General Motors Corp. v. Industrial Com'n

• Decision Date: 19 January 1989
• Docket Number: No. 4-87-0745WC,4-87-0745WC
• Citation: 179 Ill.App.3d 683,534 N.E.2d 992,128 Ill.Dec. 547
• Parties: , 128 Ill.Dec. 547 GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, central foundry division, Appellant, v. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al. (William Kuehn, Appellee).
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 992

534 N.E.2d 992

179 Ill.App.3d 683, 128 Ill.Dec. 547

GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, central foundry division, Appellant, v. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al. (William Kuehn, Appellee).

No. 4-87-0745WC.

Appellate Court of Illinois,

Fourth District.

Jan. 19, 1989.

Acton, Meyer, Smith & Miller, Danville, (Thomas R. Smith, of counsel), for plaintiff-appellant.

Richard K. Johnson, Katz, Friedman, Schur & Eagle, Chicago, for defendants-appellees.

Justice LEWIS delivered the opinion of the court:

Claimant, William Kuehn, filed an application for adjustment of claim under the Workers' Compensation Act (Ill.Rev.Stat.1979, ch. 48, par. 138.1 et seq.) for injuries received on May 1, 1980, while in the course of his employment with respondent, General Motors Corporation. At the hearing before the arbitrator, claimant contended that his injuries arose out of and in the course of his employment, which was disputed by respondent. The arbitrator found that claimant's injuries did arise out of and in the course of his employment and that claimant was completely and permanently disabled and was entitled to receive compensation for life. On review, the arbitrator's decision was affirmed by the Industrial Commission and confirmed by the circuit court of Vermilion County. Respondent appeals this decision.

The only issue raised on appeal is whether the Industrial Commission's determination that claimant's condition arose out of and in the course of his employment, was against the manifest weight of the evidence. Respondent contends that there was insufficient direct evidence presented regarding the cause of claimant's injuries to support a finding of an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of claimant's employment pursuant to section 2 of the Workers' Compensation Act (Ill.Rev.Stat.1979, ch. 48, par. 138.2).

At the hearing before the arbitrator, claimant testified that he was working as a truck driver for respondent on May 1, 1980. On that date, he was driving a forklift truck in the "hard iron area", when he either hit a pothole or attempted to avoid the pothole and hit something else. Claimant was unable to recall anything after that and nine days later his wife brought him home from the hospital. Claimant did not remember the name of the hospital or the city where the hospital was located.

Claimant saw Drs. Gene Moore, Fitzhugh-Bell, and Lunsford after he was discharged from the hospital. Claimant testified that he cannot think clearly and that he has persistent daily headaches. Prior to May 1, 1980, claimant did not suffer headaches as constantly as he currently does.

Marlene Kuehn, claimant's wife, testified that on May 1, 1980, she was notified that claimant had had an accident. She was told that claimant had regained consciousness but that he was not acting normally. Mrs. Kuehn went to Lakeview Hospital in Danville, Illinois, and upon her arrival, she was informed that claimant had been transferred to Burnham City Hospital in Champaign.

When Mrs. Kuehn first saw claimant at Burnham City Hospital, claimant did not recognize her. She observed that claimant had a big bump on his forehead above his right eyebrow. The next day, claimant still did not know her and did not know his children. While at the hospital, claimant behaved strangely and was unable to identify common items such as a bicycle.

Mrs. Kuehn brought claimant home from the hospital eight days after his admittance. Within two days of his arrival home, claimant began to have "blackouts" or to "space out," and after the blackouts, claimant frequently slept. Mrs. Kuehn described claimant's "blackouts" as follows: " * * * he starts shaking and his eyes started (sic) rolling around. And when I called his name, he didn't hear me. He doesn't hear me when he's spaced out." Prior to May 1, 1980, claimant had never had blackout spells. Mrs. Kuehn called Dr. Gene Moore and reported these blackouts to him, and he instructed her to take claimant to Riley Hospital for an electroencephalogram (EEG). She further testified that, at various times, Dr. Moore referred claimant to Drs. Fitzhugh-Bell and Lunsford, and that claimant had seen Dr. Imperial for the purpose of obtaining social security benefits. Mrs. Kuehn corroborated claimant's testimony that he suffers from constant headaches.

The admission records and discharge summary from Burnham City Hospital were admitted into evidence. These records established that claimant had suffered a "head injury" and "cerebral contusion." According to these records, claimant had hit a pothole while driving his forklift and had fallen or had been knocked from the machine, causing him to strike his head and to be knocked unconscious. Claimant regained consciousness prior to his arrival at Lakeview Hospital, but he was bewildered and disoriented. The doctor at Lakeview Hospital found claimant had no specific abnormalities other than his affect being abnormal.

Claimant was transferred from Lakeview Hospital to Burnham City Hospital. Upon admission at Burnham City Hospital, claimant was still disoriented, he had a slight abrasion on his right forehead, and he had a great deal of tenderness in the C7-T1 area posteriorly; however, his reflexes were equal, his handgrips were weak but equal, and his "pupils, fundi, EOMs" and eardrums were normal.

The discharge summary from Burnham City Hospital dated May 9, 1980, noted that claimant was admitted as an emergency following a head injury incurred at work. The exact mechanism of claimant's head injury was unknown, but it was determined that claimant was unconscious at the scene of the accident for about 20 minutes. Dr. Belber, claimant's treating physician, found that claimant was perplexed, confused, and that he had a severe memory deficit upon admission but that claimant's condition improved during claimant's stay at the hospital. The test results of an EEG, a CAT scan (computerized axial tomography), a spinal puncture and skull X-rays had revealed no abnormalities. Dr. Belber's final diagnosis of claimant's condition was "[c]losed head injury, with cerebral contusion syndrome, with full recovery."

A letter dated September 12, 1980, from Dr. Gene Moore to Dr. Fred Pierce, respondent's plant physician, was admitted into evidence. Attached to Dr. Moore's letter was a neuropsychological report by Dr. Fitzhugh-Bell in which the findings of her examination of claimant on July 15, 1980, were summarized. Dr. Moore's letter stated that because claimant gave an incoherent account of his accident, it would probably never be determined what happened. Dr. Moore concluded that claimant "was apparently injured and knocked unconscious in an accident at the General Motors Foundry." Dr. Moore found that it was possible but unlikely that claimant had had a seizure or blackout at the time of the accident, and that claimant's history made it unlikely that he suffered from epilepsy. Dr. Moore confirmed that claimant had had a seizure since he had been discharged from the hospital, but that claimant's EEGs were normal. Dr. Moore was "inclined to believe" that claimant had suffered an injury at work.

According to Dr. Moore, claimant presented the "classical picture of someone who had had a post concussion type of injury," i.e., that claimant "is unable to relate the details of this injury, he complains of headaches, he has blackouts, he is spacey (sic), confusion is his predominant symptom, and he acts a little bit on the dumb side." Dr. Moore explained that these symptoms are characteristic of a post concussion injury and that the symptoms usually present no neurological findings when the traditional tests are performed. Dr. Fitzhugh-Bell's neuropsychological tests confirmed his opinion.

Dr. Kathleen Fitzhugh-Bell's report stated that claimant was interested and cooperative but that he was sad, confused, and tangential. She had administered a wide variety of tests and she discussed the tests results in this report, finding that claimant was impaired in complex reasoning, abstract thinking, and development of concepts; in visual analysis and appropriate shifting of behavior according to concepts or instructions; and in tasks requiring simple motor speed (finger tapping). The tests for aphasic and perceptual disorders revealed that claimant had deficits which do not occur in adults with normal brain functions. Her hypothesis of the possible neurological significance of the tests was that "[t]he neuropsychological rating (Impairment Index) based upon the Halstead neuropsychological indicators which contribute to the Index is consistent with mild but significant cerebral damage and dysfunction."

A letter dated July 12, 1982, from Dr. Thomas Lunsford to Dr. Gene Moore stated that it was Dr. Lunsford's impression that the claimant "probably has a progressive deteriorating type of brain disease, which may have been subtle or symptomatically not existent at the time of his injury, but was probably aggravated by it at that time." Dr. Lunsford said that he could not determine the type of actual injury incurred by claimant on May 1, 1980, but, based on claimant's behavior immediately after the accident, he concluded that claimant had had "some degree of post concussive change, which probably was involved in a further chain reaction and now progressive dementia."

Claimant lastly presented a letter from Dr. Lunsford dated June 15, 1982, which was sent to the Social Security Disability Determination Division. Dr. Lunsford advised in this letter that claimant "seems to demonstrate an organic brain syndrome with some sort of episodic interruption in behavior." He reported that the neuropsychological examination of Dr. Fitzhugh-Bell revealed that claimant had a "considerable amount of organic brain impairment." Further, he found that a recent repeat study by Dr. Fitzhugh-Bell suggested deterioration of cerebral function, implying the possibility of progressive difficulties. In his opinion, he...