Jones v. Thermo King, C8-90-1365

• Citation: 461 N.W.2d 915
• Decision Date: 02 November 1990
• Docket Number: No. C8-90-1365,C8-90-1365
• Parties: Charles A. JONES, Relator, v. THERMO KING and Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, Respondents, and The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, intervenor, Respondent.
• Court: Supreme Court of Minnesota (US)

Page 915

461 N.W.2d 915

Charles A. JONES, Relator, v. THERMO KING and Liberty Mutual Insurance Company,

Respondents,

and

The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States,

intervenor, Respondent.

No. C8-90-1365.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Nov. 2, 1990.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 7, 1990.

Syllabus by the Court

The evidence sustains the compensation judge's findings that the statute of limitations had run on plaintiff's claim for a Gillette -type injury consisting of bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome.

Daniel B. O'Leary, Mansur, O'Leary & Gabriel, P.A., St. Paul, for relator.

Edward A. Kutcher, Jr., Law Offices of Daniel J. Buivid, Mpls., for Thermo King and Liberty Mut. Ins. Co.

Michael H. Streater, Briggs and Morgan, P.A., St. Paul, for Equitable Life Assur. Soc. of the U.S.

Considered and decided by the court en banc without oral argument.

OPINION

SIMONETT, Justice.

The Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals panel, by a 2-to-1 vote, affirmed the determination of the compensation judge that the employee's claim for Gillette -

type ¹ injuries was barred by the statute of limitations. We affirm.

For some years employee Charles A. Jones operated an electric spray gun in the paint department of his employer, Thermo King. In 1982 he was experiencing pain and numbness in both hands and wrists. The company nurse referred him to Dr. Chris P. Tountas, who, on February 15, 1983, diagnosed a bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome. The next day, the employee notified Thermo King of his injury. On February 25, 1983, a First Report of Injury was filed with the Workers' Compensation Division of the Department of Labor and Industry. On or about March 1, the employee was sent a brochure explaining his rights under the compensation act. In March and April 1983, carpal tunnel release surgery was performed on both hands; Dr. Tountas felt there would be no residual impairment; and the employee returned to work in June 1983.

In his written reports in March and May 1983, Dr. Tountas noted that carpal tunnel syndrome usually involves work requiring repetitive bending of the wrist; so here, while spray painting at work could account for the syndrome in the right hand, as the employee was a right-handed painter, this would not explain the syndrome in the left hand. The doctor concluded: "It is difficult to attribute the cause of his carpal tunnel syndrome to the painting if it is done usually and primarily with the right hand." (Emphasis added.) The employer and insurer denied workers' compensation liability. Instead, the employee received medical and disability benefits under the employer's group health insurance.

The employee promptly retained a lawyer to pursue a workers' compensation claim. Nothing happened for over 2 1/2 years.

Finally, on February 18, 1986, the employee's attorney wrote Dr. Tountas asking for another report and advising in his letter that although Mr. Jones was right-handed, he would "often switch" the spray gun to his left hand while painting. Following this letter, Dr. Tountas reexamined the employee and, on the basis of another EMG which proved abnormal, concluded that the employee had a 10 percent permanent partial disability of each hand. By a second letter to the attorney dated June 9, 1986, the doctor said he was now of the opinion that the carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands was job-related.

On May 22, 1986, the employee filed a claim petition. The compensation judge found that the employee had sustained Gillette -type injuries to both hands and wrists; that the disabling nature and compensable character of the employee's injuries were apparent at the time of the First Report of Injury filed on February 25, 1983; and that, therefore, the claim was barred under the personal injury clause of the statute of limitations. Under Minn.Stat. Sec. 176.151(1) (1988), a claim for benefits for personal injury must be brought within "three years after the employer has made written report of the injury to the commissioner of the department of labor and industry * * *." Here the claim petition was not filed until some 3 months after the 3-year statute of limitations had expired.

On appeal to the Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals, the employee apparently took a new tack. He contended that before the compensation judge his injuries had been "inappropriately referred" to as a Gillette -type personal injury; that they should have been deemed an occupational disease; and that the claim petition had been timely filed within 3 years of acquiring knowledge of the cause of his injuries, as required by the occupational disease clause of the statute of limitations. See Minn.Stat. Sec. 176.151(4) (1988) (an action for an occupational disease must be filed "within three years after the employee has knowledge of the cause of such injury and the injury has resulted in disability."). The WCCA concluded the employee could not recharacterize his injury as an occupational disease for purposes of the statute of limitations, and affirmed the compensation judge. By certiorari, the employee now comes to us.

Broadly stated, the issue is whether the employee's claim for a Gillette -type bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome is time-barred.

It would appear, at least for the purpose of the statute of limitations, that a Gillette -type bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome is a personal injury. We find it difficult to characterize a condition resulting from "repetitive minute trauma," Gillette, 257 Minn. at 321-22, 101 N.W.2d at 205-06, as a disease. Cf. Barcel v. Barrel Finish, 304 Minn. 536, 232 N.W.2d 13 (1975). It is enough for our purposes here, however, to observe that for both personal injury and occupational disease, the statute of limitations begins to run when the employee has sufficient information of the nature of the injury or disease, its seriousness, and probable compensability. Issacson v. Minnetonka, Inc., 411 N.W.2d 865, 867 (Minn.1987); Bloese v. Twin City Etching, Inc., 316 N.W.2d 568, 571 (Minn.1982); 2B A. Larson, The Law of Workman's Compensation Sec. 78.41(a) (1989). See also Pease v. Minnesota Steel Co., 196 Minn. 552, 556, 265 N.W. 427, 429 (1936).

The limitation period does not begin to run from the time there exists a medical opinion on causation, but rather from the time the employee has sufficient notice from any source to put the employee on notice. Issacson, 411 N.W.2d at 867; Bloese, 316 N.W.2d at 571. Larson, however, states if an employee has consulted with a doctor and has been told his injury is not job-related, "he should not be expected or encouraged to overrule his medical advisors and file a claim anyway." 2B Larson, supra Sec. 78.4(f) at 15-259 through 15-261 (footnotes omitted).

In this case the compensation judge found that "the disabling nature of the employee's injuries and his right to compensation were apparent at the time the First Report was filed." There is ample evidence to sustain this finding.

In the First Report of Injury, the employee's injuries are reported as a bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome; the nature of the injuries is stated as "irritations" and the object involved in the injury is said to be a "sprayer." At that time, the employee was given a brochure outlining his...