State ex rel. Baker v. Coast to Coast Manpower, L.L.C.

2011 Ohio 2721, 129 Ohio St. 3d 138
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedJune 9, 2011
Docket2010-0211
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 2011 Ohio 2721 (State ex rel. Baker v. Coast to Coast Manpower, L.L.C.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Baker v. Coast to Coast Manpower, L.L.C., 2011 Ohio 2721, 129 Ohio St. 3d 138 (Ohio 2011).

Opinions

Lundberg Stratton, J.

{¶ 1} Today, we are asked to determine whether the surgical removal of the lens of an eye in the course of treatment for a workplace injury entitles the injured worker to compensation pursuant to R.C. 4123.57(B) for a total loss of sight.

{¶ 2} We decline to adopt a bright-line rule that a claimant is entitled to an award for a total loss of vision under R.C. 4123.57(B) any time the natural lens or cornea of the eye is surgically removed as a result of a workplace injury. The court of appeals below properly calculated the loss of sight based on the percentage of vision actually lost as a result of the injury, prior to any corrective surgery. Because the amount of vision lost was less than the minimum 25 percent required by R.C. 4123.57(B), the claimant was not entitled to an award for loss of sight. We affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.

Factual and Procedural History

{¶ 3} On November 3, 2007, appellant Jamey D. Baker was struck in the right eye by a piece of metal while working for appellee, Coast to Coast Manpower, L.L.C. He went to an urgent-care facility, where his visual acuity in that eye measured 20/25. He was immediately transferred to a hospital, where an ophthalmologist surgically removed the metal piece and repaired the laceration of his cornea.

{¶ 4} Baker’s workers’ compensation claim was allowed for corneal foreign body and laceration of the right eye. It was later amended to include traumatic [139]*139cataract. On February 18, 2008, Dr. Jack Hendershot surgically removed the cataract and replaced the natural lens with an intraocular lens implant. Prior to the cataract surgery, Baker’s visual acuity in his right eye measured 20/30. Following the lens implant, his visual acuity improved to 20/25.

{¶ 5} Baker filed a motion with the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (“BWC”) for loss of vision of the right eye under R.C. 4123.57(B), based on the cataract surgery in which his natural lens was removed and replaced by an implant. Dr. Richard Tam examined Baker on behalf of the BWC and, asked to assume that Baker’s vision was 20/20 before the accident, concluded that Baker had an eight percent vision impairment as a result of his injury.

{¶ 6} A district hearing officer granted Baker an 8 percent permanent partial disability award based on the vision impairment. A staff hearing officer vacated that order and granted an award for a total loss of vision in the right eye. The employer appealed on the basis that Baker’s “loss of uncorrected vision” did not exceed 25 percent prior to surgery as required by R.C. 4123.57(B). The Industrial Commission agreed. The commission vacated the order of the staff hearing officer and denied the claimant’s request for loss-of-vision benefits.

{¶ 7} Baker filed a complaint in the Tenth District Court of Appeals for a writ of mandamus ordering the commission to grant his request for compensation for a total loss of vision. The court of appeals relied on State ex rel. Kroger v. Stover (1987), 31 Ohio St.3d 229, 31 OBR 436, 510 N.E.2d 356, and held that Baker’s vision loss must be determined by comparing his preinjury uncorrected vision with his presurgical uncorrected vision. Because his loss of uncorrected vision was less than 25 percent, the court concluded that Baker did not meet the statutory threshold for even a partial loss-of-vision award. State ex rel. Baker v. Coast to Coast Manpoiver, L.L.C., 10th Dist. No. 09AP-287, 2009-Ohio-6663, 2009 WL 4861446, ¶ 5. The court denied the writ.

{¶ 8} This cause is before this court on Baker’s appeal as of right. The Industrial Commission has changed its position and has appealed in support of Baker’s argument that he is entitled to an award for total loss of vision.

Legal Analysis

{¶ 9} The Industrial Commission’s order denying benefits for loss of vision is a decision as to the extent of disability and not subject to appeal. Kroger, paragraph one of the syllabus. Thus, mandamus is the proper method to examine whether the commission has abused its discretion. Id., 31 Ohio St.3d at 232, 31 OBR 436, 510 N.E.2d 356. For a court to issue a writ of mandamus, a relator must demonstrate a clear legal right to the relief sought and a clear legal duty of the respondent to provide such relief. State ex rel. AutoZone, Inc., v. Indus. Comm., 117 Ohio St.3d 186, 2008-Ohio-541, 883 N.E.2d 372, ¶ 14. If the [140]*140record contains some evidence to support the commission’s findings, there has been no abuse of discretion and a court has no basis to award a writ of mandamus. Id.

{¶ 10} R.C. 4123.57(B) sets forth rates of compensation for the loss of listed body parts. “Loss” includes loss of use of a body part. State ex rel Walker v. Indus. Comm. (1979), 58 Ohio St.2d 402, 12 O.O.3d 347, 390 N.E.2d 1190. The statute’s provisions relevant to the eye provide:

{¶ 11} “For the loss of the sight of an eye, one hundred twenty-five weeks.

{¶ 12} “For the permanent partial loss of sight of an eye, the portion of one hundred twenty-five weeks as the administrator in each case determines, based upon the percentage of vision actually lost as a result of the injury or occupational disease, but, in no case shall an award of compensation be made for less than twenty-five per cent loss of uncorrected vision. ‘Loss of uncorrected vision’ means the percentage of vision actually lost as the result of the injury or occupational disease.”

{¶ 13} It is undisputed that Baker’s vision measured 20/25 following the injury and that he had an 8 percent visual impairment. It is also undisputed that he developed a traumatic cataract as a result of his injury that was surgically removed and that his lens was replaced by an intraocular lens implant. Appellants contend that the surgical removal of his natural lens during the cataract surgery resulted in a total loss of vision. Appellants ask us to establish a broad rule that compensation for a total loss of vision is warranted any time the natural lens is removed during surgical repair of the eye due to a workplace injury, because when a lens is surgically removed, the claimant has permanently lost a natural part of the eye that is necessary for sight.

{¶ 14} Appellee, on the other hand, argues that the loss of the lens, by itself, does not result in a total loss of sight. The plain language of the statute requires the claimant to have at least a 25 percent loss of sight. Here, Baker’s decreased visual acuity did not reach the 25 percent statutory threshold for even a partial loss-of-vision award. Therefore, he is not entitled to an award for total loss of sight.

{¶ 15} We have previously awarded compensation for a total loss of vision in cases where a claimant lost a lens or cornea as a result of a workplace injury. In Kroger, 31 Ohio St.3d 229, 31 OBR 436, 510 N.E.2d 356, the claimant was exposed to ammonia that burned his corneas. He underwent a corneal transplant in his right eye. The issue in Kroger involved whether to measure the loss of vision before or after the transplant.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2011 Ohio 2721, 129 Ohio St. 3d 138, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-baker-v-coast-to-coast-manpower-llc-ohio-2011.