Elec. Gen. Corp. v. Labonte
| Decision Date | 10 July 2017 |
| Docket Number | No. 69,69 |
| Parties | ELECTRICAL GENERAL CORP. et al. v. MICHAEL L. LABONTE |
| Court | Court of Special Appeals of Maryland |
WORKERS' COMPENSATION ACT - MD. CODE ANN., LAB. & EMPL. § 9-656 - ACCIDENTAL PERSONAL INJURY - SUBSEQUENT INTERVENING EVENT - WORSENING OF MEDICAL CONDITION - Court of Appeals held that, where Workers' Compensation Commission has awarded permanent partial disability benefits based on accidental personal injury or occupational disease and has also determined that employee incurred subsequent intervening event—e.g., an injury sustained outside course of employment—upon request to reopen alleging worsening of employee's medical condition, employee is entitled to compensation for permanent partial disability for any portion of such disability that is caused by and reasonably attributable solely to employee's accidental personal injury or occupational disease. Stated otherwise, where employee has incurred both accidental personal injury or occupational disease, and subsequent intervening event, and Workers' Compensation Commission has apportioned permanent partial disability benefits for accidental personal injury or occupational disease, existence of subsequent intervening event finding does not preclude Commission from awarding additional permanent partial disability benefits for worsening of employee's condition caused by and reasonably attributable solely to accidental personal injury or occupational disease.
Court of Appeals held that existence of subsequent intervening event does not, per se, preclude employer's liability for workers' compensation benefits. Employer may be liable for workers' compensation benefits where employee demonstrates that worsening of medical condition was caused by accidental personal injury or occupational disease.
Court of Appeals held that issues of whether accidental personal injury or occupational disease, or subsequent intervening event, caused worsening of employee's medical condition, and whether, for purposes of permanent partial disability benefits, worsening of employee's medical condition was reasonably attributable solely to accidental personal injury or occupational disease, are factual matters for Workers' Compensation Commission to determine in each individual case.
Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County
Case No. 02-C-13-180640
Barbera, C.J. Greene Adkins McDonald Watts Hotten Getty, JJ.
Opinion by Watts, J.
The purpose of the Maryland Workers' Compensation Act, Md. Code Ann., Lab. & Empl. (1991, 2016 Repl. Vol.) ("LE") §§ 9-101 to 9-1201, "is to protect workers and their families from hardships inflicted by work-related injuries by providing workers with compensation for loss of earning capacity resulting from accidental injury arising out of and in the course of employment." Hollingsworth v. Severstal Sparrows Point, LLC, 448 Md. 648, 655, 141 A.3d 90, 94 (2016) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). For purposes of the Workers' Compensation Act, "an accidental injury that arises out of and in the course of employment" is known as an "accidental personal injury[.]" LE § 9-101(b)(1). The Workers' Compensation Act divides disabilities that are caused by accidental personal injuries into four categories:
temporary partial disability (disability which is temporary in duration and partial in extent) . . . ; temporary total disability (disability which is temporary in duration but total in extent) . . . ; permanent partial disability (disability which is permanent in duration and partial in extent) . . . ; and permanent total disability (disability which is permanent in duration and total in extent)[.]
Wal Mart Stores, Inc. v. Holmes, 416 Md. 346, 353 n.2, 7 A.3d 13, 17 n.2 (2010).
In this matter of first impression—where an employee suffered an accidental personal injury and incurred a subsequent injury outside the course of employment, the Workers' Compensation Commission ("the Commission") awarded permanent partial disability benefits, and, later, the employee alleged a worsening of the employee's medical condition—we must decide whether the existence of a subsequent intervening event finding by the Commission precluded the Commission from awarding additional permanent partial disability benefits and other workers' compensations benefits forworsening of the employee's condition.
Michael L. LaBonte ("LaBonte"), Respondent, was an electrician who worked for Electrical General Corporation, Petitioner, which had workers' compensation insurance through Selective Insurance Company of America, Petitioner (together, "Electrical General"). LaBonte suffered an accidental personal injury to his back at work when he caught and pushed a large ladder that had been falling down. LaBonte filed a claim for workers' compensation and multiple Issues1 with the Commission, seeking temporary total disability benefits and temporary partial disability benefits, both of which the Commission awarded.
Later, LaBonte was injured outside of the workplace in an unrelated matter. Specifically, a law enforcement officer initiated a traffic stop of a vehicle that LaBonte had been driving outside the course of his employment. According to LaBonte, during the traffic stop, the law enforcement officer grabbed him and pushed him down onto the vehicle, causing his existing back pain to be aggravated.
LaBonte filed Issues with the Commission again, seeking additional temporary total disability benefits. The Commission issued an Order denying LaBonte's request, observing that he had been "involved in a subsequent event on" the date of the incident with the law enforcement officer. LaBonte filed Issues with the Commission again, thistime seeking permanent partial disability benefits. In an Award of Compensation, the Commission awarded LaBonte permanent partial disability benefits, finding that his disability was partly due to his accidental personal injury—i.e., his work-related injury—and partly due to "pre-existing and subsequent conditions[.]"
Years later, LaBonte filed a Petition to Reopen2 with the Commission, alleging that his back condition had worsened, and requesting additional permanent partial disability benefits. The Commission granted the Petition to Reopen, but found that there had not been a worsening of LaBonte's back condition that was causally related to his accidental personal injury because the Commission's previous Order and Award of Compensation established a "subsequent intervening event" that broke the "causal nexus" between LaBonte's accidental personal injury and his existing back condition.
LaBonte filed a Petition for Judicial Review. In the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County, a jury found that LaBonte's accidental personal injury was the cause of the recent worsening of LaBonte's back condition. Electrical General noted an appeal, and the Court of Special Appeals affirmed, holding that the incident with the law enforcement officer did not preclude Electrical General's liability for the worsening of LaBonte's back condition.
Before us, Electrical General argues that, where an employee suffers both anaccidental personal injury that causes a permanent partial disability and a subsequent intervening event—e.g., an injury sustained outside the course of employment—a finding that the employee has incurred a subsequent intervening event precludes the accidental personal injury from being the proximate cause of worsening of the disability. In other words, Electrical General asserts that a finding that an employee sustained a subsequent intervening injury forecloses an employer's further liability for permanent partial disability benefits and other workers' compensation benefits due to an alleged worsening of the employee's condition.
As explained below, in our view, Electrical General conflates the law that applies to a temporary disability with the law that applies to a permanent disability. Liability for a temporary disability depends on the injury that occurred last. See Martin v. Allegany Cty. Bd. of Cty. Comm'rs, 73 Md. App. 695, 700, 536 A.2d 132, 134 (1988). By contrast, liability for a permanent disability is to be apportioned among all of the injuries that caused the permanent disability, not just the injury that occurred last. See LE § 9-656. Applying these principles, we hold that, where the Commission has awarded permanent partial disability benefits based on an accidental personal injury or occupational disease and has also determined that the employee incurred a subsequent intervening event—e.g., an injury sustained outside the course of employment—upon a request to reopen alleging worsening of the employee's medical condition, the employee is entitled to compensation for permanent partial disability for any portion of such disability that is caused by and reasonably attributable solely to the employee's accidental personal injury or occupational disease. Stated otherwise, where an employee has incurred both accidental personal injuryor occupational disease, and a subsequent intervening injury, and the Workers' Compensation Commission has apportioned permanent partial disability benefits for an accidental personal injury or occupational disease, the existence of a subsequent intervening event finding does not preclude the Commission from awarding additional permanent partial disability benefits for worsening of the employee's condition caused by and reasonably attributable solely to the accidental personal injury or occupational disease.
Further, the existence of a subsequent intervening event does not, per se, preclude an employer's liability for workers' compensation benefits. An employer may be liable for workers' compensation benefits where an employee demonstrates that a worsening of the employee's medical condition was caused by an accidental personal injury or occupational disease. And, the issues of whether an accidental personal injury or occupational disease, or a subsequent intervening...
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