Mickey v. City Wide Maintenance
| Decision Date | 27 July 1999 |
| Docket Number | WD56185 |
| Citation | 996 S.W.2d 144 |
| Parties | Ross D. Mickey, Appellant, v. City Wide Maintenance, Respondent. WD56185 Missouri Court of Appeals Western District 0 |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Opinion Summary: Injured employee appealed from final award of the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission, affirming the decision of the administrative law judge, holding that the employer was not required to purchase a new specially equipped van to accommodate employee's work-related injuries.
Court holds: Van modifications do qualify as "medical treatment" under Missouri's Workers' Compensation statute. Such accommodations were medically necessary and presently compensible.
Ellis C.J., and Breckenridge J., concur.
This appeal is taken from a final award made by the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission, which affirmed the decision of the Administrative Law Judge denying the worker's compensation claim of Appellant Mickey. Mickey, who is permanently and totally disabled, requested a modified van to accommodate his wheelchair.
The facts of this case are not in dispute. On September 20, 1995, Appellant Ross Mickey fell more than 75 feet from the AT&T building in Kansas City. Mickey worked as a window washer for City Wide Maintenance and was working in that capacity at the time of the accident. As a result of the fall, Mickey suffered a burst fracture of his spine, which caused complete paralysis from the waist down, leaving him confined to a wheelchair. The parties have stipulated to Mickey's permanent and total disability.
In November 1997, a hearing was held concerning Mickey's motion to modify the award seeking as medical treatment from the employer a modified van to accommodate his wheelchair. The issue of the modified van was the sole issue presented to the administrative law judge. The only witnesses at the hearing were Mickey and his medical expert, Dr. James Stuckmeyer. Mickey demonstrated and testified as to how he got into, and out of, a vehicle. Maneuvering himself in and out of the vehicle takes four rotational steps. The first step involves transferring his body from the wheelchair to the seat of the car. He must first look to see that there is no oncoming traffic, so that he can get in position and open the car door. He uses the steering wheel as leverage to pull himself inside the car and then turns to his left and pulls the seat cover out of the wheelchair, then places it behind the passenger seat. Steps two and three involve rotating his body back towards the wheelchair again and pulling off the wheels, one at a time, then rotating back to his right to place each one in the seat behind him. After taking off the first wheel, and placing it in the vehicle, he must then maneuver the wheelchair around to remove the second wheel. The fourth rotational move involves actually lifting the wheelchair off the ground and bringing it into the vehicle. Lifting the 30 pound wheelchair into the car requires him to "grab ahold of the wheelchair" and in one movement, "physically throw [his] body kind of and put it behind" him, using his back and arms at the same time.
Mickey told of the difficulty of, and problems with, maneuvering himself and the wheelchair in and out of the vehicle. Once he was on an incline when attempting this, and the door kept shutting while he was trying to get in the seat, and the wheelchair took off without him. It rolled down the street before crashing at the bottom of the hill. Mickey had to chase it down with the car. Often, he also has trouble actually pulling the wheelchair into the vehicle. Sometimes, it unfolds while he is pulling it in, and stabs him in the neck or the chest; other times, it has caught on the hand control lever and revved up the engine. Most importantly, Mickey testified regarding the pain he experiences when using his back to pull the wheelchair into the car. He stated there are
Dr. Stuckmeyer testified that Mickey continues to have back pain and that his complaints "with persistent low back pain and spasm" can be attributed, at least in part, to his picking up the wheelchair "from a mechanical disadvantage and put[ting] it into a vehicle." Dr. Stuckmeyer testified that, "Picking up a 30 some odd pound wheelchair and transferring it into the back of a vehicle is difficult," in addition to "[g]etting in and out of the doors on inclines with the door kind of slamming shut when you're trying to work it." A modified van is "not only for convenience..., but also... it's a safety factor," and "it also decreases the repetitive stress to the lower back and upper torso." Dr. Stuckmeyer also testified that Mickey is currently having back problems due to the rotational stresses of picking up the wheelchair. He said, "[p]hysically, [Mickey] is capable of doing it, it's just [that] doing it is causing him difficulty." The doctor further testified that the back problem will most likely worsen with age, and that spinal cord patients typically "tend to gain weight with time," which will cause more difficulty. He stated that Mickey's ability to load the wheelchair into the vehicle "will probably just deteriorate with time, with age, and with weight gain," causing him more pain. The doctor also testified that the repetitive stress could damage the rods and other hardware in Mickey's back, just as a hanger can be broken by bending it back and forth numerous times. The doctor recommended a modified van "to make his life easier and decrease his back pain and back spasm."
Presently, Mickey has good upper body strength. This is solely attributable to Mickey's hard work. As the employer and insurer's counsel pointed out, Mickey has "maintained excellent body weight and muscular control of the upper body" because he has been doing "physical muscular work-out exercises for his upper body" on a regular basis, since recovering from surgery. Although he now lives in Columbia, Mickey used his wheelchair as his sole means of transportation, while living in Kansas City. He currently borrows his girlfriend's car to get around in and testified that, Mickey's claim is for a van modified to accommodate a wheelchair lift.
Where there is no dispute as to the facts, review is simply: 1) whether, as a matter of law Missouri's Workers' Compensation chapter covers, as "medical treatment," alterations to a van to make it wheelchair compatible; and 2) whether such accommodations to prevent potential future problems associated with a paraplegic claimant attempting to manually maneuver a wheelchair in and out of his van were medically necessary and presently compensible. Section 287.495, RSMo Cum. Supp. 1998, sets forth the standard of review. Review is under Davis v. Research Medical Center, 903 S.W.2d 557, 571 (Mo. App. 1995), which requires a two-step process designed to ascertain whether the Industrial Commission could have reasonably made the findings and award based on the evidence before it. In the first step, the appellate court looks at the whole record, viewing the evidence and all favorable inferences in a light most favorable to the final award to determine if there was sufficient, competent and substantial evidence to support the award. Where there is competent and substantial evidence supporting the award, the second step involves viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the award, but the court "must consider all evidence in the record including that which opposes or is unfavorable to the award, take account of the overall effect of all the evidence, and determine whether the award is against the overwhelming weight of the evidence." Id. Where the award is clearly based on the application of the law, rather than a determination of the facts, the court has independent review and may correct the award when the application of law is erroneous.
The purpose of the compensation law, since its adoption by the legislature in 1925, is to make industry bear the burden of compensating employees for injuries arising out of, and in the scope and course of their employment, and is to be broadly and liberally construed and interpreted to extend benefits to the largest possible class and any doubt as to the right of compensation is to be resolved in favor of the employee. Bass v. National Super Markets, Inc., 911 S.W.2d 617, 619 (Mo. banc 1995); West v. Posten Construction Co., 804 S.W.2d 743, 746 (Mo. banc 1991); Gaston v. J.H. Ware Trucking, Inc., 849 S.W.2d 70, 75 (Mo. App. 1993). "The very object and purpose of the entire act is that substantial rights are to be enforced," Wiele v. National Super Markets, Inc., 948 S.W.2d 142, 146 (Mo. App. 1997), and the act "should be liberally construed as to effectuate its purpose and humane design." Rogers v. Pacesetter Corp., 972 S.W.2d 540, 542 (Mo. App. 1998). The following language taken from this court's opinion in Betz v. Columbia Telephone Co., 24 S.W.2d 224, 228 (Mo. App. 1930) is apropos: "Different sections of a statute bearing on the same subject must be harmonized, if possible (Citations omitted).
The issue of law presented here is...
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