Berglund Chevrolet, Inc. v. Landrum

• Decision Date: 07 September 2004
• Docket Number: Record No. 2897-03-3.
• Citation: 601 S.E.2d 693,43 Va. App. 742
• Court: Virginia Court of Appeals
• Parties: BERGLUND CHEVROLET, INC. and Vada Group Self-Insurance Association v. Richard Lee LANDRUM.

601 S.E.2d 693

43 Va. App. 742

BERGLUND CHEVROLET, INC. and Vada Group Self-Insurance Association v. Richard Lee LANDRUM.

Record No. 2897-03-3.

Court of Appeals of Virginia, Richmond.

September 7, 2004.

Iris W. Redmond, Richmond (Midkiff, Muncie & Ross, on brief), for appellants.

No brief or argument for appellee.

Present: FRANK and KELSEY, JJ., and WILLIS, S.J.

KELSEY, Judge.

Berglund Chevrolet, Inc. and the VADA Group Self-Insurance Association (collectively "Berglund") contend that the Workers' Compensation Commission erred by finding that Richard Landrum's sexual dysfunction was a compensable consequence of a work-related injury. Berglund also argues that the statute of limitations and equitable doctrine of laches bar Landrum's claim. Finding no error in the commission's findings, we affirm its award.

I.

We view the evidence on appeal in the light most favorable to Landrum, the prevailing party before the commission. Clinchfield Coal Co. v. Reed, 40 Va.App. 69, 72, 577 S.E.2d 538, 539 (2003).

While at work on August 26, 1994, Landrum suffered a back injury when a co-employee pulled a chair from beneath him as he was sitting down. Landrum fell, "landing on his buttock with his back striking the wall." Landrum described feeling a shock "extend up his spine to about his head and down into both legs to about the knees." He reported the accident and received a workers' compensation award for a herniated disc, requiring lower back surgery.

Soon after the accident, Landrum began feeling a "severe" and "steady constant pain" in his "private area." Within a few months, he started experiencing intermittent episodes of sexual dysfunction. Landrum explained the problem, at that time, "was more in the nature of pain rather than actual erectile dysfunction."

Landrum visited Dr. John Heil, a clinical psychologist, in September 1999. Dr. Heil evaluated Landrum and concluded he suffered from "major depression" and "pain disorder with psychological factors." Over the next several months, Landrum began taking a variety of anti-depressant medications.

In early 2000, Landrum experienced increased episodes of sexual dysfunction. The symptoms grew worse as time progressed, but it was not until March 2002 that Landrum disclosed his condition to Dr. John Daugherty, his treating physician. Dr. Daugherty prescribed Viagra based upon his medical opinion that:

Mr. Landrum is regularly followed through our office for complications of a closed head injury that occurred on 6/08/90 with associated chronic headaches. He, in addition, has a history of back injuries associated with both the headaches and back pain, a chronic pain syndrome/complex regional pain disorder. As a result of the combination of these problems and the medications used to treat them, he has difficulty with erectile dysfunction, improved with Viagra. It is difficult to blame a specific medication or injury and it is likely that it is the combination of both injuries and his medications that have contributed to his sexual dysfunction.

It is my feeling that both injuries play a role in causing his sexual dysfunction, along with the associated treating medications and therefore there should be some divided responsibility relative to coverage of the patient's Viagra.

(Emphasis added). The 1990 accident referred to by Dr. Daugherty involved a preexisting injury caused when "a meat hook or some type of metal hook" hit Landrum in the forehead.

Focusing more on Landrum's depression rather than his pain syndrome, Dr. Heil offered this psychological opinion in a December 2002 report:

Based on the timeline of onset and clinical circumstances, it is my impression that there is a preponderance of evidence to suggest that this is due to his on-the-job injury of August 24, 1994. Specifically, sexual performance was not a problem prior to the injury. To the extent it may be influenced by stress, depression, or medication use, it, in turn, appears to relate back to this injury — as use of mediation [sic] and issues of depression and anxiety do appear to have arisen from this injury. In addition, Mr. Landrum has been in a well established, positive, supportive, marital relationship which would preclude performance anxiety as a likely precipitant in this case. In fact, failure to perform sexually has added stress to this relationship, which is the most important element of his support system.

(Emphasis added).¹

Based upon these opinions, Landrum filed a claim with the commission for payment of his Viagra prescriptions and for one of his visits with Dr. Daugherty. After reviewing the evidence, the deputy commissioner awarded the Viagra prescription benefits on the ground that Landrum's sexual dysfunction was "a direct result of side-effects from medications prescribed to treat his injury, and the cost of managing those side effects is the defendant's responsibility."

Because Landrum's condition did not become constant until shortly before he reported it to his employer, the deputy declined to apply the doctrine of laches. The deputy did not address Berglund's statute of limitations defense.

The deputy refused to order Berglund Chevrolet to pay Dr. Daugherty's invoice, finding that particular office visit unrelated to the workplace accident.

On review, the full commission unanimously affirmed. The commission held that "the evidence predominates in establishing that the claimant has developed sexual/erectile dysfunction (and a need for Viagra), at least in part, as a direct consequence of the workplace injury to his back." The commission also determined neither the statute of limitations nor the doctrine of laches barred Landrum's claim. The denial of Dr. Daugherty's invoice, the commission agreed, was proper because Landrum did not prove this treatment related to his employment injury or its medical sequelae.

II.

On three grounds, Berglund appeals the commission's award of Viagra prescription benefits to Landrum. First, Berglund argues that Landrum's sexual dysfunction cannot be fairly characterized as a compensable consequence of his 1994 workplace injury. Second, in any event, the sexual dysfunction should be treated as a new and separate injury for purposes of the statute of limitations. Third, Berglund contends the equitable doctrine of laches bars the claim even if the statute of limitations does not do so. The commission disagreed with each of these assertions, as do we. We begin with the governing standard of review. By statute, an award of the commission "shall be conclusive and binding as to all questions of fact." Code § 65.2-706(A). "This appellate deference is not a mere legal custom, subject to a flexible application, but a statutory command," Cent. Va. Obstetrics & Gynecology Assocs. v. Whitfield, 42 Va.App. 264, 279, 590 S.E.2d 631, 639 (2004), one that we scrupulously obey both in principle and in practice when reviewing questions of causation, see, e.g., Steadman v. Liberty Fabrics, Inc., 41 Va.App. 796, 803, 589 S.E.2d 465, 469 (2003)

; S.P. Terry Co. v. Rubinos, 38 Va.App. 624, 632, 567 S.E.2d 584, 588 (2002); Lee County Sch. Bd. v. Miller, 38 Va.App. 253, 260, 563 S.E.2d 374, 377 (2002).

We likewise defer to the commission's "conclusions upon conflicting inferences, legitimately drawn from proven facts" — for inferences, like historic facts, are likewise "equally binding on appeal." Watkins v. Halco Eng'g, Inc., 225 Va. 97, 101, 300 S.E.2d 761, 763 (1983); see also Hall v. Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., 41 Va.App. 835, 843, 589 S.E.2d 484, 488 (2003)

. Such deference is warranted "even though there is evidence in the record to support a contrary finding." S.P. Terry Co.,

38 Va.App. at 632,

567 S.E.2d at 588 (citations omitted). Acting within its factfinding discretion, therefore, the commission "is free to adopt that view `which is most consistent with reason and justice.'" Georgia-Pac. Corp. v. Robinson, 32 Va.App. 1, 5, 526 S.E.2d 267, 269 (2000) (quoting C.D.S. Constr. Servs. v. Petrock, 218 Va. 1064, 1070, 243 S.E.2d 236, 240 (1978)) (bracketed material omitted).

A.

The doctrine of compensable consequences attempts, in a single phrase, to summarize the attenuation limits of causation in workers' compensation law. "The simplest application of this principle is the rule that all the medical consequences and sequelae that flow from the primary injury are compensable." 1 Arthur Larson & Lex K. Larson, Larson's Workers' Compensation Law § 10.01, at 10-3 (2003). Virginia courts have often used just this description, see, e.g., Leonard v. Arnold, 218 Va. 210, 214, 237 S.E.2d 97, 99 (1977)

; Sturtz v. Chesapeake Corp., 38 Va.App. 672, 677, 568 S.E.2d 381, 384 (2002); Am. Filtrona Co. v. Hanford, 16 Va.App. 159, 163, 428 S.E.2d 511, 513 (1993), as has the commission, see, e.g., Fuller v. Meadow Creek Wood Shop, 2004 Va. Wrk. Comp. LEXIS 139, at *7 (2004).

Where such a causal link exists, "the doctrine of compensable consequences extends the coverage of the Workers' Compensation Act to the subsequent injury because the subsequent injury `is treated as if it occurred in the course of and arising out of the employee's employment.'" Bartholow Drywall Co. v. Hill, 12 Va.App. 790, 794, 407 S.E.2d 1, 3 (1991) (quoting Leonard, 218 Va. at 214, 237 S.E.2d at 100). The doctrine applies "when the injury does not arise on the day of the accident, but instead develops as a direct consequence of an initial injury." Paul Johnson Plastering v. Johnson, 265 Va. 237, 244, 576 S.E.2d 447, 451 (2003) (citation omitted).

The doctrine has its limits, however. "The link of causation must directly connect the original accidental injury with the additional injury for which compensation is sought." Amoco Foam Prods. Co. v. Johnson, 257 Va. 29, 33, 510 S.E.2d 443, 445 (1999) (emphasis added); see also Paul Johnson Plastering, 265 Va. at 244,

576 S.E.2d at 452. In other words, the issue is "essentially one of whether the medical evidence proves a causal connection between the...