Mitchell v. AT & T

660 So. 2d 204, 1995 WL 505893
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 28, 1995
Docket27,290-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 660 So. 2d 204 (Mitchell v. AT & T) 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
Mitchell v. AT & T, 660 So. 2d 204, 1995 WL 505893 (La. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

660 So.2d 204 (1995)

Willie Faye MITCHELL, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
AT & T, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 27,290-CA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

August 28, 1995.
Rehearing Denied September 21, 1995.

*206 Blanchard, Walker, O'Quinn & Roberts by Robert W. Johnson, Shreveport, for appellant.

James E. Franklin, Jr., Shreveport, for appellee.

Before NORRIS and HIGHTOWER, JJ., and PRICE, J. Pro Tem.

NORRIS, Judge.

The employer, AT & T, appeals a judgment of the Office of Workers Compensation which declared the claimant, Willie Faye Mitchell, temporarily, totally disabled, and awarded weekly benefits; awarded additional medical expenses; and assessed penalties and attorney fees. By four assignments of error, AT & T urges that Ms. Mitchell did not meet the clear and convincing burden of proof now required for temporary, total disability, that AT & T's handling of the claim was not arbitrary and capricious, and alternatively that AT & T is entitled to credit for sick pay and disability retirement paid to Ms. Mitchell. For the reasons expressed, we reverse the award of disability benefits, amend by reducing the award of attorney fees, and render.

Factual background

Ms. Mitchell was employed as a Senior Operator Level 2, Warehouse at AT & T's Shreveport plant at the time of the accident in March 1992.[1] She earned $11.44 an hour. Her job was to receive merchandise that arrived at the warehouse. She generally entered information on a computer while another operator physically placed the merchandise with a fork lift. On March 8, 1992, Ms. Mitchell drove the fork lift and accidentally caught her right heel between a metal beam and the side of the fork lift. She was immediately taken to Willis-Knighton South where she received 22 sutures and was released to the care of Drs. Lewis Jones and James Lillich at Orthopedic Specialists of Louisiana. Although she described immediate pain and numbness upon impact, Dr. Jones diagnosed only a laceration of the heel with sprain of lateral and collateral ligaments of the right ankle, and in the ensuing weeks they noted what appeared to be normal healing. Ms. Mitchell, however, continued to complain of severe pain in her heel. Dr. Lillich nevertheless recommended in late May that she return to sedentary work.

Around this time AT & T also referred her to Dr. James Hill, a family practitioner under contract with AT & T and Willis-Knighton. Dr. Hill examined her by palpating or touching the injured area. When it was apparent that he was about to touch the injured area, she demonstrated excruciating pain. Curiously, when he distracted her to another location and secretly palpated the injured site as well, her reaction was not nearly so great. Dr. Hill obtained these results twice in April and May 1992.

Based on the information from Drs. Jones, Lillich and Hill, AT & T asked Ms. Mitchell to return to a modified form of her job in late May. Because she complained she still could *207 not place any weight on her right heel, the company accommodated her by bringing a wheelchair to her car and permitting her to use it at her computer. Although she was apparently not required to walk at all, she still complained that the pain in her foot was too great for her to work. She spent most of two four-hour shifts in AT & T's medical area, and has not returned to the plant since May 28.

After this, Ms. Mitchell's complaints continued; in fact, in a late June office visit Dr. Lillich found her so emotional and crying that he recommended psychiatric evaluation. In early July, Ms. Mitchell discovered a lump in her right breast; she had undergone surgery for breast cancer about five years earlier, and now underwent about two months of testing and treatment, ultimately finding the recent lump to be a benign cyst. While she was at Schumpert Medical Center in July, Dr. Edward Anglin, an orthopedist, suggested surgery to block the sympathetic nerves affecting her right foot, but she declined this treatment until her breast problem was resolved.

While undergoing breast treatment, however, she began seeing Dr. Shahidul Islam, a pain specialist, for her continued foot pain. He diagnosed post traumatic stress disorder secondary to her work-related injury, with chronic foot pain and pain disorder. Although Dr. Islam was not called to testify, his office reports show that he felt her symptoms were characteristic of sympathetically maintained pain. Because of her physical and psychological condition, he felt she was unable to work and should be considered disabled.

Also around this time, Ms. Mitchell had a bone scan at Willis-Knighton, which revealed an "increased uptake in both feet, compatible with clinical history of trauma" (emphasis added), but otherwise nothing abnormal. Dr. David Adams, an electromyographist, tested her in September and found "no electrodiagnostic evidence of neuropathy, myopathy, peroneal neuropathy, or tarsal tunnel syndrome" in her right foot.

In August 1992, after the breast problems were resolved, AT & T referred Ms. Mitchell to Dr. William Osborne, a specialist in occupational medicine, physical impairment and pain study. His staff at the Impairment and Disability Center conducted a battery of tests. He concluded that the injury left Ms. Mitchell with an 11% impairment of her right foot and a 4% whole body impairment, both permanent. He testified that she can perform "most any job sitting," and if she must stand or walk, it could not exceed 30 minutes to one hour, with 10 to 15 minutes of rest before standing or walking again. While he acknowledged that she has a "valid pain input" because of the injury, he cited psychological test results (MMPI, Millon Multi-axial, and others, administered by Dr. Thomas Staats) showing that she had a pre-existing personality disorder involving "gross psychological symptom magnification," and concluded that she could return to work under the restrictions.[2] He also testified that on the basis of an acetone test and measurements of her thighs and calves, Ms. Mitchell was not suffering from reflex sympathetic dystrophy[3] or muscle wasting.

The following month Ms. Mitchell went to Dr. Glenn Sholte Jr., an anesthesiologist who specializes in pain management, on referral from her breast doctor. He gave her a sympathetic block with local anesthesia, which yielded about 80% relief for 30 minutes or so. Later, in January 1993, he gave her a series of lumbar sympathetic nerve blocks, which decreased her pain and raised her skin temperature, but also were of short duration. He testified by deposition that trauma can cause sympathetic dystrophy, and he believed that Ms. Mitchell's was caused that way. He accepted her complaints of constant, sharp, needle-like pain, and said he did not believe she could engage in her old job at *208 AT & T. He stated, however, that he thought her job involved assembling telephone components on an assembly line. R.p. 374. He expressed no opinion as to whether she could work within the restrictions outlined by Dr. Osborne. He concluded that she had not reached maximum medical improvement, and felt that her only options for relief were either a sympathectomy (surgical removal of the sympathetic nerves), or implanting an epidural catheter (to administer pain-killing drugs at regular intervals). He recommended the epidural.

Ms. Mitchell's treating physician, Dr. Lillich, reported in October 1992 that there was "nothing more" he could do for this patient.

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Bluebook (online)
660 So. 2d 204, 1995 WL 505893, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mitchell-v-at-t-lactapp-1995.