Second Injury Fund of Iowa v. Braden

459 N.W.2d 467, 1990 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 186, 1990 WL 102384
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJuly 18, 1990
Docket89-1193
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 459 N.W.2d 467 (Second Injury Fund of Iowa v. Braden) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Second Injury Fund of Iowa v. Braden, 459 N.W.2d 467, 1990 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 186, 1990 WL 102384 (iowa 1990).

Opinion

NEUMAN, Justice.

This is an appeal by the Second Injury Fund of Iowa (hereinafter “Fund”) from a district court ruling that upheld an industrial commissioner’s award of Second Injury Fund benefits for appellee Duaine A. Bra-den. Boiled down to its essence, the Fund’s appeal asks this court to (1) rethink its prior decisions interpreting the Second Injury Fund statute, and (2) rule as a matter of law that Braden’s testimony was not worthy of belief and reverse the commissioner’s ruling because it is not based on substantial credible evidence. Braden cross-appeals from the district court’s adoption of the commissioner’s refusal to assess interest on the award. We affirm on the appeal, reverse on the cross-appeal, and remand to the district court for computation of interest.

Our review of this workers’ compensation case is for the correction of errors at law, not de novo. Second Injury Fund v. Mich Coal Co., 274 N.W.2d 300, 302 (Iowa 1979). As with all appellate challenges to interpretation of the statutes governing an agency’s work, we defer to the expertise of the agency but reserve for this court the final interpretation and construction of pertinent statutes. Graves v. Eagle Iron Works, 331 N.W.2d 116, 117 (Iowa 1983). When considering a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, “the question is not whether the evidence might support a different finding but whether the evidence supports the findings actually made.” Henry v. Iowa Dep’t of Job Serv., 391 N.W.2d 731, 734 (Iowa App.1986).

Duaine Braden is a man in his late forties with a ninth-grade education who has worked as a welder and millwright nearly all his life. In 1980 he sustained a work-related injury to his left knee. Surgery was performed to remove a torn portion of the medial meniscus. He received healing period benefits followed by permanent partial disability benefits for fifty-four weeks based on a twenty percent impairment rating. Although his knee continued to swell and, in his words, was “sore all the time,” he eventually returned to work as a millwright.

In January 1985, Braden was walking with his foreman when he slipped on ice and landed on his right knee. For this second injury, he also received healing period benefits and forty-four weeks of permanent partial disability payments based on a twenty percent impairment rating of his right lower extremity. Arthroscopic examination of the knee revealed medial compartmental arthritis with significant degeneration. Braden’s orthopedic surgeon predicted that a total knee replacement would eventually be required. In the meantime, the physician recommended that Braden stay off his feet and pursue more sedentary work on a permanent basis.

Braden was released to work in June 1986 but has been unable to obtain employment since that time. He testified that both knees continue to be stiff, sore, painful, and weak. He reported an inability to stand more than ten minutes at a time, an inability to walk more than two blocks without experiencing swelling and soreness in his knees, and that he cannot run, climb, jump, or lift without pain.

Braden is currently enrolled in a community college program for training as a parole officer. The deputy industrial commis *469 sioner noted the sincerity with which Bra-den has approached this career goal. Nevertheless, she questioned the likelihood that Braden would succeed in view of his limited scholastic aptitude and the fact that he has not yet received his GED.

Braden’s entire work history is composed of jobs that require substantial physical exertion. The deputy industrial commissioner concluded that Braden’s injuries have rendered his work skills useless. The deputy concluded that as a result of the combined injuries to both his knees, Braden has sustained a permanent partial disability for industrial purposes of sixty percent or 300 benefit weeks. Because of the benefits already paid by Braden’s employers, the hearing officer computed the Second Injury Fund’s liability at 212 weeks (300 weeks minus forty-four weeks for first injury and forty-four weeks for second injury) with interest as allowed by Iowa Code section 85.30 (1989). The industrial commissioner affirmed the deputy’s ruling except with respect to the assessment of interest. Such interest, the commissioner held, is not authorized by the statute governing the Second Injury Fund, Iowa Code §§ 85.-63-.69. On the Fund’s petition for judicial review, the commissioner’s ruling was affirmed by the district court. The Fund appeals on the question of its liability for payment and Braden cross-appeals on the denial of interest on his judgment.

I. Central to the Fund’s appeal is its disagreement with the way the commissioner and the district court interpreted and applied Iowa Code section 85.64. 1 The Fund claims that its liability has been unlawfully expanded by (1) allowing Braden recovery when his first injury was neither substantial nor handicapping; (2) allowing recovery from the Fund for a “scheduled” second injury; and (3) failing to require, at a minimum, an apportionment of the industrial disability attributable to the second injury. Because the district court applied well-settled principles to affirm the commissioner, we find no merit in any of the Fund’s contentions and review them only briefly.

A. Extent of Loss. The Fund argues that to qualify for benefits the first injury must be a total loss of use or, at minimum, “a substantia] loss that acts as a handicap to one’s employability.” Because Braden’s first knee injury resulted in only a twenty percent permanent partial impairment, the Fund argues payment to him would be contrary to the purpose for which the Fund was established.

We addressed and answered this same argument twenty years ago in Irish v. McCreary Saw Mill, 175 N.W.2d 364 (Iowa 1970). In Irish we noted that the Second Injury Fund legislation, as originally enacted in 1945, limited recovery to an employee who was totally disabled by a second injury, and it assessed liability for the Fund only for such compensation “as would be payable for permanent total disability” after deducting the loss attributable to the first injury. Id. at 366-67. Subsequently the statute was amended by striking the references to total disability. Id. at 367. Viewing the purpose of the amendment as a signal of the legislature’s intent to liberalize recovery from the Fund, we held “the phrase ‘loss of use’ was not intended by the legislature to imply ‘total loss of use’ of a member of the body, or the body as a whole.” Id. at 369; accord Mich Coal Co., 274 N.W.2d at 301-02; Anderson v. Second Injury Fund, 262 N.W.2d 789, 790 (Iowa 1978).

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459 N.W.2d 467, 1990 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 186, 1990 WL 102384, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/second-injury-fund-of-iowa-v-braden-iowa-1990.