Harris v. Office of Worker's Compensation

• Decision Date: 29 June 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-AA-1012.,94-AA-1012.
• Citation: 660 A.2d 404
• Parties: Eugene M. HARRIS, Petitioner, v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA OFFICE OF WORKER'S COMPENSATION (DOES), Respondent, and Bell Atlantic-D.C., Intervenor.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

660 A.2d 404

Eugene M. HARRIS, Petitioner, v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA OFFICE OF WORKER'S COMPENSATION (DOES), Respondent, and Bell Atlantic-D.C., Intervenor.

No. 94-AA-1012.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued May 2, 1995.

Decided June 29, 1995.

Richard C. Strasser, Washington, DC, for petitioner.

Garland Pinkston, Acting Corp. Counsel, and Charles L. Reischel, Deputy Corp. Counsel, Washington, DC, filed a statement in lieu of brief, for respondent.

Donald P. Maiberger, Washington, DC, for intervenor.

Before STEADMAN and SCHWELB, Associate Judges, and NEWMAN, Senior Judge.

SCHWELB, Associate Judge:

Eugene M. Harris has asked this court to review a decision of a Hearing and Appeals Examiner of the Department of Employment Services (DOES or the agency) holding that an injury which Harris allegedly suffered after the effective date of the Worker's Compensation Act of 1979, D.C.Code §§ 36-301, et seq. (1993) (the WCA or 1979 Act), was not a new injury but merely a "recurrence" of a pre-Act injury, and therefore non-compensable under the WCA.¹ We conclude, on the basis of the examiner's evidentiary findings, that Harris suffered a post-Act aggravation of a pre-existing injury, and that such aggravation is compensable under the 1979 Act. Accordingly, we reverse the decision under review and remand the case to the agency for further proceedings.

I. THE AGENCY PROCEEDINGS²

This case is of somewhat ancient vintage.³ Harris has been employed by intervenor Bell Atlantic and its predecessor, C & P Telephone Co., since 1969. In March 1977, while Harris was on company business, the automobile in which he was riding was "rearended" by another vehicle, and Harris suffered an acute sprain of the lumbar spine. He was "physically restricted from the performance of his usual employment duties" for approximately six months.

Upon his return to work in the fall of 1977, Harris was placed in a "medically restricted capacity, i.e., light duty." He was not allowed to drive a company car, climb poles or ladders, pull cable, or engage in lifting. Although Harris ceased active medical treatment in or about 1979, his lumbar condition became chronic. With some relatively minor changes, the restrictions on Harris' activities remained in effect for more than five years following his return to work.

In 1983, Harris was employed in a supervisory capacity as an engineer. The examiner described this position as "sedentary in nature." In August of that year, C & P's employees went on strike, and Harris was reassigned "to perform the non-sedentary function of a frame attendant." The examiner found that Harris was required, among other things,

to lift and carry test sets weighing from ten (10) to forty pounds (40 lbs.); move and climb ladders; pull jumper wire and cables from reels; and, use of a soldering iron. I find that claimant performed said functions for the month of August 1983, and that claimant began to suffer from increasing lumbar complaints.

After the strike ended in September 1983, Harris returned to his "sedentary supervisory position." The examiner found, however, that "claimant's lumbar symptoms, which had begun in August, began to increase in intensity." Further, according to the examiner,

claimant has credibly testified that from September 1983 through March 1985 he attempted self-medication for back pain, and that thereafter, he sought medical intervention for pain in his lumbo-sacral area. Employer has introduced no evidence to contradict claimant's credible testimony that he began to experience consistent symptoms of pain in his low back in or about August/September 1983, nor any evidence that claimant does not presently suffer from chronic lumbral strain, and therefore, it was found that claimant sustained an injury in or about said period.

(Emphasis added).

Harris did not seek medical assistance for the 1983 injury until March 1985. In 1986, he filed a notice of accidental injury with the Office of Workers' Compensation. Harris II, 648 A.2d at 673. In 1988, he filed a claim for benefits with DOES. Harris I, 592 A.2d at 1016. There was extensive litigation before the agency and in this court regarding the timeliness of his claims. Harris II, 648 A.2d at 673; Harris I, 592 A.2d at 1015-19. The issue was ultimately resolved in his favor. Harris II, 648 A.2d at 673-74.

On May 20, 1994, the examiner issued a Final Compensation Order. Notwithstanding his evidentiary findings, summarized above, and in spite of his recognition that "the aggravation of a pre-existing condition is an `injury' under the Act," the examiner concluded that Harris was not entitled to any recovery. According to the examiner, Harris had suffered from chronic lumbar strain since 1977, and

claimant's physicians have not opined an intervening causative factor in claimant's present infirmity, in the form of claimant's August 1983 employment-related activities, merely that his 1977 injury has been, once again, rendered symptomatic. Therefore, it has been found that claimant's injury of in or about August 1983 was a recurrence of his March 1977 acute lumbar strain.

The examiner concluded on the basis of this reasoning that Harris' claim "is not amenable to adjudication pursuant to the instant Act."⁴

Harris filed an internal appeal to the Director of DOES. The Director took no action on that appeal within the time prescribed by statute, D.C.Code § 36-322(b)(2) (1993), and the examiner's decision became the decision of the agency. Id. Harris filed a timely petition for review by this court.

II. LEGAL DISCUSSION

A. The Scope of Review.

The scope of our review of the agency's orders is defined by the now familiar "substantial evidence" standard. Under the District's Administrative Procedure Act, D.C.Code § 1-1509(e) (1987), we inquire

(1) whether the agency has made a finding of fact on each material contested issue of fact; (2) whether substantial evidence of record supports each finding; and (3) whether conclusions legally sufficient to support the decision flow rationally from the findings.

Cruz v. District of Columbia Dep't of Employment Servs., 633 A.2d 66, 70 (D.C.1993) (citations omitted).

Our review of the agency's legal rulings is de novo, for "it is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is," Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 177, 2 L.Ed. 60 (1803), and the judiciary is the final authority on issues of statutory construction. Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 843 n. 9, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 2782 n. 9, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). Nevertheless, where the meaning of a statutory language is not clear on its face, the court will accord considerable weight to its construction by the agency responsible for administering the statute. Id. at 844, 104 S.Ct. at 2782; Winchester Van Buren Tenants Ass'n v. District of Columbia Rental Hous. Comm'n, 550 A.2d 51, 55 (D.C.1988).

The principle that the executive construction of a statute is to be accorded weight applies "especially if such construction has been made by the highest officers in the executive department of the government." See 82 C.J.S. Statutes, § 359, at 761-64 (1953 & Supp.1994). In the present case, the interpretation of the WCA which we have been asked to review is that of the examiner; the Director upheld it by failing to act. We conclude that this circumstance reduces in some measure the deference which we should accord to the agency's construction. Cf. Commonwealth v. Berlo Vending Co., 415 Pa. 101, 202 A.2d 94, 97 n. 4 (1964).

B. Compensability.

Under the WCA of 1979, "every employer subject to this chapter shall be liable for compensation for injury or death without regard to fault as a cause of injury or death." D.C.Code § 36-303(b) (1993). Prior to July 26, 1982, which was the effective date of the Act, employers in the District were subject to the provisions of the federal LHWCA, 33 U.S.C. §§ 901, et seq., which is administered by the Secretary of Labor. Injuries incurred before July 26, 1982 continue to be governed by the LHWCA. Railco Multi-Constr. Co. v. Gardner, 564 A.2d 1167, 1168 & n. 4 (D.C.1989); Gustafson, supra, 266 U.S.App. D.C. at 26 n. 1, 832 F.2d at 638 n. 1. The basic question in this case is whether, in 1983, Harris suffered an injury within the meaning of the WCA.

The 1979 Act is modeled in substantial part on the LHWCA which it replaced. Railco, supra, 564 A.2d at 1172. Like its predecessor, it contains a presumption of compensability,⁵ which is designed to effect the humanitarian purposes of the Act. Spartin v. District of Columbia Dep't of Employment Servs., 584 A.2d 564, 572 (D.C.1990) (citations omitted); Wheatley v. Adler, 132 U.S.App.D.C. 177, 182, 407 F.2d 307, 312 (1968); see also O'Keeffe v. Smith, Hinchman & Grylls Assoc., 380 U.S. 359, 362, 85 S.Ct. 1012, 1014-15, 13 L.Ed.2d 895 (1965).

Like other worker's compensation statutes, the Act is to be "liberally construed for the benefit of the employee." Railco, supra, 564 A.2d at 1169; see also J.V. Vozzolo, Inc. v. Britton, 126 U.S.App.D.C. 259, 262, 377 F.2d 144, 147 (1967). "Doubts, including the factual, are to be resolved in the employee's favor." Vozzolo, 126 U.S.App. D.C. at 262, 377 F.2d at 147.

As the court explained in Vozzolo,

benefits under the Act are not limited to employees who happen to enjoy good health; rather, employers accept with their employees the frailties that predispose them to bodily hurt. The fact that an employee is diseased does not bar his right to recover for accidental injury notwithstanding, except for such diseased condition, the injury would not have occurred, and harm resulting from aggravation by the employment of a pre-existing infirmity, it has many times been decided, is injury within the meaning of the Act.

Id. at 262-63, 377 F.2d at 147-48 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted); accord, Spartin, supra, 584 A.2d at 570.

In light of the...