Towler v. Tyson Poultry, Inc.

423 S.W.3d 664, 2012 Ark. App. 546, 2012 WL 4665922, 2012 Ark. App. LEXIS 672
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedOctober 3, 2012
DocketNo. CA 12-359
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 423 S.W.3d 664 (Towler v. Tyson Poultry, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Towler v. Tyson Poultry, Inc., 423 S.W.3d 664, 2012 Ark. App. 546, 2012 WL 4665922, 2012 Ark. App. LEXIS 672 (Ark. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

JOHN B. ROBBINS, Judge.

| lAppellant Lisa Towler sustained an admittedly compensable injury to her low back while working for appellee Tyson Poultry, Inc. on April 9, 2008. Tyson paid workers’ compensation benefits for the related medical treatment provided to Ms. Towler through July 9, 2010. Tyson also paid temporary total disability benefits from February 16, 2010, through March 9, 2010. Ms. Towler filed a claim for additional medical benefits for treatment received after July 9, 2010, including two back surgeries performed by Dr. James Blankenship on August 18, 2010, and December 15, 2010. Ms. Towler also claimed entitlement to temporary total disability benefits from March 9, 2010, through a date yet to be determined. Tyson controverted Ms. Towler’s entitlement to these additional benefits.

After a hearing, the Workers’ Compensation Commission denied Ms. Towler’s claim for additional medical benefits, finding that she failed to prove that the treatment she received after July 9, 2010, was reasonably necessary in connection with her compensable injury. The l2Commission also denied Ms. Towler’s claim for additional temporary total disability benefits beyond March 9, 2010, on the basis that Ms. Towler reached the end of her healing period for the compensable injury no later than that date. Ms. Towler now appeals, arguing that the Commission’s decision denying additional medical and temporary total disability benefits was not supported by substantial evidence. Ms. Towler also contends that, because she is entitled to these additional benefits, she should be awarded related attorney’s fees. We affirm.

We review decisions of the Workers’ Compensation Commission to determine whether there is substantial evidence to support them. Walgreen Co. v. Goode, 2012 Ark. App. 196, 395 S.W.3d 398. Substantial evidence is relevant evidence that a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion. Id. We review the evidence and all reasonable inferences deducible therefrom in the light most favorable to the Commission’s findings. Id. Where, as here, the Commission denies claims because of the failure to show entitlement to benefits by a preponderance of the evidence, the substantial— evidence standard of review requires that we affirm if the Commission’s opinion displays a substantial basis for the denial of relief. Engle v. Thompson Murray, Inc., 96 Ark.App. 200, 239 S.W.3d 561 (2006). The Commission is the ultimate arbiter of weight and credibility. Baxter v. Union Standard Ins. Co., 2012 Ark. App. 251, 413 S.W.3d 561. The Commission has the authority to accept or reject medical opinions, and its resolution of conflicting medical evidence has the force and effect of a jury verdict. Id.

|sLisa Towler testified that she is twenty-eight years old and began working for Tyson as a line worker in September 2007, and she was subsequently promoted to a technician in the pet food department. She was performing her job on April 9, 2008, when she slipped and fell on the floor. Ms. Towler reported her injury to her employer that day, but she continued to work and did not initially seek medical treatment. Tyson accepted and paid for medical treatment later provided by Drs. Karl Haws and Rodney Routsong. On July 15, 2008, Ms. Towler was diagnosed with musculoskeletal back pain, and she was treated conservatively with physical therapy and medication. Dr. Haws released Ms. Towler back to work with restrictions of no lifting, pushing, or pulling of greater than fifteen pounds. Ms. Towler returned to work for Tyson, which provided a job within those restrictions.

Ms. Towler continued to work for Tyson until June 1, 2009. On that date, Ms. Towler sustained a non-work-related injury to her left knee when she walked out her front door, her leg pivoted, and she fell to the ground. Ms. Towler came under the care of Dr. Matthew Coker for treatment of her leg injury, and on June 29, 2009, Dr. Coker performed arthroscopic surgery with ACL reconstruction on her left knee. Ms. Towler subsequently developed problems with her right knee, and Dr. Coker performed right-knee arthroscopic surgery on October 12, 2009. Ms. Towler testified that after the medical treatment of her knees was complete, she resumed her back treatment.

Ms. Towler came under the care of Dr. Luke Knox and then Dr. James Blankenship. An MRI performed on January 13, 2010, detected what Dr. Knox called “a rather sizeable disc herniation at L5-S1 on the right.” On May 14, 2010, Dr. Knox recommended a surgical | decompression at the L5-S1 level. Dr. Blankenship agreed with that assessment, and an August 3, 2010, MRI confirmed the presence of a large herniation at L5-S1. On August 18, 2010, Dr. Blankenship performed a L5-S1 hemilaminotomy and microdiskectomy. This procedure was met with limited success, and Dr. Blankenship performed another surgical procedure on Ms. Towler’s low back on December 15, 2010.

Ms. Towler testified that after the August 18, 2010, surgery, her problems consisting of leg numbness, tingling, and severe pain persisted. She stated that the December 15, 2010, surgery helped with some of her pain, but that she was still being treated for pain and had not yet been medically released. Ms. Towler maintained that she was currently unable to work because of the constant back pain that radiates into her right leg. Although Ms. Towler had returned to work briefly for Tyson with restrictions in February 2010, she has not worked since then and said that she was eventually terminated for being absent.

The medical evidence presented in this case showed that after Ms. Towler was originally seen by Dr. Haws after suffering the compensable injury, Dr. Haws reported on July 15, 2008, that an x-ray of her lumbosacral spine was essentially normal, with no signs of fracture or dislocation. Dr. Haws also gave the opinion that Ms. Towler was exaggerating her symptoms, and reported on July 29, 2008:

Again, I feel her display of weakness is magnified. She could not overcome the resistance of my index finger holding her lower leg back when trying to extend while seated on the exam table. If she were truly this weak she, in my mind, would be basically unable to walk or stand, which she does quite well in my clinic.

An August 18, 2008, MRI of Ms. Towler’s spine showed “very mild annular disc bulging identified at L4-5 and L5-S1 compatible with chronic degenerative changes.” Those |SMRI findings included that “there is no pathologic marrow signal intensity arising from the vertebral bodies that would suggest metastatic disease or healing trauma.” On September 23, 2008, Dr. Routsong reported that Ms. Towler had low back pain but that he saw no sign of spinal-nerve compression and did not recommend surgical intervention. Dr. Routsong treated Ms. Towler conservatively and last saw her on March 24, 2009, when he reported that her lumbar spine radiographs were unremarkable and again said that surgery was not indicated.

Ms. Towler’s first argument on appeal is that there is no substantial evidence to support the Commission’s decision denying her additional medical benefits beyond July 9, 2010. Pursuant to Ark.Code Ann.

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Bluebook (online)
423 S.W.3d 664, 2012 Ark. App. 546, 2012 WL 4665922, 2012 Ark. App. LEXIS 672, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/towler-v-tyson-poultry-inc-arkctapp-2012.