Burlington Industries v. Pickett

• Decision Date: 04 March 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-1398,98-1398
• Citation: 988 S.W.2d 3,336 Ark. 515
• Parties: BURLINGTON INDUSTRIES, Appellant, v. Alice PICKETT, Appellee.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 3

988 S.W.2d 3

336 Ark. 515

BURLINGTON INDUSTRIES, Appellant, v. Alice PICKETT, Appellee.

No. 98-1398.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

March 4, 1999.

Friday, Eldredge & Clark, by: Guy Alton Wade, Little Rock, for appellant.

Baim, Gunti, Mouser, De Simone & Robinson, by: Judith De Simone, Pine bluff, for appellee.

David Pake, Maumelle, for Second Injury Fund.

LAVENSKI R. SMITH, Justice.

This is an appeal from a decision of the Workers' Compensation Commission. It involves a single issue. That issue is whether the Commission's award of interest on incurred medical expenses paid by a claimant's health insurance carriers is supported by substantial evidence. The case is before this Court on a grant of petition for review pursuant to Ark. Sup.Ct. R. 1-2(e)(i).

Appellants, Burlington Industries, and its workers' compensation insurance carrier, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, contend that the Commission erroneously included interest on medical payments in its award to appellee, Alice Pickett. The gravamen of their argument is that such an award is contrary to the company's express duties under Workers' Comp. Comm. R. 30 and the public policy of cost containment it created. We agree and reverse.

The relevant facts of this matter are undisputed. Pickett, a long time employee of Burlington Industries, sustained an injury to her back in May of 1990. Appellee subsequently underwent two back surgeries. Pickett sought workers' compensation benefits for the injury but her employer, Burlington Industries, controverted the claim. An order issued by the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) in February 1994 resolved the matter in Pickett's favor, and the full Commission approved it in June 1994. In the meantime, Pickett's medical expenses were paid for by private health insurance carriers rather than by her employer's workers' compensation carrier, Liberty Mutual. The ALJ's order awarded temporary total disability benefits commencing May 25, 1990, and required her employer and its carrier, appellant's herein, to pay past and future medical expenses attributable to the injury. It also included an award for attorney's fees and interest pursuant to Ark.Code Ann. § 11-9-809 (Repl.1996).

The matter returned to the attention of the Workers' Compensation Commission in a March 1996 hearing. Pickett, at that time, provided appellants and the Commission with claims for approximately $100,000 in Pickett's accrued medical expenses, paid by her or her husband's private group health insurance carriers during the pendency of the compensation case. This sum also included paid deductibles, miscellaneous out of pocket expenses and travel expenses. Pickett provided the expenses in summary form based on the logs of the group health insurers with little or no detail as to the relation of the service to Pickett's injury or information to ascertain the reasonableness of the charges. Appellants' witness testified at the hearing, and it is apparent that their handling of the case in response to the 1994 Commission order left much to be desired. Appellants had failed to pay temporary total disability as ordered by the Commission and had only paid $150.00 in medical expenses. However, they had only been presented with the one bill for $150.00.

The ALJ's decision, filed October 31, 1996, found that Pickett's healing period ended September 22, 1994; that she was entitled to temporary total disability payments from the date of the injury to the end of her healing period; that she suffered permanent impairment and was permanently and totally disabled; that Burlington and Liberty Mutual were responsible for payment of permanent total disability benefits, reasonable related medical, hospital, and nursing expenses, and that they had failed to pay. The ALJ also assessed penalties and interest pursuant to Ark.Code Ann. §§ 11-9-802(b) and 11-9-809 respectively.

Appellants acceded to the ALJ's order in all points except payment of interest on incurred medical expenses paid by Pickett's or her husband's private medical carriers. The single issue regarding interest was appealed to the full Commission on July 31, 1997. Appellants contended that they should not be required to pay interest on medical bills that were not submitted to them in any form until the March 1996 hearing. The Commission, after a de novo review, affirmed the ALJ's decision to award interest on incurred medical expenses. The Arkansas Court of Appeals reviewed the case pursuant to appeal from the Workers' Compensation Commission. The Court of Appeals deadlocked with three votes to affirm and three votes to reverse resulting in affirmance of the Commission's order. We granted a petition for review.

Upon a petition for review, we consider a case as though it were originally filed in this court. Frette v. City of Springdale, 331 Ark. 103, 959 S.W.2d 734 (1998). On appeal in a workers' compensation case from the Court of Appeals to this Court, the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the Commission's decision, and its decision must be upheld if supported by substantial evidence. Deffenbaugh Indus. v. Angus, 313 Ark. 100, 852 S.W.2d 804 (1993). We will not reverse the Commission's decision unless we are convinced that fair-minded persons with the same facts before them could not have reached the conclusion arrived at by the Commission. ERC Contractor Yard & Sales v. Robertson, 335 Ark. 63, 977 S.W.2d 212 (1998).

Appellants contend here, as they did below, that it was improper for the Commission to require them to pay interest back to the initial ALJ determination of entitlement because Pickett did not provide her medical bills to them until the day of the second ALJ hearing on March 1, 1996, and then only...