State ex rel. Vonderheide v. Multi-Color Corp. (Slip Opinion)

2019 Ohio 1270, 128 N.E.3d 188, 156 Ohio St. 3d 403
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedApril 9, 2019
Docket2018-0832
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 2019 Ohio 1270 (State ex rel. Vonderheide v. Multi-Color Corp. (Slip Opinion)) 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. Vonderheide v. Multi-Color Corp. (Slip Opinion), 2019 Ohio 1270, 128 N.E.3d 188, 156 Ohio St. 3d 403 (Ohio 2019).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

*190 *403 {¶ 1} Appellant, Industrial Commission, denied the request of appellee, Sharon Vonderheide, for temporary-total-disability ("TTD") compensation. The Tenth District Court of Appeals granted Vonderheide's petition for a writ of mandamus and ordered the commission to vacate its decision. The commission asks this court to reverse that judgment. Vonderheide requests oral argument. We reverse the Tenth District's judgment and deny the motion for oral argument.

*404 I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

{¶ 2} Vonderheide sustained injuries while working at Multi-Color Corporation in 1992. Her workers' compensation claim was approved for a variety of back, leg, and knee conditions. In 2001, she had a right total knee replacement. In 2002, Vonderheide began receiving Social Security retirement benefits. That same year, the commission determined that Vonderheide had reached maximum medical improvement. In 2003, she entered a vocational rehabilitation program but withdrew from it after several months.

{¶ 3} In testimony before the commission, Vonderheide stated that after 2002, she worked primarily at her family farm in Brown County, approximately 90 minutes from her residence in Cincinnati. The farm was used to raise cows and grow tobacco; working with her husband (who lived at the farm) and others, Vonderheide rode on the back of a tractor and planted tobacco seeds, stripped tobacco leaves from their stalks, separated the leaves into three different grades, drove a tractor to cut hay, and raked hay. At the end of each year, her husband gave her a portion of the farm's net profits as payment for these activities.

{¶ 4} After Vonderheide's husband died in 2009, however, she sold all the cattle and leased the farmland to others. Though her son stated in an affidavit that Vonderheide had continued with activities including farming and stripping tobacco until July 2012, Vonderheide testified that after she sold the cows and leased out the farmland, her activity at the farm involved tasks such as mowing the grass and picking up trash in the yard. The record contains transcripts of Vonderheide's tax returns for tax years 2004 through 2007 and 2009 through 2012, showing that her income varied significantly from year to year.

{¶ 5} In July 2012, Vonderheide had surgery on her right knee. She had a follow-up surgery in November 2012. In March 2014, Vonderheide requested TTD compensation commencing July 31, 2012. The commission denied the request, finding that Vonderheide had not met her burden to establish that she was in the workforce and had wages to replace as of that date. The commission noted that the evidence regarding Vonderheide's farm work was conflicting, but it ultimately concluded that the farm was a passive investment at which Vonderheide sometimes performed chores and that this did not constitute evidence that Vonderheide was in the workforce as of the date on which she was requesting that her TTD compensation begin.

{¶ 6} Vonderheide filed a mandamus petition asking the Tenth District to order the commission to vacate its decision and grant her request for TTD compensation.

*191 A Tenth District magistrate recommended that the court deny the writ, and Vonderheide objected. The court of appeals sustained the objection and granted the writ, holding that the commission's decision was not based on "some *405 evidence" and therefore constituted an abuse of discretion. 2018-Ohio-1714 , 111 N.E.3d 773 , ¶ 34-35. The commission appeals the Tenth District's decision.

II. ANALYSIS

{¶ 7} When reviewing a claim for a writ of mandamus in a workers' compensation case, a court's role is to determine whether the commission has abused its discretion. See State ex rel. Packaging Corp. of Am. v. Indus. Comm. , 139 Ohio St.3d 591 , 2014-Ohio-2871 , 13 N.E.3d 1163 , ¶ 29. The commission is the exclusive finder of fact and has sole responsibility to evaluate the weight and credibility of the evidence. State ex rel. Perez v. Indus. Comm. , 147 Ohio St.3d 383 , 2016-Ohio-5084 , 66 N.E.3d 699 , ¶ 20. So long as the commission's order is based on some evidence in the record, a court should not find an abuse of discretion. Id. ; Packaging Corp. at ¶ 29.

A. Some Evidence Supported the Commission's Decision

{¶ 8} "Temporary total disability compensation is intended to compensate an injured worker for the loss of earnings incurred while the industrial injury heals." State ex rel. Pierron v. Indus. Comm. , 120 Ohio St.3d 40 , 2008-Ohio-5245 , 896 N.E.2d 140 , ¶ 9. "There can be no lost earnings, however, or even a potential for lost earnings, if the claimant is no longer part of the active work force." Id.

{¶ 9}

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2019 Ohio 1270, 128 N.E.3d 188, 156 Ohio St. 3d 403, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-vonderheide-v-multi-color-corp-slip-opinion-ohio-2019.