Wood v. Labor Commission

2005 UT App 490, 128 P.3d 41, 538 Utah Adv. Rep. 77, 2005 Utah App. LEXIS 476, 2005 WL 3005799
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedNovember 10, 2005
Docket20040977-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 2005 UT App 490 (Wood v. Labor Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wood v. Labor Commission, 2005 UT App 490, 128 P.3d 41, 538 Utah Adv. Rep. 77, 2005 Utah App. LEXIS 476, 2005 WL 3005799 (Utah Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

OPINION

DAVIS, Judge:

1 1 Petitioner seeks review of a final order issued by the Appeals Board of the Utah Labor Commission (Commission). We vacate the Appeals Board's order and remand.

BACKGROUND

{2 Petitioner was employed by Eastern Utah Broadcasting (EUB) from 1980 until March 2000 as a salesperson and a sales manager. As a salesperson, Petitioner had full responsibility, from sale to collection, for fifty to two hundred accounts, 'and her duties included selling radio time spots, gathering information necessary to write ads, drafting *43 the text of ads, preparing billing, and collecting money due. To sell radio time spots, Petitioner met with potential customers and made proposals for advertising. She was also required to make phone contact with each account at least onee per week, and actually carried two cell phones. She often received phone calls as early as 5:00 a.m. and as late as 11:00 p.m., and it was not uncommon for both phones to be ringing at the same time. Moreover, Petitioner dealt with angry customers and was publicly reprimanded by her boss in the event that there was an error in the advertising. 1 Due to the high turnover rate at EUB, there were years in which Petitioner was responsible for every aspect of every account at EUB, including all contact with the clients as well as all administrative duties related to those accounts. 2 When Petitioner was promoted to a sales manager in 1997, she assumed the responsibilities of hiring and training new sales people in addition to handling her own accounts.

T3 On March 16, 2000, Petitioner had a nervous breakdown and was unable to go to work. She saw several physicians to treat her anxiety, all of whom agreed that Petitioner was unable to return to employment. In February 2001, Petitioner filed an Application for Hearing with the Commission, seeking disability compensation 'under the Utah Occupational Disease Act for mental stress related to her employment. See Utah Code Ann. §§ 34A-8-101 to -112 (2001). Petitioner's hearing was held in March 2002, after which an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) held that Petitioner suffered a compensable occupational disease and referred her claim to a medical panel to determine what portion of Petitioner's medical condition was attributable to the occupational disease claim. The medical panel determined that 50% of Petitioner's medical condition was attributable to the occupational disease claim and 50% was attributable to non-work related factors. 3 s In July 2008, the ALJ issued findings of fact, conclusions of law, and an order consistent therewith.

T4 Respondents filed a Motion for Review with the Utah Labor Commission Appeals Board (Appeals Board). The Appeals Board issued an order reversing the ALJ's order and holding that Petitioner failed to demonstrate legal causation because she had not shown that the demands put upon her at work "were extraordinary when compared to the demands of modern employment and nonemployment life" as required by Utah Code section 34A-3-106. See id. § 34A-3-106(1), (2) (2001). Petitioner filed a timely Petition for Review with this court.

ISSUE AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

T5 Petitioner argues that the Appeals Board applied the incorrect standard for determining legal causation pursuant to Utah Code section 34A-3-106(2). See id. § 34A-3-106(2). "[Aln agency's interpretation or application of statutory terms should be reviewed under the correction-of-error standard." Esquivel v. Labor Comm'n, 2000 UT 66,¶ 14, 7 P.3d 777. An exception to this general rule exists "if the legislature has either explicitly or implicitly granted discretion to the agency." Id. In these cases, "an agency's statutory construction should only be given deference when there is a grant .of discretion to the agency concerning the language in question, either expressly made in the statute or implied from the statutory language." Id. at 116 (quotations and citation omitted).

T6 Utah courts have held that an agency has no discretion to interpret or apply the terms of a statute where, as here, those terms are specific and mandatory, as opposed to discretionary and permissive. Seq, eg., id. at T1 (rejecting the argument *44 that the Commission has broad discretion to interpret the Utah Labor Code and holding that correction-of-error standard is appropriate where "the statutory terms ... are of a specific nature and do not connote a general grant of discretion"); Anabasis, Inc. v. Labor Comm'n, 2001 UT App 239,¶ 28, 30 P.3d 1236 (interpreting a statute that states that the Commission "may impose a penalty against the employer," the court held that "[the word 'may' is the legislative grant of discretion to the Commission"); Ashcroft v. Industrial Comm'n, 855 P.2d 267, 269 (Utah Ct.App.1993) (holding that the Industrial Commission is explicitly granted discretion by a statute that states that it "may" take certain action); Luckau v. Board of Review of the Indus. Comm'n, 840 P.2d 811, 813-14 (Utah Ct.App.1992) (stating that the Industrial Commission is not granted discretion to interpret a statute stating "[where compensation is payable for an occupational disease the only employer liable shall be the employer in whose employment the employee was last injuriously exposed to the hazards of such disease" (emphasis added)); Stokes v. Board of Review of the Indus. Comm'n, 832 P.2d 56, 58 (Utah Ct.App.1992) (holding that a statute, which states that an employee injured by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment "shall be paid compensation for loss sustained," does not expressly or impliedly grant discretion to the Industrial Commission (emphasis added)). 4

T7 Here, the relevant portions of Utah Code section 84A-8-106 state that:

(1) Physical, mental, or emotional diseases related to mental stress arising out of and in the course of employment shall be compensable under this chapter only when there is a sufficient legal and medical causal connection between the employee's disease and employment.
(2) (a) Legal causation requires proof of extraordinary mental stress arising predominantly and directly from employment.
(b) The extraordinary nature of the alleged mental stress is judged according to an objective standard in comparison with contemporary national employment and nonemployment life.

Utah Code Ann. § 34A-8-106(1), (2) (emphases added). The applicable terms of this statute are specific and mandatory, and do not connote any discretion whatsoever.

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Related

Murray v. Labor Commission
2012 UT App 33 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 2012)
Rowsell v. Labor Commission
2008 UT App 187 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 2008)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2005 UT App 490, 128 P.3d 41, 538 Utah Adv. Rep. 77, 2005 Utah App. LEXIS 476, 2005 WL 3005799, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wood-v-labor-commission-utahctapp-2005.