Weymiller v. Lockheed Idaho Technologies

398 P.3d 176, 162 Idaho 443, 2017 WL 2952309, 2017 Ida. LEXIS 224
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 11, 2017
DocketDocket 44109
StatusPublished

This text of 398 P.3d 176 (Weymiller v. Lockheed Idaho Technologies) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Weymiller v. Lockheed Idaho Technologies, 398 P.3d 176, 162 Idaho 443, 2017 WL 2952309, 2017 Ida. LEXIS 224 (Idaho 2017).

Opinions

JONES, Justice.

I. Nature of the Case

Penny Weymiller (‘Weymiller”), a former employee of Lockheed Idaho Technologies (“Lockheed”), appeals the Idaho Industrial Commission’s (the “Commission”) order that she was not entitled to additional medical care in relation to her bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome (“CTS”).

[445]*445II. Factual and Procedural Background

In March of 1991, Weymiller began to develop pain in her wrists. On July 28, 1994, Weymiller filed a claim with Employers Insurance of Wausau (“Surety”) asserting that she had developed CTS due to data entry involved in her employment. Surety denied the claim. On March 1, 2000, Weymiller, then an employee for Lockheed, filed another claim. On May 30, 2000, Surety reevaluated and reversed its previous denial thereby accepting that Weymiller’s CTS was related to her work and originally started in 1991. Weymiller was referred to Dr. R. Timothy Thurman, M.D. (“Dr. Thurman”), a hand surgeon in Idaho Falls. Thereafter, Weymiller received medical treatment for CTS including wrist braces, pain medication, and steroid injections. On June 6, 2007, Dr. Thurman performed surgery on Weymiller’s left wrist. On September 20, 2007, Weymiller was released to return to work without restrictions. Weymiller did not seek another appointment with Dr. Thurman until May of 2012. She explained why she stopped seeking appoint ments with Dr. Thurman as follows:

Well, when I go see Dr. Thurman, there is nothing he can do except—it’s not like he can treat me, except for prescription medicine and wrist braces. So the idea that I’m going to take sick leave or vacation time or whatever I need to do and spend time and expense—your [Surety’s] expense going back to see Dr. Thurman to say that you have bilateral carpal tunnel. I don’t need anybody to tell me that. I know that.

Surety investigated Weymiller’s claim because it had been nearly five years since Weymiller had been evaluated by Dr. Thurman. Surety characterized the five year time period as a “gap in treatment.” Surety authorized an appointment with Dr. Thurman, but does not appear to have authorized any other treatment at that time, including medication or wrist braces. On October 25, 2012, Dr. Thurman examined Weymiller. On January 13, 2013, Dr. Thurman conducted a follow-up appointment. He diagnosed Weymil-ler with intermittent carpal tunnel-type symptoms and wrote her a prescription for wrist braces. On August 22, 2013, Weymiller filed a worker’s compensation complaint against Surety. Weymiller’s complaint was assigned to Referee LaDawn Marsters, who conducted a hearing in Idaho Falls on June 29, 2015. Weymiller represented herself pro se. The parties presented oral and documentary evidence at the hearing. Following the hearing, the matter was reassigned to Referee John C. Hummel.

On February 23, 2016, Referee Hummel issued his Findings of Fact, Conclusion of Law, and Recommendation. He concluded that Weymiller had not proven that she was entitled to further medical care because she had not proven, to a reasonable degree of medical probability, a causal connection between her ongoing condition and her occupational exposure. Referee Hummel reasoned as follows:

Claimant’s treating physician, Dr. Thurman, has not given an opinion, to a degree of reasonable medical probability, that Claimant’s recurrent CTS symptoms are causally related to her workplace exposure that began in 1991. The Referee has scrutinized the medical records of Dr. Thurman’s treatment of Claimant. The records reflect that he consistently diagnosed Claimant with CTS from 2000 to 2014. Nowhere in any of those records did Dr. Thurman state a medical opinion that causally related her CTS symptoms to her accepted occupational exposure. Merely because Dr. Thurman’s medical records reflect an ongoing diagnosis of CTS does not provide sufficient evidence for Claimant to meet her burden on medical causation.
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This case might have had a different result if Claimant had deposed Dr. Thurman as she initially intended, or, at the very least, sought a clear causation opinion from him in writing. As her treating physician, Dr. Thurman might have been able to provide a qualified expert medical opinion as to causation. Such evidence, however, is not before the Commission. Accordingly, Claimant has failed to sustain her burden of proof on causation.

On February 23, 2016, the Commission issued an order approving, confirming, and adopting Referee Hummel’s Findings of Fact, Conclusion of Law, and Recommenda[446]*446tion. The Commission concluded that “Claimant has not proven her entitlement to additional medical care.”

Weymiller appeals.

III.Issue on Appeal

1. Did the Commission err in holding that Weymiller failed to prove her entitlement to additional medical care?

IV.Standard of Review

When this Court reviews a decision from the Industrial Commission, it exercises free review over questions of law but reviews questions of fact only to determine whether substantial and competent evidence supports the Commission’s findings. Ogden v. Thompson, 128 Idaho 87, 88, 910 P.2d 759, 760 (1996). Substantial and competent evidence is “relevant evidence which a reasonable mind might accept to support a conclusion.” Boise Orthopedic Clinic v. Idaho State Ins. Fund (In re Wilson), 128 Idaho 161, 164, 911 P.2d 754, 757 (1996).
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The Commission’s conclusions on the credibility and weight of evidence will not be disturbed unless the conclusions are clearly erroneous. Zapata v. J.R. Simplot Co., 132 Idaho 513, 515, 975 P.2d 1178, 1180 (1999). On appeal, this Court is not to re-weigh the evidence or consider whether it would have reached a different conclusion from the evidence presented. See Warden v. Idaho Timber Corp., 132 Idaho 454, 457, 974 P.2d 506, 509 (1999).

Rodriguez v. Consolidated Farms, LLC, 161 Idaho 735, 740, 390 P.3d 856, 861 (2017).

V. Analysis

A. The Commission erred in holding that Weymiller failed to prove her entitlement to additional medical care.

The Commission’s decision is not supported by substantial and competent evidence. Idaho Code section 72-432(1), codified as part of Idaho’s Worker’s Compensation Act, provides as follows:

[T]he employer shall provide for an injured employee such reasonable medical, surgical or other attendance or treatment, nurse and hospital services, medicines, crutches and apparatus, as may be reasonably required by the employee’s physician or needed immediately after an injury or manifestation of an occupational disease, and for a reasonable time thereafter.

I.C. § 72-432(1). In Risk v. Home Depot, Inc.,

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Related

Matter of Wilson
911 P.2d 754 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1996)
Warden v. Idaho Timber Corp.
974 P.2d 506 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1999)
Zapata v. J.R. Simplot Co.
975 P.2d 1178 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1999)
Hagler v. Micron Technology, Inc.
798 P.2d 55 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1990)
Ogden v. Thompson
910 P.2d 759 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1996)
Langley v. State, Industrial Special Indemnity Fund
890 P.2d 732 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1995)
Sohar Chavez v. Kevin Stokes
353 P.3d 414 (Idaho Supreme Court, 2015)
LuAnn Shubert v. Macy's West, Inc.
343 P.3d 1099 (Idaho Supreme Court, 2015)
Rodriguez v. Consolidated Farms, LLC
390 P.3d 856 (Idaho Supreme Court, 2017)
Channel (Blacker) Rish v. Home Depot
390 P.3d 428 (Idaho Supreme Court, 2017)
Boise Orthopedic Clinic v. Idaho State Insurance Fund
911 P.2d 754 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1996)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
398 P.3d 176, 162 Idaho 443, 2017 WL 2952309, 2017 Ida. LEXIS 224, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/weymiller-v-lockheed-idaho-technologies-idaho-2017.