415, 2002 La. App. LEXIS 4300, 2002 WL 32087512 (La. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

843 So.2d 415 (2002)

Joy GILCREASE, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
WAL-MART STORES, INC., Defendant-Appellant.

No. 36,523-WCA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

December 11, 2002.

*416 Allen & Gooch by Eric J. Waltner, Lafayette, for Appellant.

The Law Offices of Jack M. Bailey, Jr., by Mary Lou Salley, Shreveport, for Appellee.

Before BROWN, C.J., and WILLIAMS and STEWART, JJ.

BROWN, C.J.

The employer, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ("Wal-Mart"), appeals a WCJ's judgment finding that the claimant, Joy Gilcrease, sustained a work-related accident and awarding her supplemental earnings benefits ("SEB"); Wal-Mart also appeals that portion of the WCJ's judgment rejecting its claim that Mrs. Gilcrease violated La. R.S. 23:1208. Mrs. Gilcrease answered the appeal, contesting the WCJ's denial of her claim for penalties and attorney fees under La.R.S. 23:1201.2. For the reasons expressed, we affirm.

Facts

Mrs. Gilcrease was a 16-year employee of Wal-Mart in Shreveport, Louisiana. She was the department manager over men's wear. On June 5, 1997, Mrs. Gilcrease injured her left hip and lower back by lifting heavy boxes of jeans at work; *417 she reported this incident to her supervisor later the same day, and a report was filed.

Four days later, on June 9th, Mrs. Gilcrease sought medical attention from Dr. Walter Asseff, her family physician. Dr. Asseff referred her to Dr. Ronald Green, an orthopedic surgeon, who treated Mrs. Gilcrease from June 26, 1997 through September 17, 2001. Dr. Green diagnosed her condition as a chronic lumbosacral L-5 strain superimposed upon a degenerative joint disease of the lumbar spine, inducing a facet syndrome. Dr. Green opined that Mrs. Gilcrease's condition was work-related. She returned to work as a cashier on July 7, 1997; however, upon experiencing a recurrence of her back pain symptoms, she left work again on August 22, 1997.

On February 9, 1998, Dr. A.E. Dean, another orthopedic surgeon, examined Mrs. Gilcrease. He opined that she could return to work as a checker and believed that although her back pain began at work, she did not necessarily have a back injury. She returned to work again in 1998, this time as a greeter at the store's main entrance; however, after standing for several hours at a time performing this job, she had to leave work again experiencing back pain. From April 20-29, 1998 and on January 15, 1999, Dr. Austin Gleason reviewed Mrs. Gilcrease's medical history and examined her. He diagnosed her with a mild bulging disc at L4-L5 and referred her for an impairment evaluation.

On April 19, 2000, Dr. Carl Goodman examined Mrs. Gilcrease and on May 31, 2000, he reviewed her MRI. Dr. Goodman believed that she was at her maximum medical improvement; he also stated that as of August 21, 2000, Mrs. Gilcrease could return to work in a "light-duty capacity" with permanent restrictions of no repeated bending, twisting, or lifting over 25 lbs. Upon reviewing Dr. Green's and Christus Schumpert's medical records, Dr. Goodman opined that Mrs. Gilcrease could perform the job of a greeter at Wal-Mart as of September 13, 2000. However, he went on to warn that she could not perform the job of greeter if such position required her to stand for eight hours without the opportunity to sit. Notably, Dr. Goodman agreed to defer to Dr. Green's assessment of Mrs. Gilcrease's back pain.

On September 13, 2000, Wal-Mart offered Mrs. Gilcrease the position of greeter. However, Dr. Green stated that Mrs. Gilcrease would not be able to perform this job if she were not allowed to sit and stand occasionally; he also warned that she would not be able to push large stacks of shopping carts. She declined to accept the job offer.

In June 1997, Mrs. Gilcrease's average weekly wage was $381.83 and her weekly workers' compensation rate was $254.68. Wal-Mart has paid to Mrs. Gilcrease weekly indemnity benefits of $254.68 from the date of the accident until October 1, 2000, when those benefits were terminated.

Mrs. Gilcrease filed this disputed claim on January 4, 2001, with the OWC. She sought payment of her medical expenses, indemnity benefits, penalties and attorney fees. On March 19, 2001, Wal-Mart filed an answer denying all of Mrs. Gilcrease's claims.

The matter was tried on September 20, 2001. Both sides submitted post-trial briefs. On December 10, 2001, in a "Reply to Claimant's Post-Trial Memorandums/Replies," Wal-Mart raised for the first time the affirmative defense of fraud pursuant to La.R.S. 23:1208, urging that Mrs. Gilcrease willfully made false representations in connection with her claim in order to obtain workers' compensation benefits. Specifically, Wal-Mart claimed *418 that in her deposition, when asked about prior injuries or accidents, Mrs. Gilcrease failed to acknowledge a 1991 work accident at Wal-Mart, which was documented by a 1007 accident report, as well as a 1989 automobile collision.

Judgment was rendered on February 15, 2002, and written reasons were assigned on March 26, 2002. By her written reasons for judgment, the WCJ found that Mrs. Gilcrease had met her burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that she sustained a work-related accident and resulting back strain injury on June 5, 1997, in the course and scope of her employment at Wal-Mart. The WCJ therefore awarded supplemental earnings benefits (SEB) effective October 1, 2000, and continuing in accordance with La.R.S. 23:1221(3), based on Mrs. Gilcrease's pre-injury average weekly wage of $381.83, pre-injury weekly workers' compensation rate of $254.68, and a zero monthly earning capacity assessed to her after October 1, 2000.

The WCJ awarded Mrs. Gilcrease medical expenses of $735.00 incurred from Larsen Physical Therapy. The WCJ noted how Mrs. Gilcrease failed to submit her (physical therapy) medical expenses to Wal-Mart and only listed the outstanding medical expenses in her pre-trial statement. The WCJ further found that Wal-Mart failed to prove a La.R.S. 23:1208 violation by the claimant; she found that Mrs. Gilcrease's denial of a prior work and car accident were "inadvertent based on the length of time of such accidents in relation to the June 5, 1997 work accident[.]" The WCJ also found that Wal-Mart was not arbitrary or capricious in its discontinuance of indemnity benefits and therefore denied Mrs. Gilcrease's claims for penalties and attorney fees. The WCJ further found that Wal-Mart reasonably controverted Mrs. Gilcrease's claim due to the "adverse" medical opinions given by different doctors, disputed issues of causation, and the fact that the greeter position offered by Wal-Mart was approved by two of her doctors, Drs. Goodman and Gleason. Wal-Mart was assessed with costs and interest.

Wal-Mart has appealed, raising three assignments of error. Mrs. Gilcrease filed an answer, responding to Wal-Mart's assignments and raising one of her own.[1]

Discussion

La.R.S. 23:1021(1): Definition of an "Accident"

By its first assignment of error, Wal-Mart urges that the claimant failed to satisfy her burden of establishing a compensable "accident" according to the law. Wal-Mart cites La.R.S. 23:1021, which provides the following definition:

(1) "Accident" means an unexpected or unforeseen actual, identifiable, precipitous event happening suddenly or violating with or without human fault, and directly producing at the time objective findings of an injury which is more than simply a gradual deterioration or progressive degeneration.
* * *

Citing McConnell v. City of Ruston,

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843 So. 2d 415, 2002 La. App. LEXIS 4300, 2002 WL 32087512, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gilcrease-v-wal-mart-stores-inc-lactapp-2002.