Lane v. Schreiber Foods, Inc.

903 S.W.2d 616, 1995 Mo. App. LEXIS 1369, 1995 WL 431686
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 24, 1995
Docket19954
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 903 S.W.2d 616 (Lane v. Schreiber Foods, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lane v. Schreiber Foods, Inc., 903 S.W.2d 616, 1995 Mo. App. LEXIS 1369, 1995 WL 431686 (Mo. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

PARRISH, Judge.

Barbara Lane appeals an award of the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission (the Commission) for permanent partial disability as a result of occupational disease. She contends the Commission erred in not finding permanent total disability and in failing to find Second Injury Fund liability. This court affirms.

Appellate review of workers’ compensation awards is governed by established principles:

This court may modify, reverse, remand for rehearing or set aside the award of the commission only if the commission’s actions were unauthorized by law or in excess of its authority, fraudulent, unsupported by the facts as found by the commission, or unsupported by competent evidence. § 287.495 [RSMo 1986]. “The Commission is the sole judge of the credibility of the witnesses and the weight and value of the evidence.” Tyra v. Delta Vet *618 erinary Clinic, Inc., 687 S.W.2d 931, 934 (Mo.App.1985). The inquiry on questions of fact decided by the Commission “is limited to whether, upon the whole record and considering the evidence in the light most favorable to the Commission’s findings, the Commission could have reasonably made such findings and reached the result it did.” Swillum v. Empire Gas Transport, Inc., 698 S.W.2d 921, 925 (Mo.App.1985). This court may not substitute its judgment on issues of fact for the judgment of the commission even if this court would have made a different initial conclusion. Sellers v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 776 S.W.2d 502, 504 (Mo.App.1989).

Lawson v. Emerson Electric Co., 833 S.W.2d 467, 470-71 (Mo.App.1992). Consistent with this standard of review, evidence that might support a different finding is disregarded. Rector v. City of Springfield, 820 S.W.2d 639, 640 (Mo.App.1991).

Ms. Lane began working for Schreiber Foods, Inc. (Schreiber) in January 1979. She was a production worker. Her tasks included picking up stacks of cheese from a conveyor belt and laying them against pegs on a chain belt for transport to another part of the plant. She also assisted in “easing” cheese. She would group quantities of cheese, inspect the cheese and package it in perforated boxes she assembled. Occasionally she worked on other production lines. Sometimes she was required to lift a 5-pound block of cheese in each hand. She worked for Schreiber until July 11, 1990, when she had carpal tunnel surgery on her right hand. She has not been employed since that date.

Sometime in the 1980’s Ms. Lane developed problems with her wrists. She first experienced pain in her left wrist; then in her right wrist. Ms. Lane first had surgery on her left hand.

Following the surgery on Ms. Lane’s left hand, she underwent physical therapy. She did not experience problems with her wrist during therapy. However, when she returned to work it hurt again. After she returned to work following surgery on her left hand, Ms. Lane experienced pain across both wrists and forearms. The pain “kind of ran down the hands and up into the elbows.”

During her employment at Schreiber, Ms. Lane also experienced psychiatric problems. She was diagnosed and hospitalized for 14 days in 1983 for paranoid schizophrenic disorder and placed on medication. Since then she has continuously been under the care of a psychologist or psychiatrist. She was again hospitalized for her emotional disorder in 1987, 1990 and 1991.

Evidence was offered at Ms. Lane’s workers’ compensation hearing that she was disabled due to the combination effect of her physical disability and her psychiatric disability, and that she was not capable of competing for employment in the open market. The evidence was refused upon objection by Schreiber’s attorney and the attorney for the Second Injury Fund.

Ms. Lane’s first point on appeal is directed to the exclusion of evidence directed to the issue of the combined effect of a preexisting mental illness and the disability from her occupational illness, i.e., whether she is totally disabled rather than partially disabled as found by the Commission. She complains that the exclusion of evidence from three witnesses, Dr. Aly Mohsen, Dr. Lester Bland and Dr. G.L. Unruh was error.

Aly Mohsen, M.D., testified by deposition. Dr. Mohsen was asked if, in evaluating Ms. Lane and rating her disability, he considered “the combined effect upon her employability by reason of the bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive trauma disorder and her preexisting emotional disorder, the paranoid schizophrenic disorder.” He answered that he considered the combined effect of the carpal tunnel disability and the emotional disorder as well as her age, education, work skills, transferrable skills, future employability, and ability to compete in the open job market without special consideration.

Dr. Mohsen was then asked, “And, what is your opinion about her ability to compete in the open labor market as a result of the combined effect of those conditions, either bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome and the paranoid schizophrenic disorder?” The attorney for Schreiber and its insurer and the attorney for the Second Injury Fund objected on *619 the basis that they were not furnished with any report in which Dr. Mohsen attributed “any combined or enhanced disability as a consequence in the effect of any preexisting conditions and these work-related impairments”; that no report disclosed “enhanced disability or enhanced unemployability”; that “the seven-day rule” as set forth in § 287.210 1 was not met.

The administrative law judge sustained the objection as to the portions of Dr. Mohsen’s deposition that related to the combined disabilities. The remainder of the deposition was received in evidence.

Section 287.210.3 states:

The testimony of any physician who treated or examined the injured employee shall be admissible in evidence in any proceedings for compensation under this chapter, but only if the medical report of the physician has been made available to all parties as in this section provided. Immediately upon receipt of notice from the division or the commission setting a date for hearing of a case in which the nature and extent of an employee’s disability is to be determined, the parties or their attorneys shall arrange, without charge or costs, each to the other, for an exchange of all medical reports, including those made both by treating and examining physician or physicians, to the end that the parties may be commonly informed of all medical findings and opinions. The exchange of medical reports shall be made at least seven days before the date set for the hearing and failure of any party to comply may be grounds for asking for and receiving a continuance, upon proper showing, by the party to whom the medical reports were not furnished.

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Bluebook (online)
903 S.W.2d 616, 1995 Mo. App. LEXIS 1369, 1995 WL 431686, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lane-v-schreiber-foods-inc-moctapp-1995.