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City of Poulan v. Hodge

A finding of maximum medical improvement is not a legal condition precedent to a determination of disability benefits.

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We granted cert. in this workers compensation case to determine whether the Court of Appeals properly found that the failure to have a “maximum medical improvement” or “MMI” determination tolled the statute of limitation for filing a change of condition claim under workers’ compensation. City of Poulan v. Hodge, 251 Ga. App. 500 __SE2d__ 2001 Andrews, P.J., concurring in judgment only. This case involves application of the version of OCGA § 34-9-104 b in effect before 1990 in those factual situations where a health care provider failed to indicate on a workers’ compensation form whether or not an injured worker had attained his or her “maximum medical improvement.”

Prior to 1990, the two-year statute of limitation in OCGA § 34-9-104 b for filing a change of condition claim began to run only upon “the final payment of income benefits due under this chapter.”1 This phrase was interpreted by the Court of Appeals in MARTA v. Ledbetter, 184 Ga. App. 518 361 SE2d 878 1987, which held that in determining what benefits may be “due” a claimant, “what is meant . . . is not that the type of disability may arise in the future, but rather that there is evidence that it existed at the time although no claim was made for it.” Id. at 519. The dissent in Ledbetter charged that this interpretation “emasculated” the limitations period, in that “a worker could wait 10 or 20 or 30 or even 50 years before filing a change in condition claim.” Id. at 520 Deen, P.J., dissenting, joined by Carley and Sognier, JJ. This Court denied cert. in Ledbetter. 184 Ga. App. 910.

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