Coal Miner's Medical Evidence Supported Workers' Comp Decision
A coal miner injured while shoveling out of a massive spill presented sufficient evidence to establish the extent and duration of his disability and its causation, the Commonwealth Court has ruled in affirming a workers' compensation determination in his favor.
October 26, 2017 at 11:47 AM
4 minute read
A coal miner injured while shoveling out of a massive spill presented sufficient evidence to establish the extent and duration of his disability and its causation, the Commonwealth Court has ruled in affirming a workers' compensation determination in his favor.
In a memorandum filed Oct. 24, a unanimous three-judge panel found that Jay W. Johnson “established all of the necessary elements to support his claim petition” and the Workers' Compensation Appeal Board did not err in affirming a workers' compensation judge's decision.
According to the ruling, written by Judge Patricia A. McCullough, Johnson was a full-time laborer in the coal industry beginning in 1974, working underground as a miner until 1999 when he began working as a production and maintenance laborer in the Bailey Production Plant. In 2014, he filed a claim petition alleging that he suffered a work injury when he aggravated a pre-existing degenerative condition in his wrist.
Johnson claimed that he met with Dr. Dean Sotereanos in 2012 for wrist treatment relating to his job working on large equipment and shoveling coal. A coal spill at the plant in June 2014 left him shoveling coal for four or five hours, and his shovel got caught on a bolt, causing his wrist to bend back and allegedly aggravating the injury. He underwent wrist surgery the following month, and he claimed his wrist “hurts all the time and that he has very limited motion,” McCullough said. Sotereanos testified that Johnson has symptomatic left wrist osteoarthritis, known as a SLAC wrist condition, and could never return to a heavy laboring position, and that there was a nexus between the labor he performed and the degenerative condition.
Dr. Trenton Gause, testifying on behalf of Johnson's employer, Consol PA Coal Company/Bailey Mine Extension, said the condition was unrelated to his labor, but the workers' compensation judge granted the petition and the board affirmed.
The employer argued on appeal that the board failed to make findings of fact regarding the extent and duration of Johnson's disability, erred in awarding him disability benefits, and failed to apply the proper principles in determining his medical evidence was sufficient. But McCullough noted that the workers' compensation judge found both Johnson and Sotereanos' testimony more credible than Gause's, and that by identifying that work activities prior to his surgery aggravated a pre-existing condition, “the WJC did indeed make findings of fact that established the extent and duration of disability, as well as its causation in the nature of an aggravation of claimant's pre-existing arthritic condition.”
As to the employer's contention that Johnson's disability was the result of his pre-existing condition, McCullough pointed to Sotereanos' testimony on cross-examination that the arthritis progressed more rapidly than it would have in a different profession, such as a beautician.
While the employer cited the state Supreme Court's 1998 ruling in Bethlehem Steel v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Baxter) for the argument that an employee is not entitled to benefits after fully recovering from an exacerbated pre-existing condition, McCullough noted that the Baxter court also said that the claimant would have been eligible for benefits had he introduced medical evidence that his condition “'resulted in an ongoing condition.'”
“Here, Dr. Sotereanos testified that claimant was likely to suffer more injuries if he returned to his pre-injury position,” McCullough said. “However, Dr. Sotereanos stated that this was because claimant's surgery changed the anatomy of his wrist. … Unlike in Baxter, the anatomy of claimant's wrist had been permanently changed, rendering him unable to return to his prior position as a heavy-duty laborer, and claimant's condition here never returned to baseline.”
McCullough also rejected the employer's claim that Sotereanos did not have a clear understanding of Johnson's job functions, noting that the doctor clearly understood the nature of Johnson's work in an above-ground plant, rather than a mine, and nonetheless believed the work to be a contributing factor in his condition.
“The WCJ applied the proper legal principles in determining that claimant's competent medical evidence was sufficient to support an award of ongoing disability benefits,” McCullough said. “Thus, claimant established all of the necessary elements to support his claim petition.”
Neither Toni Glaeser of Thompson Calkins & Sutter, who represented the employer, nor Douglas Williams of Abes Baumann, who represented Johnson, returned calls for comment.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllAppeals Court Rules Pittsburgh School District Immune to Suit Over Sex Abuse of Disabled Student
4 minute readCivil RICO's Expanding Reach: From Foreign Schemes to Lost Employment
7 minute readTrending Stories
- 1Trump's Lawyers Speak Out: 'The President Had the Confidence to Retain Me'
- 2Who Should Pay? Insurer Wants No Part of $30M Sexual Abuse Settlement
- 3Passenger Sues Frontier Airlines for Burns Sustained From In-Flight Beverage
- 4Who Are Trump's Potential Candidates for Attorney General?
- 5Drugmaker Wins $70.5M After Fed Judge Says Generic Sales Were Blocked
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250