Marten Transport, Ltd. v. Morgan

2017 Ark. App. 608, 532 S.W.3d 139, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 679
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedNovember 1, 2017
DocketCV-17-193
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 2017 Ark. App. 608 (Marten Transport, Ltd. v. Morgan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marten Transport, Ltd. v. Morgan, 2017 Ark. App. 608, 532 S.W.3d 139, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 679 (Ark. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

MIKE MURPHY, Judge

h This appeal arises from a workers’ compensation claim in which appel-lee/cross-appellant Kevin Morgan injured himself when he tripped and fell while making a delivery for the appellant/cross-appellee Marten Transport, Ltd. (Marten Transport) on November -7, 2015. Marten Transport appeals the Workers Compensation Commission’s (Commission) determination that Morgan suffered a compen-sable injury. Morgan cross-appeals the Commission’s decision to modify his temporary total disability. We affirm on both direct appeal and on cross-appeal.

At the time of the accident, Morgan was a forty-four-year-old truck driver for Marten Transport. On direct examination, Morgan described the incident as follows:

Q. Will you briefly explain how your accident occurred on that day?
LA. Yes. I was making a delivery at. a WalMart store in Monticello, Arkansas ... I pulled around to the back of the store and backed into their, unloading dock and I got out of the truck and was going to the vendor’s door .... I walked .up to the vendor’s door and I noticed their doorbell wasn’t working ... I left my phone in the truck, so I turned around and was walking back to the truck to get my phone out-of the.truck and it was dark outside and I.walked right into a blue ship pallet [lying] on the ground and fell on both knees, both hands into the asphalt ...
Q. Did you at some point report it to anybody in a supervisory position at Marten Transport? -
A. Yes, I called—all we had : is dispatch,
Q. When did you report it to dispatch?
A. Like ten minutes after it happened ... I told them I needed to go to a doctor and they told me that I needed to get that truck back to Clarksville and not leave it there....
Q. Did you get the truck back to Clarksville?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you at some point receive medical attention in regards to your accident?
A. Yes, as soon as I got back to Clarksville.

According to the record, Morgan was treated at Johnson Regional Medical Center on November 8, 2015. An emergency-room physician signed a note on November 8, 2015, indicating that Morgan could “return to work on 11/9/15—No restrictions.”

Morgan testified that he -returned- to work for Marten Transport the next day for “four or five- hours” but that his employer’s human-resource, representative took him off work on or about November 10, 2015, because he had broken his glasses in the fall and had a restriction on his CDL that he could not drive without them. Morgan returned to work on November 17, 2015. He then saw his family doctor on November 23, 2015, for back-related pain, and his doctor took Morgan off work at that time. The diagnosis from that Uvisit was low-back pain, and the doctor recommended light duty work due to radicular symptoms.

Morgan testified that he had not returned to work for any employer since November 23, 2015, and that Marten Transport terminated his employment on or about December 5, 2015, for not disclosing treatment associated with a car wreck when he. first started working for them. Morgan saw his family doctor again on December 7, 2015, and his doctor determined Morgan’s symptoms continued such that Morgan should remain off work at least until January 8, 2016. Marten Transport had an orthopedic surgeon review Morgan’s records on December 11, 2015. The surgeon opined that Morgan’s end-of-healing period was reached by December 4, 2015. On January 8, 2016, Morgan’s family doctor signed another note indicating Morgan “[w]as unable to attend work on 01/08/16 through 02/12/16 due to injury.”

Around April 11, 2016, Morgan sought an independent medical examination by a neurosurgeon, Dr. Michael Calhoun. Dr. Calhoun identified disc herniations in an MRI and opined within a reasonable degree of medical certainty that those herni-ations were the result of th,e November 7, 2015 fall. He further opined that Morgan required additional treatment and had not reached maximum medical improvement.

Unbeknownst to Morgan, on April 4, 2016, Marten Transport had a private investigator conduct surveillance on him. The investigator reported that he had witnessed Morgan drive his pickup truck while pulling a boat trailer, fuel the boat at a gas station, unload his boat at the Arkansas River and drive it around, load the boat back onto the trailer, and drive back to his house. Marten Transport sent a DVD of a portion of the video Dsurveillance collected by the private investigator to Dr. Calhoun on or around April 28, 2016. After having reviewed the DVD and report, Dr. Calhoun revised his opinion to provide that he believed Morgan could work in a light-duty setting without walking or standing restrictions. Notably, Dr. Calhoun did not revise his opinion on whether Morgan had reached maximum medical improvement.

A hearing was held on May 12, 2016, and the administrative law judge found that Morgan had sustained a compensable injury on November 7, 2015, and was entitled to temporary total-disability benefits from that date to a date yet to be determined. Marten Transport appealed this ruling to the Commission. The Commission affirmed the administrative law judge as to the finding of a compensable injury but reversed it in part as to the temporary total-disability benefits. Instead, it found that Morgan had reached the end of his healing period no later than April 28, 2016, and awarded him temporary total-disability benefits to that date. Marten Transport now appeals the Commission’s ruling, and Morgan cross-appeals the Commission’s modification of the temporary total-disability benefit award.

We review Commission decisions to determine whether there is any substantial evidence to support them. Towler v. Tyson Poultry, Inc., 2012 Ark. App. 546, at 2, 423 S.W.3d 664, 666. Substantial evidence is relevant evidence that a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion. Id. We review the evidence and all reasonable inferences deducible therefrom in the light most favorable to the Commission’s findings. Id. The Commission is the ultimate arbiter of weight and credibility. Id.

| sMarten Transport first argues that substantial evidence does not support the Commission’s finding that Morgan suffered a compensable injury. It points to the medical evidence, Morgan’s testimony, and testimony of the other witnesses to support its position.

In Arkansas Workers’-Compensation law, compensable injuries include accidental injuries that cause physical harm requiring medical services when they occur in the course of employment. Ark. Code Ann. § 11—9—102(A)(i) (Repl. 2012). Compensable injuries must be established by objective findings, Ark. Code Ann. § 11-9-102(4)(D), and “objective findings” are those findings that cannot come under the voluntary control of the patient. Ark. Code Ann. § 11—9—102(16)(A)(i).

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Bluebook (online)
2017 Ark. App. 608, 532 S.W.3d 139, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 679, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marten-transport-ltd-v-morgan-arkctapp-2017.