Pratt v. MFA, Inc.

67 S.W.3d 697, 2002 Mo. App. LEXIS 250, 2002 WL 126622
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 1, 2002
DocketNo. 24146
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 67 S.W.3d 697 (Pratt v. MFA, 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
Pratt v. MFA, Inc., 67 S.W.3d 697, 2002 Mo. App. LEXIS 250, 2002 WL 126622 (Mo. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

JAMES K. PREWITT, Judge.

MFA, Inc. (“MFA”) appeals from a decision of the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission (“Commission”) which upheld the determination of an administrative law judge in the Division of Workers’ Compensation that Bill Pratt (“Pratt”) suffered a change in condition meriting additional compensation. Pratt contends that his one-hundred-pound weight gain, hypertension, and edema resulted from an injury he sustained while working for MFA, for which he has already received compensation. MFA challenges the Commission’s decision, arguing that Pratt is not entitled to additional compensation because he gained most of his additional weight and exhibited hypertension and edema prior to the original hearing, and failed to give any notice that those conditions were related to his injury. Because we find that Pratt did experience a change in condition subsequent to his initial workers’ compensation award, we affirm the Commission’s decision awarding additional compensation.

Facts

Pratt was injured on September 9, 1994, when he tripped over a metal pipe in the basement of the MFA Milling Company in Springfield, Missouri, where he was employed as a machine operator. When he fell, he hit his head on a concrete wall and lost consciousness. As a result of the accident, Pratt sustained a herniated cervical disc with compression of the spinal cord resulting in transient total paralysis. Following surgery, Pratt continued to experience lower extremity weakness, had difficulty ambulating, and became morbidly obese.

On March 2, 1999, the Division of Workers’ Compensation found that Pratt had a compensable injury and ordered that MFA pay Pratt permanent total disability benefits in the amount of $301.58 per week, for Pratt’s lifetime, in addition to a lump sum for unpaid temporary total disability compensation. The Commission affirmed that award on October 2, 1999. This court affirmed the Commission’s decision by an order and memorandum on June 14, 2000.

Subsequently, Pratt filed a “Motion to Review and Change Award” with the Commission on June 21, 2000, alleging that an increase in the compensation and benefits is necessitated by the “chronic exacerbation” of conditions “directly related to the compensable injury of September 9, 1994” including super morbid obesity, [700]*700poorly controlled hypertension, and bilateral pedal edema. Following a hearing by the Division of Workers’ Compensation, the Commission modified its previous award and permitted additional compensation for a change in condition to cover the cost of medical treatment for Pratt’s super morbid obesity.1

Discussion

MFA raises three points on appeal. In its first point, MFA argues that the Commission erred as a matter of law in finding that Pratt experienced a change of condition because Pratt failed to show that some element of disability or symptom not contemplated at the original hearing caused his condition to worsen or suffer a relapse, as Pratt suffered from hypertension, edema, and morbid obesity and had experienced a significant weight gain prior to the original award.

MFA argues in its second point that the Commission’s decision that Pratt sustained a change in condition was not supported by competent and substantial evidence and was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence “because even giving the Commission’s decision all deference and following the Commission’s determinations on credibility, there was no evidence indicative of a change in condition” in that the medical experts agreed that Pratt suffered from hypertension, morbid obesity, and edema before the date of the first Commission decision. As MFA’s second point and first point are similar, we will consider them together.

“On appeal in a worker’s compensation case, we review the whole record, including legitimate inferences to be drawn therefrom, in the light most favorable to the award of the Commission.” Kramer v. Bill’s Marine, Ltd., 897 S.W.2d 213, 215 (Mo.App.1995). See also Kennison v. Ranken Technical Inst., 44 S.W.3d 899, 901 (Mo.App.2001). We defer to the Commission’s resolutions of issues of credibility and conflicting evidence. Sherman v. First Fin. Planners, Inc., 41 S.W.3d 633, 635 (Mo.App.2001). We will “modify, reverse, remand for rehearing or set aside an award or decision 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.” Kramer, 897 S.W.2d at 215.

Section 287.460 invests the Commission with authority to modify an award due to a change in the employee’s condition before final payment on the award has been made or the expiration of time during which the award is to be paid. See Holman v. Normandy Osteopathic Hosp., 691 S.W.2d 360, 361 (Mo.App.1985). “In order to obtain an increased award upon the grounds of change of condition, the employee must show that since the original award his condition has become substantially worse.” Blissenbach v. Gen. Motors Assembly Div., 650 S.W.2d 8, 10-11 (Mo.App.1983). “A continued incapacity of the same kind and character for which an award has been made is not a change in condition warranting a modification of the award.” Modlin v. Sun Mark, Inc., 699 S.W.2d 5, 8 (Mo.App.1985). Rather, the employee must show “ ‘that since the time of the rendition of the original award his condition has become substantially worse, and not that it has in fact always been [701]*701worse than the commission happened to have found it to be.’ ” Brammer v. Binkley Min. Co. of Mo., 244 S.W.2d 584, 589 (Mo.App.1951) (quoting Winschel v. Stix, Baer & Fuller Dry Goods Co., 77 S.W.2d 488, 491 (Mo.App.1934)).

The original award of the Commission compensated Pratt for the medical expenses related to his injury, including his surgery and hospitalization. The evidence before the Commission indicated that Pratt gained 40 to 50 pounds in his 27 years of marriage, and weighed approximately 325 pounds at the time of the accident. At the time the Commission entered its initial award, Pratt weighed approximately 380 pounds, and was classified as “morbidly obese” by his treating physician, Dr. Lay, his examining physician, Dr. Belz, and the employer’s examining physician, Dr. Lennard.

At the time Pratt filed his application for review of the Commission’s award, he weighed over 430 pounds, and walked with a cane. His treating physician, Dr. Lay, restricted Pratt’s level of activity, recommending “limited ambulation with no climbing, squatting, kneeling or lifting greater than 15 lbs.” Dr. Belz testified in a deposition that according to his body mass index (“BMI”), Pratt would have been classified as obese, not morbidly obese, at the time of the accident. Dr. Lennard would have classified Pratt as morbidly obese at the time of the accident, but he did not use BMI in making that determination. Dr.

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67 S.W.3d 697, 2002 Mo. App. LEXIS 250, 2002 WL 126622, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pratt-v-mfa-inc-moctapp-2002.