Groom v. State
| Decision Date | 26 October 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. S-11882.,S-11882. |
| Citation | 169 P.3d 626 |
| Parties | Scott A. GROOM, Appellant, v. STATE of Alaska, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Appellee. |
| Court | Alaska Supreme Court |
James M. Hackett, Law Office of James M. Hackett, Fairbanks, for Appellant.
Rebecca H. Cain, Assistant Attorney General, Anchorage, and David W. Márquez, Attorney General, Juneau, for Appellee.
Before: BRYNER, Chief Justice, MATTHEWS, EASTAUGH, FABE, and CARPENETI, Justices.
In 1999 the Alaska Workers' Compensation Board concluded that Scott Groom had injured himself in a slip-and-fall incident at work. In 2003 the board reversed course and determined that Groom had not been involved in a slip-and-fall incident. After finding that Groom's work duties required neither heavy lifting nor episodes of prolonged standing and that Groom had not been required to engage in heavy or extended snow shoveling, the board denied Groom's claims for various disability and impairment benefits. We reverse the board's 2003 resolution of Groom's slip-and-fall claims because the board failed to give Groom any notice that it might revisit its 1999 determination that he had sustained an injury in the course and scope of his employment with the state. We also reverse the board's dismissal of Groom's remaining claims because the board applied the incorrect legal standard in finding that the state had rebutted the presumption of compensability. We remand this case for further proceedings.
Scott Groom suffers from a condition known as congenital lymphedema, or Milroy's disease. Congenital lymphedema is a genetic disorder of the lymphatic system and is quite rare. Vessels in the lymphatic system circulate lymph and other interstitial fluids throughout the body; Groom is missing a number of these vessels, and, as a result, his arms and legs frequently swell with uncirculated fluid. In their swollen state, Groom's legs are spongy. Lymphatic vessels also transport bacteria and other hostile agents to lymph nodes, allowing the body to produce antibodies; because Groom's body or lymphatic system cannot perform this function reliably, he is prone to cellulitis, a type of local skin infection.
Groom worked for the Department of Transportation as a weigh station operator. On March 13, 1999, after letting his supervisor know that he had injured himself in a fall, Groom left the Fox weigh station near Fairbanks and never again returned to work. Soon after, he completed a report of occupational injury in which he alleged that he had fallen on the ice, creating a "rip in [his] left leg." In the employer section, Groom's supervisor wrote, "Scott told me that he fell measuring a[n] Alaska West Express 3S1S1 Axle Spread ... on a trailer."
The state twice controverted Groom's report of injury. In its second controversion the state declared that Groom could not have fallen while inspecting an Alaska West Express truck because, according to an investigation by the state, the measurement allegedly taken by Groom on March 13 "did not take place."
Groom then filed an application for adjustment of claim with the Alaska Workers' Compensation Board. In that application he stated that he ripped open his left calf at work by slipping and falling while measuring an Alaska West Express "bulker" truck at the Fox weigh station. He requested temporary total disability and permanent partial impairment benefits, as well as costs and penalties.
The board held a hearing on Groom's claim on August 5, 1999. At the request of the state, the board considered only one issue— whether Groom ripped his left calf open on March 13, 1999 in a slip-and-fall accident at the Fox weigh station. The board heard testimony from Groom, Groom's mother, and Groom's supervisor. Groom testified:
I walked around to the back of th[e] truck, I slipped with my left leg and went down Indian style—my right knee came down [on] my left calf [and] popped it like a big [] zi[t].
Groom's mother testified that when she saw Groom's leg, it looked as though it had "crack[ed] open like a watermelon that is too ripe." Both she and Groom described the injury as unusually severe. Groom admitted that he did not initially seek medical attention for the injury.
Groom's supervisor testified that Groom could not have fallen while inspecting an Alaska West bulker truck on March 13, because Alaska West had not shipped any bulkers in a 3S1S1 configuration on that day. He also noted that the computer system had no record of a truck, bulker or otherwise, being inspected near the time Groom claimed to have fallen.
In response Groom denied ever claiming that the truck he was inspecting was a bulker. He also argued that the absence of a computer record could be readily explained: after he fell, he immediately allowed the truck he was inspecting to leave. Rather than record an incomplete inspection, he deleted the log entry.
The state also submitted the deposition of Andrew Holland, a physician's assistant at Tanana Valley Clinic. Holland was the first health care provider Groom saw following his injury. Holland testified that he diagnosed Groom with cellulitis because of patchy red skin. His chart notes did not show a laceration, and he said that he would normally note the presence of a laceration if he observed one. He also observed swelling in Groom's legs.
The board handed down its decision on October 14, 1999. It found that the state had produced substantial evidence to overcome the presumption of compensability and had shifted the burden to Groom to prove his claim by a preponderance of the evidence. It found that Groom had met this burden and declared that Groom's claim for workers' compensation benefits associated with his March 13, 1999 injury was compensable.
In reaching this conclusion the board found: (1) Groom and his mother were generally credible witnesses; (2) an on-going personnel dispute explained why Groom removed the computer evidence: because he did not wish to document his failure to weigh and measure trucks, as required by his employer; and (3) the absence of contemporaneous medical treatment was explained by Groom's difficulty in finding knowledgeable medical providers for his disease and his consequent history of self treatment. The board made one additional finding:
Significantly, ... though we were not asked to decide this issue, we also believe the associated "flare up" was a temporary aggravation of a preexisting condition and that entitlement to benefits ended upon resolution of the condition.
The state petitioned the board to reconsider its decision; the board declined. The state then appealed to the superior court.
About a month after the 1999 board decision, Groom filed a second report of occupational injury. He claimed a different type of injury, centering on his snow shoveling duties the previous winter. He stated that he had been "forced to work the Ester Scale with no snow blower, just a shovel causing constant tears & damage to both legs." The state controverted the report by arguing that Groom failed to provide written notice of the injury within thirty days, as required by AS 23.30.100, and that there was no medical documentation linking Groom's current condition to his work with the state.
Because the parties had agreed to address only one aspect of Groom's slip-and-fall claim at the board's initial hearing on that claim, they continued to develop other aspects of their cases during the superior court appeal. The state arranged for an independent medical examination of Groom by Dr. Andrzej Szuba on March 3, 2000. Dr. Szuba stated that Groom's cellulitis in 1999 could have been caused by trauma even in the absence of a visible laceration; he concluded that Groom's work for the state was a substantial factor in exacerbating Groom's lymphedema. Shortly after Dr. Szuba wrote his report, Groom filed another application for adjustment of claim under the slip-and-fall case number, seeking permanent total disability and permanent partial impairment benefits, as well as penalties and interest. He claimed that the state's controversions had been unfair or frivolous and reported that the slip and fall had caused "cellulitis, swelling, infection and fever, [and an] increase in production of lymphatic fluid."
The state's answer characterized Groom's application as an amendment to his original claim. It agreed that Groom could amend his claim to include an award of additional benefits because the scope of the 1999 hearing did not include a determination of the benefits to which Groom was entitled. But it denied that Groom could allege a different type of injury from that addressed in the August 5, 1999 hearing, contending that the new allegation would interfere with the superior court's jurisdiction or constitute an impermissible attempt to relitigate issues that the board had already decided. It also denied that Groom's employment was a substantial factor in bringing about any change in his lymphedema.
Groom then filed an affidavit of readiness for hearing. The state opposed it, claiming that it needed to conduct additional discovery about the nature, scope, and physical demands of Groom's work, as well as medical stability and total disability. The board scheduled a hearing for November 21, 2000. The state deposed Dr. Szuba before the hearing. In his deposition Dr. Szuba testified that an injury to Groom's leg on March 13, 1999 could aggravate his lymphedema by increasing swelling; he further testified that every cellulitis infection damages the lymphatic system. Dr. Szuba also said that cellulitis could develop even without an "objective tear" in the skin because of blunt trauma or an increased workload or swelling. Dr. Szuba's impression was that Groom's condition had changed significantly from the year before. Dr. Szuba indicated that if Groom's work did not involve prolonged standing or very much snow shoveling, then he would have to...
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