Wal-Mart Associates, Inc. v. Armstrong

2017 Ark. App. 175, 516 S.W.3d 310, 2017 WL 1014347, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 177
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedMarch 15, 2017
DocketCV-16-385
StatusPublished

This text of 2017 Ark. App. 175 (Wal-Mart Associates, Inc. v. Armstrong) 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
Wal-Mart Associates, Inc. v. Armstrong, 2017 Ark. App. 175, 516 S.W.3d 310, 2017 WL 1014347, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 177 (Ark. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

PHILLIP T. WHITEAKER, Judge

11 Wal-Mart Associates, Inc. (Wal-Mart), appeals a decision of the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission (“Commission”), which concluded that appellee Patricia Armstrong’s claim for additional medical treatment for her admittedly com-pensable left-shoulder injury was reasonable and necessary. We reverse, holding that Armstrong’s claim is barred by the statute of limitations.

Armstrong filed a complaint with the Commission for additional benefits in February 2014. The statute governing the time for filing claims for additional benefits is section ll-9-702(b):

(b) Time for Filing Additional Compensation.
(1) In cases in which any compensation, including disability or medical, has been paid on account of injury, a claim for additional compensation shall be barred unless filed with the commission within one (1) year from the date of the last payment of compensation or two (2) years from the date of the injury, whichever is greater.

lüArk. Code Ann. § 11—9—702(b) (Repl. 2012).

Thus, the plain language of the statute is clear and sets forth two definitive time periods in which a claim must be brought: one year from the date of last payment of compensation or two years from the date of injury, whichever is greater. Here, it is undisputed that Armstrong’s left-shoulder injury occurred on December 24, 2006, and the last payment of compensation for Armstrong’s left-shoulder injury was in August 2012. Therefore, her claim for additional benefits, which was filed in February 2014, was unquestionably filed more than one year from the date of last payment of compensation and more than two years from the date of injury.

Following a strict construction of the statute, her claim should be deemed untimely. However, our courts have previously interpreted the statute to provide that a prior timely, but unresolved, claim for benefits may serve to toll the limitations period. Here, Armstrong filed a claim for benefits in 2008, within the two-year period after her injury. Therefore, we must determine if Armstrong’s 2008 claim for benefits was unresolved and whether the statute of limitations was tolled under our case law.

I. Evidence and Procedural History

Patricia Armstrong experienced a work-related injury in December 2006 while working in the Wal-Mart bakery. The injury occurred when she was hit on her face and left shoulder by a twenty-pound box of frozen pies dropped by a coworker who was standing on a ladder. Armstrong contended that, as a result of this work-related incident, she received injuries to both her left shoulder and her neck.

hWith regard to her shoulder, Armstrong initially received conservative treatment, but eventually more aggressive measures were necessary. She underwent three surgeries to her left shoulder. Wal-Mart accepted the left-shoulder injury as compensable and paid benefits until August 2012.

With regard to her neck complaints, Armstrong reported these complaints for the first time subsequent to her initial shoulder surgery in March 2007. Her complaints were evaluated by Dr. James Blankenship. Dr. Blankenship noted a congenital Chiari I malformation 1 with a rather large upper cervical syrinx. Wal-Mart controverted her neck-injury claim, asserting that her neck problems were related to the congenital defect, not a workplace injury.

In early May 2008, Armstrong was terminated from Wal-Mart for excessive absences and for “being unfriendly.” Shortly thereafter, on May 27, 2008, she filed a Form AR-C with the Commission. In completing this Form AR-C, Armstrong listed the date of the accident as December 24, 2006. She described the cause of the injury: “I was handing a box to someone else. The box slipped from their hands and fell on me.” Although the Form AR-C requests a brief description of the part of the body injured, Armstrong did not specify which area of the body had been injured in the incident. She then selected both “initial” and “additional” benefits as the type of benefits being claimed and checked all the boxes available therein.

|4A hearing was held on her claim for benefits related to the neck on June 18, 2012. The parties agreed that the issues to be litigated at that hearing were whether Armstrong had sustained a compensable neck injury in December 2006 and whether she was entitled to medical treatment for her complaints of headaches and chronic neck pain. The parties agreed that the left-shoulder injury had been accepted and that benefits had been paid.

In September 2012, the administrative law judge (ALJ) denied Armstrong’s claim regarding the compensability of her neck injury. Armstrong appealed, and the Commission affirmed and adopted the ALJ’s decision. The decision of the Commission was then affirmed by this court in October 2013. Armstrong v. Walmart Assocs., Inc., 2013 Ark. App. 596.

Armstrong filed another Form AR-C in February 2014. In completing this Form ARC, Armstrong listed an accident date of December 24,2006. She described the injury and body part injured, stating, “I was handing a box to someone when it slipped from that person’s hands and fell on me injuring my left shoulder.” As with the 2008 AR-C form, Armstrong selected both “initial” and “additional” benefits and checked all the boxes therein. Wal-Mart controverted the claim.

In August 2014, Armstrong sought treatment for her left shoulder from Dr. Christopher Arnold. He performed another surgery on Armstrong’s left shoulder in November 2014 to repair a recurrent partial rotator cuff tear—eighty percent thickness. Dr. Arnold opined that the need for surgery was directly related to her prior work injury. Wal-Mart declined to pay for these services.

IrA hearing was held before the ALJ on June 15, 2015. After the hearing, the ALJ held in its September 11, 2015 opinion that Armstrong’s claim for benefits was time-barred, finding that there was a clear, almost two-year gap in treatment for her left shoulder from August 2012 through July 2014, Armstrong appealed to the Commission. The Commission reversed the findings of the ALJ and granted Armstrong benefits. The Commission found that Armstrong’s filing of Form AR-C in May 2008 tolled the statute of limitations, and it awarded her benefits.

Wal-Mart appeals, arguing that (1) the Commission erred as a matter of law in finding Armstrong’s claim was not barred by the statute of limitations; (2) there was insufficient evidence to support the Commission’s decision that her claim was not barred by the statute of limitations; (3) the Commission erred as a matter of law in finding that she was entitled to additional benefits; and (4) there was insufficient evidence to support the Commission’s award of benefits.

II. Are Armstrong’s Claims Time-barred?

Our caselaw supports the notion that a timely, unresolved claim for benefits stops the limitations period from running against it. In Jones Truck Lines v. Pendergrass, 90 Ark. App. 402, 206 S.W.3d 272

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Armstrong v. Wal-Mart Assocs. Inc.
2013 Ark. App. 596 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2013)
Jones Truck Lines v. Pendergrass
206 S.W.3d 272 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2005)
VanWagner v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
249 S.W.3d 123 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2007)
Nabholz Constr. Co. v. White
2015 Ark. App. 102 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2017 Ark. App. 175, 516 S.W.3d 310, 2017 WL 1014347, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 177, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wal-mart-associates-inc-v-armstrong-arkctapp-2017.