Appeal of Gelinas
| Decision Date | 23 September 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. 95-618,95-618 |
| Citation | 700 A.2d 870,142 N.H. 295 |
| Parties | Appeal of Gerald GELINAS (New Hampshire Compensation Appeals Board). |
| Court | New Hampshire Supreme Court |
Kinghorn & Maynard, P.A., Nashua (Steven L. Maynard, on the brief and orally), for claimant.
Sulloway & Hollis, Concord (James E. Owers, on the brief and orally), for respondent St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Company.
Eric P. Bernard, P.C., Manchester (Eric P. Bernard, on the brief and orally), for respondent Wausau Insurance Companies.
The claimant, Gerald Gelinas, appeals from a decision of the New Hampshire Compensation Appeals Board (board) denying him workers' compensation benefits. We vacate and remand.
The board found the following facts. The claimant began working at Pilgrim Foods, Inc. in 1991 as a tractor trailer driver. His job included delivering liquid freight and dry bulk load freight to area warehouses. The liquid freight deliveries required the handling of heavy hoses, and the bulk load deliveries sometimes involved lifting pallets weighing seventy to ninety pounds each. The claimant's supervisor testified at the hearing that the claimant's job entailed significant physical exertion.
In May 1991, the claimant injured his back when he reached up to pull the strap to close his delivery truck's overhead door. He sought medical treatment for a lumbar muscle spasm and received temporary total disability benefits from respondent St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Company (St.Paul). He returned to work soon thereafter, but testified at the hearing that he continued to suffer pain in his lower back. He also testified that he had not experienced any back pain prior to the 1991 incident.
Beginning in 1993, the claimant sought additional treatment for continued back pain. In the fall of that year, he was out of work briefly due to increased pain. He was prescribed a "buffalo brace" to wear when he returned to work, but he testified that although he wore it, the brace did not alleviate the pain. The claimant also stated that on February 23, 1994, his legs went out from under him while he was making a delivery at a Star Market. On February 24, his treating physician excused him from work indefinitely.
The claimant applied for workers' compensation benefits in May 1994. A department of labor hearing officer held a hearing on the request, at which both respondent insurers appeared; St. Paul had provided workers' compensation insurance for Pilgrim Foods through August 1991, and respondent Wausau Insurance Companies (Wausau) provided coverage beginning June 1, 1993. The hearing officer denied the claimant's request, and the claimant appealed to the board. After a hearing, the board found that the claimant "suffers from arthritis and degenerative disc disease," and that the "[m]edical evidence regarding the 1991 injury all state that the injury was a lumbar strain that should resolve." Based on these findings, the board ruled that "[t]he claimant's disability of February 23[,] 1994[,] is not found to be causally related to the injury on May 16, 1991[,] or to be a new injury." Accordingly, the board concluded that the claimant had failed to meet his burden of proof, and denied the claimant's request for benefits.
The claimant moved for rehearing on the grounds that the board had failed to apply relevant case law in evaluating evidence that the claimant's work-related activities had "aggravated or triggered [his] arthritis into a disability state," and that the board had ignored evidence that a specific work injury in February 1994 "had triggered or activated a disabling condition." The board denied the motion, ruling that the claimant did not meet his burden of proof as to causation at the hearing, and stating that it "did not find that the [claimant's disability was] either a direct or indirect consequence of his employment." This appeal followed. See RSA 281-A:43, I(c) (Supp.1996); RSA 541:6 (1997).
We will uphold an order of the board unless it is erroneous as a matter of law or the claimant has demonstrated that the order is unjust or unreasonable. Appeal of Lalime, 141 N.H. 534, 537, 687 A.2d 994, 997 (1996); see RSA 541:13 (1997). On appeal, the claimant argues that the board erred in failing to determine whether his work-related activities contributed to or aggravated his arthritis and degenerative disc disease so as to constitute a compensable injury. We understand the claimant's argument as encompassing two alternative theories of causation for his disability: first, that the cumulative traumatic effect of his work-related activities contributed to or aggravated his condition to the point of disability; or second, that a specific work-related traumatic event or events, such as the injury that allegedly occurred in February 1994, contributed to or aggravated his condition to the point of disability.
A disability which is causally related to cumulative work-related stress may constitute a compensable injury under New Hampshire's workers' compensation law. See Appeal of Briggs, 138 N.H. 623, 628, 645 A.2d 655, 659 (1994). This may be so even if the claimant had a pre-existing degenerative condition and did not suffer a discrete traumatic injury. See id. at 627, 645 A.2d at 658; Appeal of Briand, 138 N.H. 555, 559, 644 A.2d 47, 49-50 (1994). We have also recognized that the aggravation of a...
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