Meyer v. Ibp, Inc.

• Decision Date: 17 February 2006
• Docket Number: No. 04-1911.,04-1911.
• Citation: 710 N.W.2d 213
• Parties: Jerry MEYER, Appellee, v. IBP, INC., Appellant.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

710 N.W.2d 213

Jerry MEYER, Appellee, v. IBP, INC., Appellant.

No. 04-1911.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

February 17, 2006.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

James Drury II, Dakota Dunes, South Dakota, for appellant.

Robert Rush of Rush & Nicholson, P.L.C., Cedar Rapids, for appellee.

CADY, Justice.

In this appeal from a decision by the workers' compensation commissioner denying benefits to the claimant, the parties dispute whether the injury arose out of and in the course of employment. The district court reversed the commissioner's decision, and the court of appeals reversed the district court. We vacate the decision of the court of appeals, reverse the district court judgment, and remand to the commissioner for further proceedings.

I. Background Facts and Proceedings

Jerry Meyer obtained employment at an IBP plant in Waterloo through a staffing agency called Advance Services, Inc. (ASI). ASI placed Meyer at IBP on October 10, 2000. Meyer was assigned a job that required him to cut the tongues from hog heads delivered on a conveyor belt and to place the tongues on another conveyor belt. This job is known as "popping tongues." Meyer remained an employee of ASI until he completed a sixty-day probationary period.

Meyer first experienced pain in his hand at work during this probationary period, when he was still employed by ASI. He experienced swelling in his fingers and soreness in his wrist. He notified IBP, visited the health department at IBP, and was told it was "break-in pain." Meyer continued working with no restrictions or other actions taken. His employment with ASI concluded on Friday, December 15, 2000.

On Monday, December 18, 2000, IBP hired Meyer as a regular employee to perform the same job he performed during his probationary period. Meyer worked a full shift on December 18, was off work on December 19 and 20, and worked a full shift on December 21. On December 22, while cutting tongues, he felt a popping or snapping sensation and "a shot of pain go right straight up [his] middle finger." His left hand then went numb. Meyer stopped working and went to the health department at IBP. The IBP nurse applied ice to Meyer's hand and kept him in the health center for the remaining forty-five minutes of his shift. Meyer returned to work December 26 and continued to experience swelling in his hand and arm. He notified the health department and was told to go to the hospital.

James Haag, a physician's assistant at the hospital, noted a flexor strain in Meyer's left middle finger and a median nerve injury in his left wrist. Haag restricted Meyer from use of his left hand, fitted him with a brace, and prescribed physical therapy and pain medication. Meyer returned to work, and IBP placed him on light-duty work to accommodate his restriction. Meyer's pain persisted, and he returned to Haag two days later on December 28. Haag adjusted Meyer's medication but did not modify his restriction. On January 25, 2001, Meyer underwent an electromyogram (EMG) test by Dr. Brian Sires. The test revealed a diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome of the left wrist and left ulnar neuropathy at the elbow. Haag referred Meyer to Dr. Thomas Gorsche, an orthopedic surgeon. Dr. Gorsche suggested cubital-tunnel-release and nerve-transposition surgery as a treatment option for Meyer, but Meyer wanted to take some time to consider the surgery.

Meanwhile, Meyer quit his job at IBP in March 2001. In addition, on April 13, a workers' compensation examiner for IBP wrote a letter to Dr. Gorsche. In the letter, the examiner asked Dr. Gorsche for his opinion on whether Meyer's condition could be attributed to "2 days of work activities for IBP." Dr. Gorsche responded in the negative.

Meyer was then referred to Dr. Gary Knudson, another orthopedic surgeon. Dr. Knudson also diagnosed Meyer with ulnar neuropathy of the left elbow and probable carpal tunnel syndrome of the left wrist. Dr. Knudson opined:

I believe he is suffering from an overuse injury to his left upper extremity precipitated by his work at IBP this past fall and early winter. . . .

Certainly he was only on the job a few months before beginning significant symptomatology, but he may have had a predisposition to develop this symptomatology which became manifested after significant repetitive use of his arms at IBP.

Dr. Knudson agreed with Dr. Gorsche that surgery was appropriate.

Following the surgery, Meyer was off work until September 4, 2001. On September 10, 2001, Dr. Knudson performed endoscopic-carpal-tunnel-release surgery on Meyer. Dr. Knudson released Meyer to regular duty on October 15, 2001.

IBP's workers' compensation claims examiner wrote Dr. Knudson a letter on January 14, 2002, asking for his opinion as to whether Meyer's condition was "causally related to 2 days of work activities for IBP." Dr. Knudson replied in the negative.

On May 6, 2002, Meyer saw Dr. Farid Manshadi, a physiatrist, for an independent medical examination, at the request of his attorney. Dr. Manshadi opined that Meyer suffered "cumulative work injury that arose out of and during the course of his work at IBP which resulted in left ulnar nerve neuropathy at the cubital tunnel as well as left carpal tunnel syndrome." Further, Dr. Manshadi opined that Meyer suffered "a permanent partial impairment of his left upper extremity as a result of the cumulative work injury" of ten percent, which translated to a six-percent whole-body impairment.

Meyer sought workers' compensation benefits from IBP under Iowa Code chapter 85 (2001), and penalty benefits under section 86.13, by filing a petition for arbitration in June 2001. A hearing was eventually held. In the written decision, the deputy commissioner described the five issues presented for resolution. The first was "whether claimant received an injury that arose out of [and] in the course of his employment with IBP, Inc."

In resolving this issue, the deputy commissioner relied exclusively on the uncontradicted medical testimony "that the two days claimant performed work as an IBP employee prior to December 22, 2000 would not, of itself, have produced his left upper extremity hand and elbow conditions." The deputy commissioner also found there was no medical testimony showing that "claimant's work incident of December 22, 2000 could, of itself, have either caused or materially aggravated claimant's carpal and cubital tunnel syndromes." Based solely on this evidence, the deputy commissioner concluded Meyer failed to establish "an injury on December 22, 2000, that arose out of and in the course of his employment with IBP, Inc." Therefore, the deputy decided the other issues in the claim did not need to be addressed. The commissioner affirmed and adopted the deputy commissioner's decision.

Meyer sought judicial review. He claimed all the evidence in the record supported a finding that his injury manifested itself on December 22, 2002 and arose out of and in the course of employment, and the commissioner erred by relying on the medical testimony that utilized an improper causation standard.

The district court reversed the decision of the commissioner. It found the conclusion reached by the commissioner that Meyer failed to establish "a compensable injury on December 22, 2000" was not supported by substantial evidence. Instead, the district court determined substantial evidence supported a conclusion that Meyer established an injury that occurred on December 22, 2000, and that it arose out of and in the course of his employment with IBP. The court was persuaded that the circumstances on December 22, 2000, and those that both preceded and followed the event, could only mean the injury occurred on December 22, 2000.

IBP filed a notice of appeal and raised a single issue—whether the district court erred in reversing the commissioner's decision "that Meyer failed to establish that he sustained an injury that arose out of and in the course of his employment" with IBP, Inc. IBP claimed substantial evidence supported the commissioner's ruling. In the section of its appellate brief addressing the scope of appellate review, IBP stated:

The issue in this appeal has been properly preserved for review as the issue of whether this injury arose out of and in the course of Meyer's employment with IBP, [I]nc. has been the central issue both in the Workers' Compensation Commissioner's decision and the Ruling on Judicial Review.

We transferred the case to the court of appeals. It determined substantial evidence supported the decision of the commissioner. It found the medical testimony presented at the hearing constituted substantial evidence to support the agency's conclusion that Meyer's injury was not causally related to his two days of employment with IBP. In addition, the court of appeals stated that Meyer had "pointed to no evidence, medical or otherwise," that the incident on December 22, 2000 was a manifestation of Meyer's injury.

Meyer sought further review, claiming the court of appeals "ignored established Supreme Court standards as to when a cumulative injury `manifests.'" IBP responded that any reliance by Meyer on the cumulative-injury rule was misplaced in this case because the issue on appeal was whether substantial evidence supported the agency's decision that Meyer's injury did not arise out of and in the course of employment. IBP further argued that even assuming the cumulative-injury rule was applicable, the rule would support a finding that the injury manifested itself prior to the time Meyer commenced his employment with IBP. We granted further review.

II. Standards of Review

The Iowa Administrative Procedure Act, Iowa Code chapter 17A, governs the scope of our review in workers' compensation cases. Iowa Code § 86.26. Under the Act, we may only interfere with the commissioner's decision if it is erroneous under one of the grounds enumerated in the statute, and a party's substantial rights have been prejudiced. Id. § 17A.19(10).

The issue...