Ranieri v. Catholic Community Services

901 P.2d 158, 111 Nev. 1057, 1995 Nev. LEXIS 133
CourtNevada Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 24, 1995
DocketNo. 25054
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 901 P.2d 158 (Ranieri v. Catholic Community Services) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nevada Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ranieri v. Catholic Community Services, 901 P.2d 158, 111 Nev. 1057, 1995 Nev. LEXIS 133 (Neb. 1995).

Opinion

[1058]*1058OPINION

Per Curiam:

This appeal arises from a contested industrial insurance claim for compensation. Appellant Frank J. Ranieri was working for respondent Catholic Community Services (CCS) when he was involved in an industrial accident. A few years before the accident, Ranieri had suffered two strokes, and the accident aggravated his residual physical disabilities.

CCS terminated his employment and the State Industrial Insurance System (SIIS) granted Ranieri permanent total disability (PTD) status. CCS then offered Ranieri a position of “sedentary employment.” SIIS’s hearing officer reversed the initial determination, finding insufficient evidence to support a finding of odd-lot, i.e. a non-scheduled, PTD. Ranieri appealed this determination, and the appeals officer then reversed the hearing officer, indicating that sufficient evidence did exist to warrant a finding of odd-lot PTD. CCS then appealed, and the district court reversed the appeals officer stating that sufficient evidence to warrant PTD status under the odd-lot theory did not exist. Ranieri appealed to this court, arguing that the appeals officer’s decision was supported by substantial evidence and that the district court acted arbitrarily in reversing this decision.

FACTS

In 1984, Ranieri was hired as the food manager at the Indian Springs prison. Ranieri stated that this position was very stressful and attributed his first stroke to this workplace stress.

[1059]*1059Ranieri suffered his first stroke on July 5, 1985. He recuperated for a while and then returned to work. The stress returned when he went back to work. He resigned from his managerial food service position at the prison. Despite this, he had another stroke on December 7, 1985.

After suffering the second stroke, he “relaxed and rested for approximately a year.” Then he opened a bakery. He started with a vacant store and installed the bakery himself. His bakery became the sole supplier of all the pizzas for a theme park in Las Vegas. In 1987, he made 52,000 dozen pizzas for the park. In its decision and order, the appeals officer deemed Ranieri to have made a “remarkable recovery” in light of his successful opening and operating of this business.

His business became very busy. So, in 1987, he sold it. At that time, he began working for CCS as a food service manager. During his time at CCS, Ranieri’s health was good, and he had no physical problems performing any of his job duties.

Ranieri’s industrial accident occurred on May 10, 1989. It was an automobile accident. Early that morning, Ranieri was en route to pick up an employee who needed a ride to work when his car was broadsided. Ranieri’s neck, shoulders, back, and hip were injured in the accident. Ranieri was fired by CCS on July 26, 1989.

Regarding his condition after the accident, Ranieri testified that he no longer could carry items of any significant weight, he was not able to raise his left arm to the height he could prior to the accident, his limp from the stroke was exacerbated, and numbness in his left side increased. Also, the pain in his back was fairly constant; he could not sit or stand in one place or position for any appreciable length of time.

A PTD summary of Ranieri’s medical evaluations was prepared by a SIIS nurse, who concluded, based on Ranieri’s complete file, that Ranieri should be on PTD status because of the combination of his strokes and the damage to his cervical and lumbar area as a result of the accident. The summary included recommendations and findings by Ranieri’s family physician, a neurosurgeon, SIIS’s medical advisor, and the comprehensive integrated workup (CIW) panel of physicians.

Ranieri’s family physician, who had evaluated his physical capabilities prior to the industrial accident, stated that until the automobile accident, Ranieri was able to perform his duties at work. However, the accident aggravated his condition to such an extent that even light work was impossible. The family physician also stated that Ranieri could not stand or sit too long because it aggravated his lower back and concluded that Ranieri was disabled and incapable of performing a reasonable day’s work.

[1060]*1060The neurosurgeon described Ranieri’s condition as typical of a stroke victim and was unable to make a certain statement that Ranieri’s condition was worsened by the accident.

The CIW categorized Ranieri as an odd-lot PTD and no longer employable due primarily to his previous cardiovascular history. However, the CIW panel found the following conditions to be related to the industrial accident: neck pains resulting from a cervical sprain and complaints of low back and lower left extremity pain due to muscle and ligament strain.

The SIIS nurse’s evaluation of all the above evaluations was then passed on to the medical advisor who agreed with the CIW report that Ranieri should be considered an odd-lot PTD.

Ranieri also underwent an evaluation by American Rehabilitation Corporation (ARC). The ARC summary concluded that based on his age and the severity of the functional limitations which resulted from the combination of his industrial injury and stroke, Ranieri presented a poor candidate for vocational rehabilitation. The ARC counselor testified that any viable jobs in the labor market for Ranieri would have to be very sedentary. It was also pointed out that Ranieri could only use his right hand to perform manual tasks and that he could generally use his left hand or arm only to stabilize objects.

SIIS wrote Ranieri on August 27, 1991, to inform him that he had been placed on PTD status. In late October, 1991, after SIIS had informed Ranieri of its decision, CCS offered him a job working at the St. Vincent’s warehouse as a “tagger.” The job required sitting, pricing clothing, and then lifting and placing the clothing items into a box next to his chair. The job required that Ranieri work eight hours a day, five days a week, and make $5.00 per hour. CCS later raised Ranieri’s offered hourly rate to $6.50 per hour.

One of the physicians on the CIW panel concluded that “on the basis of the industrial findings only, it is clear that Mr. Ranieri could return to work in the pricer position offered in the employment information sheet. However, because of pre-existing/non-industrial findings it was the Panel’s opinion that Mr. Ranieri was not employable.” (Emphasis added.)

CCS had SIIS’s initial determination to grant Ranieri PTD status reviewed by SIIS’s hearing officer. The hearing officer reversed the insurer’s determination. The hearing officer concluded that insufficient evidence existed to support the insurer’s finding of odd-lot disability.

The SIIS appeals officer reversed the hearing officer. In his conclusions of law, the appeals officer stated that determining permanent total disability under the odd-lot doctrine requires reviewing the claimant’s age, work experience, training, and [1061]*1061education, as well as the nature and extent of the claimant’s actual disabilities.

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Bluebook (online)
901 P.2d 158, 111 Nev. 1057, 1995 Nev. LEXIS 133, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ranieri-v-catholic-community-services-nev-1995.