Public Employees' Retirement System v. Walker

126 So. 3d 904, 2012 WL 6119191, 2012 Miss. App. LEXIS 808
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedDecember 11, 2012
DocketNo. 2011-SA-00719-COA
StatusPublished

This text of 126 So. 3d 904 (Public Employees' Retirement System v. Walker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Public Employees' Retirement System v. Walker, 126 So. 3d 904, 2012 WL 6119191, 2012 Miss. App. LEXIS 808 (Mich. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

MAXWELL, J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1. When faced with conflicting medical evidence of a member’s disability, the Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) is tasked with weighing the evidence and deciding whether the member is entitled to disability retirement benefits. If PERS finds a member is not disabled, and its decision is supported by substantial evidence, neither the circuit court nor the appellate court may inject its own judgment. This is true even if the courts would have weighed the evidence differently or arrived at a different decision. Here, the circuit judge reversed PERS’s denial of Sherry Walker’s claim for disability retirement benefits and entered an order awarding Walker these benefits. Because our review shows sufficient medical evidence supported PERS’s conclusion that Walker was not disabled, we reverse and render the judgment of the circuit court and reinstate PERS’s order denying disability benefits.

Facts and Procedural History

¶ 2. Walker taught school in the South Pike School District for thirteen years. On January 20, 1998, she fell during a classroom demonstration, injuring her hands, neck, and lower back. Shortly after, she voluntarily resigned from her teaching position and applied for duty-related disability benefits with PERS. Walker later amended her application to also request regular disability benefits.

¶ 3. Walker’s personal medical diary documented she had suffered back pain as early as 1964, maybe earlier. And she had been treated and diagnosed with similar preexisting medical conditions before her fall. She claimed the classroom fall exacerbated her preexisting degenerative disease and fibromyalgia. Though Walker alleged she could no longer write, bend, walk, or sit for an extended time, South Pike’s superintendent maintained, based on his personal observations of Walker in the classroom, that she could still perform teaching duties because she could sit or stand as needed throughout the day.

¶ 4. After her fall, Walker visited numerous physicians. She initially sought treatment from Dr. Edward Long, a chiropractor, who found Walker’s fall “aggravated, accelerated, and agitated previous symptoms which continue to keep her disabled.” He diagnosed her with a lumbro-sacral sprain, lumbar radiculitis, and eervico-bra-chial syndrome and assigned a fifty-one percent impairment rating to her body as a whole. Dr. Long found she could not climb stairs or walk for short distances, and he considered Walker’s disability permanent.

¶ 5. Walker then saw Dr. Alan Freeland, an orthopedic surgeon, for wrist and hand problems. Dr. Freeland found a majority of Walker’s problems were “systemic.” And though he found a “slightly mobile mass at the volar radial side of the left wrist,” he concluded “the remainder of the examination of the hands and wrists [was] essentially normal.” Walker declined Dr. Freeland’s recommendation to either aspirate or surgically remove the mass.

¶ 6. On May 5, 1998, Dr. James Hughes, another orthopedic surgeon, evaluated Walker for back and neck problems. He found that Walker had some discomfort in her right hip and that her lumbar spine showed some signs of loss of motion and lateral rotation. Responding to a later request from Walker’s insurance provider, Dr. Hughes observed that “[Walker] has serious preexisting conditions that certainly may prevent her from returning to [even light-duty work.” But he was careful to note — “[f]or this, her other physician should be consulted.”

¶ 7. Walker’s rheumatologist, Dr. James Hensarling, who had treated her both be[907]*907fore and after her fall, submitted a report to PERS. His report confirmed that Walker suffered from fibromyalgia and that her blood work had shown a positive antinuclear antibody (ANA) test — -typically indicative of systemic lupus, an autoimmune disease. But Dr. Hensarling provided no prognosis. Nor did he place Walker under any restrictions. When asked whether Walker’s disability was permanent, Dr. Hensarling simply wrote, “N/A.”

¶ 8. Dr. Henry Lewis, Walker’s primary-care physician, agreed with Dr. Hensar-ling’s diagnosis of fibromyalgia and the positive ANA test. He further found Walker suffered from “chronic arthralgia” and “acute hyperlipidemia.” But unlike Dr. Hensarling, Dr. Lewis concluded Walker was permanently disabled because there is “no known cure” for her conditions. He did acknowledge, however, that Walker could still drive, climb stairs, and walk short distances without issue.

¶ 9. On November 12, 1998, Dr. Robert Van Uden independently examined Walker at her private disability carrier’s request. He concluded Walker “is currently unable to work as a full-time elementary school teacher,” but “might be able to engage in some sort of limited teaching or educational role, so long as she did not have prolonged standing, sitting, or repetitive bending.” He found Walker’s “fibromyal-gia, lupus, and chronic fatigue syndrome contributed extremely significantly to her overall disability,” while her 1998 classroom fall accounted for only “ten percent or so to her current disability.”

¶ 10. After reviewing and weighing the varied medical evidence, the PERS Medical Board denied Walker’s request for benefits. Walker appealed to the PERS Disability Appeals Committee (DAC), which after considering testimony about her medical history and present condition, also concluded Walker’s medical diagnoses were not sufficiently severe to prevent her from performing her normal work duties. Because the DAC found Walker had not satisfied her burden, it recommended the PERS Board of Trustees deny her request. The Board of Trustees adopted the DAC’s recommendation, and Walker appealed to the Hinds County Circuit Court.

¶ 11. On appeal, the circuit court reversed the Board of Trustees’ decision, finding PERS’s denial of benefits was not supported by substantial evidence. According to the circuit court, PERS imper-missibly ignored “a number of evaluations from treating doctors [who] all agreed that Walker was in no condition to return to work.” PERS now appeals.

Standard of Review

¶ 12. “Regardless of the conclusion of the circuit court, our review focuses on the agency decision.” Bynum v. Miss. Dep’t of Educ., 906 So.2d 81, 91 (¶ 19) (Miss.Ct.App.2004) (citing Miss. Dep’t of Corr. v. Harris, 831 So.2d 1190, 1192 (¶ 5) (Miss.Ct.App.2002)). And our review of an administrative agency’s decision is limited. Pub. Employees’ Ret. Sys. v. Howard, 905 So.2d 1279, 1284 (¶ 13) (Miss.2005) (citing Pub. Employees’ Ret. Sys. v. Marquez, 774 So.2d 421, 425 (¶ 11) (Miss.2000)). We will not disturb the agency’s decision unless it: “(1) is not supported by substantial evidence, (2) is arbitrary or capricious, (3) is beyond the scope or power granted to the agency, or (4) violates [the claimant’s] constitutional rights.” Pub. Employees’ Ret. Sys. v. Dishmon, 17 So.3d 87, 91 (¶ 18) (Miss.2009) (citing Marquez, 774 So.2d at 425 (¶ 11)).

¶ 13. “There is a rebuttable presumption in favor of a PERS ruling.” Pub. Employees’ Ret. Sys. v. Dishmon, 797 So.2d 888, 891 (¶ 9) (Miss.2001) (citing Brinston v. Pub. Employees’ Ret. Sys., 706 So.2d 258, 260 (¶ 6) (Miss.Ct.App.1998)). It is impermissible for an appellate or [908]*908circuit court “to substitute its own judgment for that of PERS.” Id. Reviewing courts are also precluded from reweighing the facts of the case. Id.

Discussion

¶ 14.

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Bluebook (online)
126 So. 3d 904, 2012 WL 6119191, 2012 Miss. App. LEXIS 808, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/public-employees-retirement-system-v-walker-missctapp-2012.