Eberle v. Baltimore County, Md.

• Decision Date: 01 September 1994
• Docket Number: No. 459,459
• Citation: 652 A.2d 1175,103 Md.App. 160
• Parties: Elmer James EBERLE. v. BALTIMORE COUNTY, MARYLAND. ,
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Page 160

103 Md.App. 160

652 A.2d 1175

Elmer James EBERLE. v. BALTIMORE COUNTY, MARYLAND.

No. 459, Sept. Term, 1994.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

Feb. 2, 1995.

Steven A. Charles (Rochlin, Settleman & Dobres, P.A. on the brief) Baltimore, for appellant.

James A. Helfman, Asst. County Atty., Towson, for appellee.

Argued before ALPERT, CATHELL and MURPHY, JJ.

ALPERT, Judge.

This case presents an appeal of the ruling of the Board of Appeals of Baltimore County ("Board of Appeals"), denying accidental disability benefits to appellant, Elmer James Eberle. The Circuit Court for Baltimore County affirmed the Board of Appeals's decision and appellant asks whether the Board of Appeals and the circuit court erred in denying him accidental disability retirement benefits pursuant to section 23-55 of the Baltimore County Code. We shall affirm.

Facts and Proceedings

The facts of this case are undisputed. In 1957, appellant, Elmer James Eberle ("Eberle"), was working as a meat cutter and sustained a work-related injury to his right knee. As a result of that injury, he underwent a right medial meniscectomy ^{1 1} in 1958, and, after the operation, he returned to all previous activities and had no difficulty or pain in the knee. In 1983, Eberle obtained employment with the Baltimore County Government ("the County"). When Eberle began his employment with the County, he had a clean bill of health and no work restrictions.

Eberle began in the position of warehouseman, but was moved to a truck driver position within approximately six months after his start date. On September 15, 1987, while in the course of his employment with the County, Eberle sustained serious injury to his right knee. A workers' compensation claim was filed and the compensability of the injury was not disputed by the County. Eberle was paid his salary in lieu of temporary total disability benefits during an extended period of care from December 30, 1987 through January 3, 1988, February 21, 1989 through February 22, 1989, and September 10, 1991 through March 9, 1992. A stipulated award was entered on November 16, 1992, and it was found that Eberle sustained a forty-five percent (45%) permanent partial disability of the right leg, with thirty-five percent (35%) due to the accidental injury on September 15, 1987, and ten percent (10%) due to a pre-existing condition.

Eberle later returned to work, and on September 28, 1989, he suffered another work-related injury, this time to his left knee. Another workers' compensation claim was filed, and again, compensability was not disputed by the County. In December, 1989, Eberle underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. From September 28, 1989, through April 30, 1990, while he recovered from the injury to his left knee, Eberle was paid full salary in lieu of temporary total disability benefits. Appellant returned to work for the County, but he continued to experience problems with his legs and on September 23, 1991, underwent a total knee replacement on his right knee.

On November 22, 1991, a hearing was held before the Workers' Compensation Commission on the issue of permanency as a result of the September 28, 1989 accident. In an Order dated November 26, 1991, the Commission found that Eberle sustained a twenty-five percent (25%) permanent partial disability of his left leg.

Following the total knee replacement, Eberle returned to work with the County, first working half days in March, 1992. Unable to return to his job as a truck driver, he worked putting school supply orders together. In April, 1992, Eberle resumed work for full days, but eventually he found he could not stay on his feet for any period of time. On May 12, 1992, he applied for accidental disability retirement benefits with appellee, the Board of Trustees of the Employees' Retirement System of Baltimore County ("the Board"). The Board denied Eberle's request for accidental disability benefits, awarding ordinary disability pension benefits instead. Eberle appealed the Board's decision and a de novo evidentiary hearing was held by the Board of Appeals on June 22, 1993, at which time Eberle and the County presented medical evidence on the nature and cause of his disability.

The Board of Appeals found that there was no issue concerning total disability because Eberle was, in fact, totally disabled. Thus, it had to review the evidence, testimony, and medical reports to determine whether Eberle was entitled to accidental disability retirement benefits under Baltimore County Code section 23-55 (1988), which provides that

[u]pon the application of a member in service or of the employer, any member who has been totally and permanently incapacitated for duty as the natural and proximate result of an accident occurring while in the actual performance of duty at some definite time and place, without willful negligence on his part, shall be retired by the board of trustees; provided that the medical board shall certify that such member is mentally or physically incapacitated for the further performance of duty, that such incapacity is likely to be permanent, and that such member shall be retired. No beneficiary entitled to an accidental disability retirement allowance shall receive any allowance on account of ordinary disability.

The main issue, therefore, that the Board of Appeals was faced with was "whether or not the disability that the Applicant presently [had was] the 'natural and proximate result' of his accidents occurring on September 15, 1987 to his right knee and on September 28, 1989 to his left knee."

There were several different medical reports reviewed by the Board of Appeals. The reports prepared by Eberle's primary orthopedic surgeon, William I. Smulyan, M.D., often referred to a degenerative arthritis condition that Eberle suffered. In his report dated January 27, 1988, Dr. Smulyan commented:

I have again explained to the patient that there is evidence of preexisting degenerative arthritis in the knee and that this has been aggravated by his injury.

(emphasis added). In a report dated December 4, 1990, Dr. Smulyan noted:

It is my feeling that as a result of the injury of 9/15/87 the permanent and partial impairment of Mr. Eberle's right knee has worsened by an additional 5 percent over that amount which was deemed to be preexisting prior to that time. With regard to the left knee and the injury of September 28, 1989 the patient has sustained permanent and partial impairment of 10 percent superimposed upon a preexisting figure of 15 percent because of degenerative arthritis which was present at the time of the injury.

(emphasis added). In a report prepared on June 24, 1991, Dr. Smulyan again made reference to Eberle's arthritic condition:

I have had a long talk with Mr. and Mrs. Eberle. It is my feeling that the patient has post traumatic arthritis of the right knee associated with his previous meniscectomy 33 years ago.

(emphasis added).

A report prepared by Barbara McLean, M.D., on Eberle's condition, dated May 26, 1992, was also submitted to the Board of Appeals. In this report, Dr. McLean summarized Eberle's condition There is no question that Mr. Eberle's arthritis pre-existed his reported occupational injury. I believe it is reasonable to assume that he had a least some aggravation from this injury but it is not possible to tell whether there was any change in the underlying basic pathology by virtue of this injury.

(emphasis added).

A report prepared by Joel D. Meshulam, M.D., dated February 25, 1993, stated that Mr. Eberle had a history of problems with his right knee "dat[ing] back to a medial meniscectomy that left him entirely asymptomatic until he was injured in 1987, sustaining traumatic damage to [his] right knee, and again in 1989, sustaining similar damage to the left knee." And a report prepared on July 3, 1990, by a consultant to whom Eberle was referred, indicated that he had a "chronic weight problem", "chronic degenerative problems with both knees," and "hypertension for approximately the last ten years." The report indicated that "Mr. Eberle presented the weight loss program as a preventive measure to reduce further medical interventions for both knees" and that "[a]pparently Dr. Smulyan indicated that it would be advisable for Mr. Eberle to achieve a weight below 200 lbs."

Based on these medical reports and the testimony before it, the Board of Appeals was unable to conclude or find as a matter of fact that Eberle's permanent disability was "a natural and proximate result of his accidents occurring on September 15, 1987 and September 28, 1989," as required under section 23-55 for the award of accidental disability retirement benefits. The Board of Appeals found that Eberle suffered from degenerative arthritis in his knees and thus he did not meet the burden of proving the causal connection between his present disability and the two accidents he sustained at work. Because the medical reports were conflicting as to causation, the Board acted as factfinder and was

unable to reasonably conclude that the present disability of the Applicant [was] a direct result of the two accidents, and as such the requirements of Section 23-55 of the Baltimore County Code [had] not been met....

Thus, the Board of Appeals denied accidental disability retirement benefits and entered an order granting Eberle ordinary disability retirement. Eberle appealed to the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, and the Board of Appeals' decision was affirmed. This appeal followed.

Standard of Review

This court recently reiterated the standard for appellate review of administrative agency decisions in Hill v. Baltimore County, 86 Md.App. 642, 659, 587 A.2d 1155, cert. denied, 323 Md. 185, 592 A.2d 178 (1991). When reviewing the factual findings of administrative agencies, it is the court's duty to determine whether the agency's decision was supported by substantial evidence. Id. In applying this "substantial evidence"...