Amberg v. Olivia Nursing Home, s. 45504 and 45521
| Decision Date | 12 December 1975 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 45504 and 45521,s. 45504 and 45521 |
| Citation | 236 N.W.2d 785,306 Minn. 330 |
| Parties | Florence AMBERG, Respondent, v. OLIVIA NURSING HOME and Home Indemnity Company, Relators, Argonaut Insurance Company, Relator, Northwestern National Insurance Group, Respondent, State Treasurer, Custodian of the Special Compensation Fund, Respondent. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Richard D. Allen and Mark N. Stageberg, Minneapolis, for Olivia Nursing Home and Home Ind. Co.
Victor C. Johnson, Minneapolis, for Argonaut Ins. Co.
P. Nadine James, St. Paul, for Amberg.
Hansen, Dordell, Bradt & Koll, St. Paul, for N.W. Nat'l Ins. Group.
Warren Spannaus, Atty. Gen., Kenneth McCoy, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., St. Paul, for State Treasurer.
Considered and decided by the court without oral argument.
The dispositive issue in this case is whether the Workmen's Compensation Commission, having once accepted the registration of an employee as physically impaired, Minn.St. 176.131, may, after subsequent injury to the employee, review and set aside the registration. Whether the subsequent work-related injuries to the employee are chargeable to the special compensation fund hinges upon the resolution of that issue.
The employee sustained her first injury on January 4, 1967, when employed by relator Olivia Nursing Home, and was awarded compensation for temporary total disability. A few months after her return to that employment, she obtained employment at the Wiman Manufacturing Company, which employer, on September 14, 1967, filed with the Workmen's Compensation Commission a notice of physically impaired employee, pursuant to § 176.131. She returned to her original employment with relator nursing home and was so employed on April 8, 1970, and March 27, 1973, when she sustained second and third injuries in the course of her work with patients.
The commission found that all three injuries involved the employee's back, as to which employee had never been completely symptom-free following her initial injury. The second injury was made substantially greater as the result of the first injury. The medical expenses and disability resulting from the combined effect of the three injuries were apportioned by the commission equally among the three injuries. The commission denied the claim of relator Home Indemnity Company, insurer at the time of the second injury, for reimbursement from the special compensation fund, ruling that the initial registration was invalid. 1
The registration form filed by Wiman Manufacturing Company on September 14, 1967, was accepted by the commission on January 12, 1968. The commission now takes the position that the medical report accompanying the registration was unacceptable in that it did not, as required by Rule 28, Rules of Practice of the Workmen's Compensation Commission, show an examination conducted within 60 days preceding the filing and that it insufficiently described the nature and duration of the medical condition and the manner in which the reported physical condition resulted in physical impairment.
We are not here concerned with whether the application for registration of the employee as physically impaired could properly have been rejected for noncompliance with Rule 28 prior to the occurrence of a second injury, for the only issue in this case is whether the application accepted by the commission could be ruled unacceptable after a claim matured for a second injury. Holding that it may not, we reverse the denial of relator's claim for reimbursement.
The action of the commission in reviewing this accepted registration is not authorized by its own Rule 28 and, more importantly, is repugnant to the plain purpose of Minn.St. 176.131. The purpose of the statute is to encourage the employment of handicapped workers. See Quirk v. Electric Machinery Mfg. Co., Minn., 236 N.W.2d 782,...
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