Lucero v. Climax Molybdenum Co., 84CA0839

• Decision Date: 29 August 1985
• Docket Number: No. 84CA0839,84CA0839
• Citation: 710 P.2d 1191
• Parties: Antonio LUCERO, Petitioner, v. CLIMAX MOLYBDENUM COMPANY; Industrial Commission of the State of Colorado; State Compensation Insurance Fund of Colorado; and Director, Division of Labor, State of Colorado, Respondents. . I
• Court: Colorado Court of Appeals

Page 1191

710 P.2d 1191

Antonio LUCERO, Petitioner, v. CLIMAX MOLYBDENUM COMPANY; Industrial Commission of the State of Colorado; State Compensation Insurance Fund of Colorado; and Director Division of Labor, State of Colorado, Respondents.

No. 84CA0839.

Colorado Court of Appeals,

Div. I.

Aug. 29, 1985.

Rehearing Denied Oct. 3, 1985.

Certiorari Granted Dec. 16, 1985.

Richard T. Goold, Denver, for petitioner.

Pamela Musgrave, Denver, for respondents State Compensation Ins. Fund and Climax Molybdenum Co.

Duane Woodard, Atty. Gen., Charles B. Howe, Chief Deputy Atty. Gen., Richard H. Forman, Sol. Gen., Kathryn J. Aragon, Asst. Atty. Gen., Denver, for respondents Indus. Com'n. of Colo. and Director, Div. of Labor.

ENOCH, Chief Judge.

Claimant, Antonio Lucero, seeks review of a final order of the Industrial Commission denying his petition to reopen. We affirm.

Claimant suffered a compensable injury while employed by Climax Molybdenum Company (employer) in 1979. Employer filed an admission of liability for permanent partial disability in 1981. Claimant continued working for employer as a light duty worker in its engineering department and later as a janitor, for which he was paid at the same salary rate, although he actually received less pay because of a different work schedule.

In September 1982 employer laid off claimant and many other workers when it shut down its mining operation for economic reasons. Five months later claimant filed a petition to reopen under § 8-53-119, C.R.S. (now codified as § 8-53-113 C.R.S. (1984 Cum.Supp.) ), alleging a change in "employment condition and earning capacity." No medical reports or evidence were presented indicating a change in claimant's physical condition.

The hearing officer granted claimant's petition to reopen. He found that the language of § 8-53-119, C.R.S., providing for the reopening of a claim upon a "change in condition" permitted such reopening because of a change in employer's economic circumstances. The hearing officer ordered that claimant be provided with vocational rehabilitation and that claimant's temporary total disability benefits be reinstated.

The Industrial Commission reversed the hearing officer's decision and denied claimant's petition to reopen. The Commission found that the statutes and regulation governing petitions to reopen required "a change in the physical (or mental) disability condition of a claimant, as a proximate result or effect of the compensable injury ...."

Claimant contends that the Industrial Commission misconstrued § 8-53-119, C.R.S., by reading into it a requirement that "change in condition" means physical change of claimant. We disagree.

The issue presented is one of first impression in Colorado. Specifically stated, the question is whether the statutory phrase "change in condition" should be limited in its application to a change in claimant's physical or mental condition resulting from the compensable injury, or whether the phrase should be interpreted more broadly to include also a change in economic conditions which affects the claimant's income.

Section 8-53-119 does not define "change in condition." However, § 8-51-108, C.R.S., requires that, upon application to reopen, the director shall require the injured employee to have a physical examination and...