Lucero v. Yellow Freight System, Inc.
| Decision Date | 09 July 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 12388,12388 |
| Citation | 1991 NMCA 87,112 N.M. 662,818 P.2d 863 |
| Parties | Phillip M. LUCERO, Claimant-Appellee, v. YELLOW FREIGHT SYSTEM, INC., self-insured employer, Respondent-Appellant. |
| Court | Court of Appeals of New Mexico |
This workers' compensation case presents the question of when we should interrupt our customary processing of an appeal in order to remand the matter to a lower tribunal for correction of an error acknowledged by a judge of that tribunal.
Yellow Freight System, Inc. (employer) has appealed an award by the Workers' Compensation Administration (WCA) to Phillip M. Lucero (Lucero) of $6,879.12 for past medical expenses related to his back. Employer has also moved to remand this matter to the WCA for reconsideration of the award because the Workers' Compensation Judge has indicated that he entered the award in error.
The award was entered after Lucero appealed an earlier compensation order that denied him the claimed medical expenses. In an unpublished memorandum opinion that considered a number of issues, we reversed the WCA's findings that (1) Lucero had failed to give notice of a back injury and (2) there was not substantial evidence of a back condition related to an accident at work. We therefore also reversed the WCA order denying future medical benefits and instructed the WCA to enter an amended order dismissing without prejudice the claim for future medical expenses. Because Lucero did not raise the issue, the opinion did not address the WCA's denial of his request for an award of past medical expenses related to the back injury.
On appeal employer makes several arguments to the effect that the issue of Lucero's entitlement to past medical expenses for his back was abandoned in the prior appeal and that the award on remand of past medical expenses violated this court's mandate from that appeal. In addition, employer challenges the amount of the award of past medical expenses, contending that our prior reversal on the issue of causation does not require an award of the full amount of prior medical expenses related to Lucero's back.
We do not address these appellate issues because we grant employer's motion to remand to the WCA. The ground for the remand was raised initially by employer in an application for modification of compensation order filed with the WCA approximately five weeks after employer filed its timely notice of appeal. The application contended that the award of past medical benefits was entered by the WCA under mistake induced by a misrepresentation by Lucero's counsel. (We need not consider employer's second ground stated in the application--that the award was contrary to the mandate of this court on the first appeal.) After a hearing on the application, the WCA entered an order stating that it was "inclined * * * to correct the error in its Judgment, awarding past medical expenses, which error was induced by misstatement of [Lucero's] counsel"; but it deferred action pending remand by this court. See Riesenecker v. Arkansas Best Freight Sys., 110 N.M. 451, 796 P.2d 1147 (Ct.App.1990) (). Our grant of employer's motion now provides the WCA with jurisdiction to reconsider its ruling. Before discussing the pertinent law and its application to the facts of record here, we emphasize that nothing in this opinion should be taken as implying that any alleged misstatement by Lucero's counsel was intentional.
Employer filed its application pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 52-5-9 (Cum.Supp.1990), which reads:
Application for modification of compensation order.
A. Compensation orders are reviewable subject to the conditions stated in this section upon application of any party in interest in accordance with the procedures relating to hearings. The workers' compensation judge, after a hearing, may issue a compensation order to terminate, continue, reinstate, increase, decrease or otherwise properly affect compensation benefits provided by the Workers' Compensation Act [Chapter 52, Article 1 NMSA 1978] or the New Mexico Occupational Disease Disablement Law or in any other respect, consistent with those acts, modify any previous decision, award or action.
B. A review may be obtained upon application of a party in interest filed with the director at any time within two years after the date of the last payment or the denial of benefits upon the following grounds:
(1) change in condition;
(2) mistake, inadvertence, surprise or excusable neglect;
(3) clerical error or mistake in mathematical calculations;
(4) newly discovered evidence which by due diligence could not have been discovered prior to the issuance of the compensation order;
(5) fraud, misrepresentation or other misconduct of an adverse party;
(6) the compensation order is void; or
(7) the compensation order has been satisfied, released or discharged or a prior order upon which it is based has been reversed or otherwise vacated, or it is no longer equitable that the order should have prospective application.
Paragraph B is obviously modeled on our rule of civil procedure, SCRA 1986, 1-060(B).1
Initially, we must determine whether Section 52-5-9 applies to this case. The effective date of Section 52-5-9 is December 1, 1986. Lucero's cause of action arose in October 1986. In Jojola v. Aetna Life & Casualty, 109 N.M. 142, 144, 782 P.2d 395, 397 (Ct.App.1989), we wrote: "[I]n the absence of express statutory language or compelling reasons to the contrary, any new provisions of the Workers' Compensation Act shall apply only to causes of action accruing [on or] after the effective date of the provision." Because no express statutory language provides that Section 52-5-9 applies to causes of action arising before December 1, 1986, that section does not apply to this case unless there are compelling reasons for it to do so. Such compelling reasons exist.
Section 52-5-9 is part of the 1986 revisions to our Workers' Compensation Act, which transferred jurisdiction over disputes under the act from the district courts to the WCA. Section 101 of 1986 New Mexico Laws, Chapter 22, provides that all claims filed after December 1, 1986, shall be filed with the WCA. Prior to that time all claims were to be filed in district court. See Wylie Corp. v. Mowrer, 104 N.M. 751, 726 P.2d 1381 (1986). Undoubtedly, Section 52-5-9 was intended to govern all proceedings before the WCA. It would make no sense for the implementing statutes setting forth the procedures of the WCA not to apply to every case heard by the WCA from the WCA's inception. Otherwise there would be a gap in the law. Cf. id. (district courts granted jurisdiction to hear workers' compensation cases filed between May 21 and December 1, 1986, even though statute granting jurisdiction to district courts was repealed effective May 21, 1986). Claimant filed his claim with the WCA on June 25, 1987. Therefore, we hold that Section 52-5-9 applies to this case. Cf. St. Clair v. County of Grant, 110 N.M. 543, 797 P.2d 993 (Ct.App.1990) ().
We first review the events leading to the order granting employer's Section 52-5-9 motion. We then discuss the applicable law.
On February 8, 1990, the WCA conducted a hearing regarding the new compensation order to be entered in compliance with this court's mandate arising from the first appeal. The hearing dealt with a variety of issues. One issue was Lucero's request for past medical expenses related to his back. He claimed that they should all be paid by employer. Employer contended that (1) past-due medical bills were not a proper subject for rehearing on the mandate and (2) even though the opinion of this court required the WCA to find that Lucero had "a back condition related to an accident at work," there would still need to be fact-finding regarding whether the prior medical bills originated from Lucero's accidental injury or arose out of an ongoing degenerative process for which employer was not liable. In response to the arguments of counsel, the workers' compensation judge stated:
What's happened to this man here is that there was a little trauma, the trauma flared up, he got medical treatment for it. But what's happening to him as far as his lifetime's needs to pay for this thing is something that had nothing to do with the injury.
* * * * * *
[W]hen I entered that finding that the court of appeals reversed, that he's not entitled to future medical care, what it is I'm saying is that here he's receiving at least at the time the trial took place for his back, does not relate for the trauma that took place to his back when he was on the job. I was making that kind of finding. But they said I can't make that kind of finding. I should have made a finding that the care he's getting now is not a medical necessary expense for the injury he had then. And then that would--that would not be payable.
Because the parties were unable to agree on a form of order, a second hearing was conducted on April 16, 1990. At that hearing Lucero's attorney summarized what had been decided at the hearing two months earlier. He stated that the judge had said that the amended order should "reflect that [the employer was] to pay the past medical expenses as accepted into evidence at the time of the formal hearing." Counsel for employer argued that employer should not pay those expenses, but he did not contend that Lucero's counsel had misrepresented what had happened at the prior hearing. The amended judgment filed on April 16 required employer to pay past medical expenses of $6,879.12.
Employer filed its notice of appeal on May 16, 1990. On June 22 it filed with the WCA an application for modification of...
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