Johnson v. Saif Corp. (In re Comp. of Johnson)

418 P.3d 27, 291 Or. App. 1
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMarch 28, 2018
DocketA160491
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 418 P.3d 27 (Johnson v. Saif Corp. (In re Comp. of Johnson)) 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
Johnson v. Saif Corp. (In re Comp. of Johnson), 418 P.3d 27, 291 Or. App. 1 (Or. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

EGAN, C.J.

*2Claimant seeks review of an order of the Workers' Compensation Board holding that benefits for impairment for her compensable hand injury should not include that portion of claimant's impairment attributable to a denied claim for injuries to the left shoulder. We conclude that the board did not err and affirm.

Claimant compensably injured her left hand when it got caught in a closing elevator door. SAIF accepted a claim for disabling contusions and an abrasion. After initial treatment of the hand, claimant sought treatment for pain in her left forearm, left shoulder, and upper back, which she attributed to pulling her hand back suddenly when it got caught in the elevator door. An MRI revealed a partial tear of the left shoulder supraspinatus tendon.

Claimant's attending physician determined that claimant's hand injury had resolved and that she was medically stationary without permanent impairment. SAIF closed the claim with no award for permanent disability.

Claimant continued to receive treatment related to pain in her left shoulder, arm, neck, and upper back, and sought benefits for those conditions. SAIF modified its notice of acceptance to include sprains of the left shoulder and the left trapezius muscle. But it denied a claim for a left rotator cuff tear, left upper arm and elbow sprain, left forearm sprain, and cervical disc disorder, explaining that the conditions were not compensably related to the work injury. Claimant requested a hearing on the denied claim.

While the request for hearing was pending, claimant requested reconsideration of the notice of closure on the hand claim, and a medical arbiter performed an examination. In evaluating claimant's impairment from the accepted hand claim only, the medical arbiter identified limited range of motion attributable to the hand injury. He also identified a loss of grip strength, which he attributed partially (50 percent) to the hand injury and partially (50 percent) to the shoulder conditions. The Appellate Review Unit (ARU) issued an order on reconsideration awarding claimant benefits for seven percent whole person impairment for *3impairment to the left hand.1 The impairment value for loss of *29grip strength was apportioned to the hand claim at 50 percent.

Claimant requested a hearing on the order on reconsideration, contending that there should be no apportionment for loss of grip strength, because the loss of grip strength was caused in material part (50 percent) by the compensable hand injury and was therefore compensable. Claimant asserted further that, in Schleiss v. SAIF , 354 Or. 637, 655, 317 P.3d 244 (2013), the Supreme Court has held that there can be no reduction in benefits for impairment attributable to a noncompensable condition under OAR 436-035-0013, except for impairment attributable to a "legally cognizable preexisting condition," when a claim for a combined condition involving the preexisting condition has been accepted and then denied. In the alternative, claimant argued that, under Schleiss , claimant's denied shoulder conditions were not "legally cognizable preexisting conditions" for which apportionment was permitted under Schleiss .

An administrative law judge agreed with claimant, but the board reversed. The board distinguished Schleiss , reasoning that, when, as here, a claim has been denied outright, there can be no benefits paid for impairment attributable to the denied claim, because no compensation is owed on a denied claim. In its order on reconsideration, the board added as a rationale that a denied claim is a type of "legally cognizable condition" to which apportionment applies under Schleiss.

On judicial review, claimant challenges the board's determination. She continues to assert that her entire impairment from the loss of grip strength, which she asserts was *4caused in material part by the compensable hand injury, is compensable and must be rated. She further asserts that Schleiss precludes apportionment, because the denied shoulder condition is not a "legally cognizable condition" for which apportionment is appropriate.

Our recent opinion in McDermott v. SAIF , 286 Or. App. 406, 398 P.3d 964 (2017), resolves most of the issues raised by claimant. In McDermott , the question was whether, at the time of claim closure, the insurer was entitled to apportion-i.e. , to reduce-the claimant's award for impairment attributable to an unclaimed combined condition. Id . at 408, 398 P.3d 964. Because the text of ORS 656.214(1) shows that the legislature contemplated apportionment of impairment by providing for permanent impairment "resulting from the compensable industrial injury" and defining "impairment" as the loss of use or function of a body part "due to the compensable industrial injury," we concluded that the statutes did not reflect an intention to limit apportionment to the circumstances described in ORS 656.268 (1)(b), which relates to the closure of combined condition claims that have been accepted and then denied. Id . at 416, 398 P.3d 964. Rather, ORS 656.268(1)(b) describes one circumstance in which apportionment is appropriate. Further, the administrative rules of the Department of Consumer and Business Services requiring apportionment of impairment in contexts other than an accepted and then denied combined condition claim, see OAR 436-035-0007 ; OAR 436-035-0013(2) ; OAR 436-035-0014, are not inconsistent with ORS 656.268(1)(b). 286 Or. App. at 422, 398 P.3d 964. We further concluded that the court in Schleiss

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Related

Johnson v. SAIF
507 P.3d 1277 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2022)
Johnson v. SAIF
475 P.3d 465 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2020)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
418 P.3d 27, 291 Or. App. 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-saif-corp-in-re-comp-of-johnson-orctapp-2018.