Hallenbeck v. Industrial Commission

232 Ill. App. 3d 562
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJuly 24, 1992
DocketNo. 1—91—2992WC
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 232 Ill. App. 3d 562 (Hallenbeck v. Industrial Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hallenbeck v. Industrial Commission, 232 Ill. App. 3d 562 (Ill. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

JUSTICE RAKOWSKI

delivered the opinion of the court:

Claimant, Neil Hallenbeck, appeals the order of the circuit court which dismissed his petition for judicial review of an Illinois Industrial Commission (Commission) decision for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and found that, assuming jurisdiction, the order claimant sought review of was not against the manifest weight of the evidence. While we find that the trial court did have jurisdiction, we agree that the Commission’s decision was not against the manifest weight of the evidence.

The pertinent facts are as follows. Claimant, a 57-year-old aircraft mechanic, first worked for the employer, Eastern Airlines, Inc., in 1968. On October 1, 1985, claimant was asked to turn on the power of an airplane. In the process of doing so, he fell from a ladder, injuring his knee. Claimant testified that he wrote a note to William Scapelli, his foreman, the day of the accident, requesting Scapelli to make out the required report. One or two days later, claimant testified, he engaged in a conversation with Scapelli, and asked Scapelli if he had made out the injury report. According to claimant, Scapelli replied that he had not had time to make out the report, and further that Scapelli made no reply when claimant asked him if he had received claimant’s note. Scapelli, on the other hand, testified that he had not received the note and knew nothing of the October 1,1985, accident.

After the accident, claimant continued to work until April 23, 1986. From that date until July 14, 1986, claimant did not work. When he returned to the job on July 14, 1986, claimant was unable to perform mechanic work. In November of 1986, claimant took some vacation time before undergoing surgery upon his left knee on December 1, 1986. Claimant was subsequently released for work on May 4, 1987.

On October 2 and 9, and November 12, 1985, claimant saw Dr. Pokornowski. On these occasions, he was given a cortisone shot in the left knee and painkilling pills. On April 28, 1986, claimant was referred to Dr. Mains, an orthopedic surgeon, who prescribed a proximal tibial osteotomy of the left knee with valgus placement. Claimant’s operation was performed on December 1, 1986; he was discharged from the hospital on December 14, 1986. Dr. Mains subsequently released claimant to return to work on May 4, 1987. Dr. Hut-son, the employer’s medical examiner, permanently limited claimant to desk duty on April 28, 1987. The employer, however, did not offer claimant a desk job.

On August 13, 1987, Dr. Dachman diagnosed claimant’s medical problems as (1) obesity, (2) hypothyroidism, (3) a history of polio involving his right lower leg, (4) osteoarthritis of the left knee, and (5) status post left tibial osteotomy. Dr. Dachman indicated that claimant could not continue in his employment capacity as a mechanic. Dr. Barry Lake Fischer examined claimant and testified that claimant would be restricted in any occupation from climbing, standing, kneeling, squatting, walking, climbing stairs or ladders, and pulling, lifting or carrying in excess of 50 pounds.

Claimant himself testified to continuing pain in the left knee, and balance impairment which requires the use of a cane when climbing stairs or walking more than a block or two.

Claimant filed an application for benefits with respect to the October 1, 1985, injury. On December 18, 1987, the arbitrator rendered a decision, awarding claimant 564/7 weeks of temporary total disability, $22,094.77 in necessary first aid, medical and surgical benefits, permanent total disability and additional compensation under sections 16, 19(k) and (1) of the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act (the Act) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 48, pars. 138.16, 138.19(k),(l)). On September 11, 1990, the Commission modified the arbitrator’s award, awarding claimant 326/7 weeks of temporary total disability at $494.67 per week and $293.61 per week for a period of 126 weeks due to a finding of 63% permanent loss of use of the left leg.

On September 19, 1990, claimant filed a petition to correct clerical error in the Commission’s decision. This petition prayed that the September 11, 1990, decision be modified to reflect the award indicated in the Commission’s prior, January 17, 1989, predecision memorandum. The predecision memorandum had awarded claimant temporary total disability for a period of 826Ar weeks, permanent loss of use of 70% of the left leg, and additional medical expenses, while the pre-decision memorandum denied additional compensation under sections 16 and 19 of the Act. The employer responded to claimant's petition on September 21, 1990, and claimant filed a reply on September 24, 1990.

On October 16, 1990, the Commission issued its corrected decision and opinion on review. Therein, the Commission stated:

“The Commission further notes that the ‘predecision memorandum’ issued on January 17, 1989 contained a clerical/computational error in the amount of weeks of temporary total disability benefits awarded, which is herein corrected to reflect the correct number of weeks in accordance with the evidence. The Industrial Commission at that time incorrectly and inadvertently computed temporary total disability benefits commencing October 2, 1985, whereas the parties stipulated that [Claimant’s] period of total disability commenced on April 23, 1986 and further evidence adduced confirmed [Claimant’s] intermittent periods of temporary total disability to April 28, 1987, *** and therefore the Commission finds that [Claimant] was temporarily and totally disabled for 32-6/7 weeks.”

The Commission’s corrected decision further stated that claimant’s permanent loss of use of the left leg was to the extent of 70%, awarded $23,064.02 in medical expenses, and denied additional compensation for penalties under the Act.

Next, claimant filed for judicial review with the circuit court, seeking review of the October 16, 1990, decision — not the September 11, 1990, decision. The circuit court raised the issue of whether it had subject matter jurisdiction due to the absence of a letter of recall of the Commission’s first decision. The circuit court questioned the validity of the October 16, 1990, decision in the absence of a recall letter. Accordingly, the circuit court remanded the matter to the Industrial Commission with directions to the Commission to search its records for the letter of recall.

On June 11, 1991, the Commission held a hearing. There, the Commission found that the recall provisions of the Act had in fact been complied with. The commissioner based this determination upon both the fact that Commission procedures allowed for the issuance of a corrected decision only pursuant to a recall letter, and upon the fact that there were extra copies of the first decision in the file, whose presence could only be explained by the existence of a proper recalling of that decision. The commissioner further stated that he had spoken with an administrative assistant who had assured the commissioner that despite the absence of a letter of recall in the file, a letter of recall had indeed been timely issued. In short, the Commission found that it had employed proper recall procedures, which invalidated the September 11, 1990, decision and validated the October 16, 1990, decision.

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Bluebook (online)
232 Ill. App. 3d 562, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hallenbeck-v-industrial-commission-illappct-1992.