Harper v. North Mississippi Medical Center, 89-CC-915

• Decision Date: 03 June 1992
• Docket Number: No. 89-CC-915,89-CC-915
• Citation: 601 So.2d 395
• Parties: Margaret HARPER v. NORTH MISSISSIPPI MEDICAL CENTER and United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 395

601 So.2d 395

Margaret HARPER v. NORTH MISSISSIPPI MEDICAL CENTER and United States Fidelity

& Guaranty Company.

No. 89-CC-915.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

June 3, 1992.

C. Emanuel Smith, Tupelo, for appellant.

Ben Logan, Michael G. Soper, Soper & Dent, Tupelo, for appellees.

Before HAWKINS, P.J., and PITTMAN and McRAE, JJ.

McRAE, Justice, for the Court:

I.

This is a workers' compensation appeal perfected from the Circuit Court of Lee County. The central issue involved is whether there was substantial evidence to support the findings of the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission that the claimant took sufficient action to re-open her claim after filing a Final Report and Settlement Receipt to toll the one-year statute of limitations. Because of the great deference we give to the findings of the Commission when supported by substantial evidence, we reverse the Circuit Court and reinstate the order of the Commission.

II.

Margaret Harper, a nurses' aide at the North Mississippi Medical Center, injured her back while lifting a patient in June, 1984. She received Workers' Compensation benefits for this injury for approximately two months, after which time her physician released her to return to work. She signed a Final Report and Settlement Receipt ("Form B-31") which was filed with the Commission on August 4, 1984. Approximately one month later, Harper incurred further compensable medical expenses which were paid by the carrier. On December 13, 1984, the Commission received her amended Form B-31. At this time, the one-year statute of limitations governing the re-opening of her claim began to run. Miss.Code Ann. Sec. 71-3-53 (1972).

Three months after returning to work, Harper was laid off from her job at the North Mississippi Medical Center. On November 14, 1984, she wrote the following letter to the Commission:

To The Commissioner,

This is to let you all know I got hurt with my back with a patient in June. I stayed off work 7 weeks going to the doctors, physical therapy etc. and I went back to work in Aug. and I worked from Aug. to Nov. about three months to be exact. They laid me off last Thurs. without letting us know anything at all. They kept telling us we would not be laid off, made us a promise. So here I am without a job. Nobody would hire me at all to know that I had a strained back before. They have no intention of calling us back to work at all.

I had in a loan in the Credit Union. They told me my loan was ready for me and they had a check ready because I had my children's Christmas things in the layaway. This is what I was going to use this money from the Credit Union but after they found out I was laid off and didn't work there any more, they told me I couldn't get the money. They took our insurance from us, we have no insurance, we won't get paid our Christmas Bonus, or sick days. I don't think they did us fair at all, we didn't do anything to deserve to be treated this way.

I got hurt out there helping a patient this is what thanks I get for doing this. It would be different if they were going to call us back to work. But they are not going to call us back, they said so. But I am not going to let them get away with this at all. Because I am still having problems with my back, I still take medication when I have pain. Sometimes a pain comes in my sides.

I am going to talk to someone that can help me with this matter unless you all can advice [sic] me what to do about this. I want my job back I didn't do anything wrong. I hope you can tell me what to do right away before I go farther with this.

Thanks,

/s/ Margaret Harper

Margaret Harper

Harper continued to experience lower back pain. Some ten months after the amended Form B-31 was filed, she sought out a new physician. He treated her and filed a Preliminary Medical Report ("Form B-9") with the Commission. Harper's employer forwarded the forms to its carrier with the recommendation that the claim not be paid. It wasn't. The bill was also sent to Harper's attorney.

III.

On March 24, 1986, one year and three months after the final amended Form B-31 was filed with the Commission, Harper's attorney filed a Petition to Controvert. In its Answer, North Mississippi Medical Center averred that any such claim was barred by the statute of limitations because a valid Form B-31 had been filed in December, 1984, and the Commission was therefore without jurisdiction to reopen the claim. Miss Code Ann. Sec. 71-3-53 (1972).

The Administrative Law Judge held a hearing on the motion to dismiss. He found that the Appellees had properly filed Form B-31, that Harper's letter to the Commission was not a Petition to Controvert, and "[t]hat from and after that date [of the filing of the final B-31] the claimant has received no temporary total or medical or benefits of any kind or character from the carrier, nor were any submitted within the one year period of time and after December 13, 1984." He therefore concluded that the claim was barred by the statute of limitations.

Harper petitioned for review before the full Commission. The Commission reversed the Administrative Law Judge, finding that Harper's November 14, 1984, letter "was sufficient to enforce her right to reopen and to request a new compensation order."

North Mississippi Medical Center appealed to the Circuit Court of Lee County, which reversed the full Commission order, finding that there was "no substantial evidence that the ... handwritten letter of Claimant ... was anything more than a mere grievance letter addressing Claimant's concerns over being laid off at work, and no substantial evidence that the letter was a request to the commission concerning her injury." The Circuit Court found that the letter was insufficient to toll the statute of limitations and accordingly, on November 14, 1988, reversed the Commission's findings and dismissed Harper's claim with prejudice.

Harper filed a motion to enlarge the time within which to file a notice of appeal on December 19, 1988, concurrent with filing a Notice of Appeal to this Court. On March 8, 1989, the Circuit Court granted the motion, finding that excusable neglect had occurred. The appeal was not noticed again until May 24, 1989. However, we have denied the Appellee's motion to dismiss for failure to timely file a Notice of Appeal and consider the case on its merits.

IV.

"[T]he Commission itself is, in law, the finder of facts and ... on judicial review, its findings and decisions are subject to the normal deferential standards, notwithstanding the AJ's actions." Walker Manufacturing Co. v. Cantrell, 577 So.2d 1243, 1245 (Miss.1991). The Commission is the ultimate finder of fact, and thus may accept or reject the findings of an Administrative Law Judge. Hardin's Bakeries v. Dependent of Harrell, 566 So.2d 1261, 1264 (Miss.1990); R.C. Petroleum, Inc. v. Hernandez, 555 So.2d 1017, 1021 (Miss.1990); Day-Brite Lighting Div., Emerson Electric Co. v. Cummings, 419 So.2d 211 (Miss.1982). "The administrative judge, in this respect, is no more than a facility for conducting the business of the Commission and for all practical purposes the Commission is the actual trier of the facts." Dunn, Mississippi Workers' Compensation Sec. 284 (3d Ed.1982). In such a factual setting, it is, therefore, the Commission, not the Administrative Law Judge, which is entitled to deference upon review. As we reiterated in Walker, it is well-established that "the Circuit Courts must defer in their review to the findings of the Commission." Id. at 1247; Fought v. Stuart C. Irby Co., 523 So.2d 314, 317 (Miss.1988). The Circuit Court may interfere with an administrative agency action only when that action is arbitrary or capricious. Walker, 577 So.2d at 1247; Citizens Involved Voluntarily in Consolidation (CIVIC) v. Wayne County Board of Education, 574 So.2d 619, 622 (Miss.1990); Gill v. Mississippi Department of Wildlife Conservation, 574...