Rodriguez v. La Mesilla Construction Co.

1997 NMCA 062, 943 P.2d 136, 123 N.M. 489
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 23, 1997
DocketNo. 17361
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 1997 NMCA 062 (Rodriguez v. La Mesilla Construction Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rodriguez v. La Mesilla Construction Co., 1997 NMCA 062, 943 P.2d 136, 123 N.M. 489 (N.M. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

OPINION

ALARID, Judge.

1. Employer appeals an unfavorable compensation order entered in this workers’ compensation case. Employer raises the following issues on appeal: (1) whether the workers’ compensation judge (WCJ) erred in refusing to find that an independent intervening event caused Worker’s injury, rather than the original work-related accident; (2) whether the WCJ should have issued an order precluding Worker from obtaining back surgery as a reasonable medical treatment for his condition; (3) whether the WCJ erred in assigning a 38% permanent partial disability (PPD) rather than the 13% that Employer wanted; and (4) whether the rule of the Workers’ Compensation Administration (WCA) that requires employers to initiate and pay for telephonic conference call hearings is invalid. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

2. In October 1994, Worker was injured in an on-the-job accident of which Employer had notice. Worker hurt his back while lifting a thirty-five pound sheet of plywood onto a roof. He went to a chiropractor for treatment and returned to work after December 3,1994. On that date, Worker was seen by a medical doctor at Family Medical Center in Las Cruces, who ordered him not to return to work. Worker began to receive temporary total disability (TTD) benefits. Nine days later, Worker saw Dr. Thomas G. Easter, another doctor at the Family Medical Center. Dr. Easter diagnosed Worker’s injury as a lumbar strain or sprain, an injury to the muscles of the lower back. He did not think Worker had a herniated disc at that time, although he did notice the presence of pain in Worker’s left leg, or left-leg sciatica. Worker began to attend physical therapy sessions despite his continued complaints not only of back pain but of the left-leg sciatica. At times, however, his pain lessened, so much so that Dr. Easter released him to light duty in January 1995. At the end of January and early February, Worker still reported that he was unable to do his physical therapy exercises, due to the pain he continued to suffer.

3. On February 3, 1994, Dr. Easter saw Worker again and diagnosed Worker as having some disc herniation, rather than simply a lumbar strain or sprain. According to Dr. Easter, Worker’s pain was much worse and he reported having slipped and fallen in the shower. Worker testified, however, that he slipped and caught himself, but did not fall. Dr. Easter testified that Worker’s fall in the shower, rather than the original accident at work, was the cause of the herniation, and referred Worker to Dr. Michael J. Mrochek for treatment. Dr. Mrochek in turn referred Worker to a surgeon named Dr. Richard N. Castillo for a determination as to whether Worker should undergo back surgery. Dr. Castillo did not recommend such surgery and stated that Worker was magnifying his symptoms. Worker was transferred back to Dr. Mrochek for conservative treatment.

4. At the end of April 1995, Worker participated in a physical capacities evaluation that concluded Worker could perform certain activities. Dr. Mrochek determined that Worker was at maximum medical improvement (MMI) as of May 1, 1995, assigned a 10% impairment to the whole body, and released Worker for light-to-medium work. Employer stopped paying Worker TTD benefits in June 1995 and began paying him permanent partial disability benefits at a rate of 13%.

5. Worker testified he understood he was no longer to be treated by Dr. Mrochek and went to see Dr. Dennis Garcia, who referred Worker to Dr. Joseph Ford, a back surgeon. Dr. Ford recommended that Worker have back surgery, but did not perform the surgery pending resolution of the issue of whether Employer would be responsible for payment. During this time, Worker filed a claim for compensation benefits, attacking Employer’s elimination of the TTD benefits.

6. Following a hearing on Worker’s claim, the WCJ decided that Worker’s herniated disc was caused by the work-related injury, rather than by the subsequent unrelated incident as claimed by Employer. The WCJ also determined that Worker should receive PPD benefits at a rate of 38%, from the May 1, 1995, date of MMI, and declined to interfere in the physician/patient relationship between Worker and his current treating physicians. Instead, the WCJ expressly found that if Worker chose to undergo back surgery, and such surgery was still recommended by his current physicians or by an independent expert agreed to by the parties, the surgery would be a reasonable medical treatment and Employer would be responsible for paying for the surgery.

7. Worker subsequently filed a motion to clarify the compensation order, and a telephonic hearing was held on that motion. Employer, who is located in Las Cruces, was required to initiate the conference call to the WCJ and Worker, who were in Albuquerque. Over Employer’s objections, they were also required to pay for the call. In addition, the WCJ entered an amended compensation order requiring Employer to pay TTD benefits if Worker should undergo surgery, and allowing Worker to file a claim to attempt to establish a retroactive right to TTD benefits from May 1995 to the date of surgery. Employer appealed the compensation order, as amended, raising the issues set out previously.

DISCUSSION

I. Causation

8. This issue is a classic substantial evidence question on an appeal from an administrative agency. Employer argues that a review of the whole record establishes that the WCJ’s rejection of Dr. Easter’s causation opinion was unreasonable and should not stand. We disagree.

9. There was ample evidence supporting the WCJ’s determination that the original accident, rather than the February 3 incident, caused Worker’s disc herniation. First, Dr. Ford directly testified that Worker injured his back when he lifted the plywood and has had a lumbar disc herniation since that time. Dr. Ford explained that it is not possible to have a lumbar strain or sprain that also causes sciatica, that Worker had complained of left-leg sciatica from his first appointment with Dr. Easter, and therefore the herniation was present from the beginning and did not occur on February 3. Second, Employer’s own witness, Dr. Mrochek, testified that he could not look at the fall in the shower as the cause of Worker’s disc problem, because Worker had radicular pain (pain in his leg) before the shower incident and because the results of Worker’s EMG test (a test of the nerves) showed that the damage to Worker’s nerves had occurred before February 3. Dr. Mrochek stated that it was possible that Worker had exacerbated the already existing condition on February 3. Finally, Worker himself testified that he did not fall in the shower, as Dr. Easter had thought, but only slipped. He attributed the different accounts to a translation problem, since Worker speaks primarily Spanish.

10. In the face of this direct evidence contradicting Employer’s position, Employer argues that Dr. Easter’s opinion should be given greater weight, because he was the treating physician who saw Worker before and after the February 3 incident. Accepting Employer’s argument would require that a prior treating physician’s opinion never be subject to question, since the subsequent physician’s testimony would always be less persuasive than the original physician’s. We decline to adopt such a position, particularly in this case, where there is a plethora of evidence indicating that Dr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1997 NMCA 062, 943 P.2d 136, 123 N.M. 489, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rodriguez-v-la-mesilla-construction-co-nmctapp-1997.