Multiple Injury Trust Fund v. Garrett
| Decision Date | 27 June 2017 |
| Docket Number | No. 112,961,112,961 |
| Citation | 408 P.3d 169 |
| Parties | MULTIPLE INJURY TRUST FUND, Appellant, v. Tommy GARRETT, Appellee. |
| Court | Oklahoma Supreme Court |
Brandy L. Shores, LATHAM WAGNER STEELE LEHMAN P.C., Tulsa, Oklahoma, for Appellant.
Sidney A. Musser, Jr., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for Appellee.
¶ 1 The dispositive issue presented on review is whether the claimant met the statutory definition of a "physically impaired person" at the time of the claimant's second on-the-job injury for purposes of determining eligibility for Multiple Injury Trust Fund (Fund) benefits. Subsumed in this determination is whether a duly-executed settlement agreement—memorialized on a form prescribed by the Workers' Compensation Court (WCC)—constitutes an adjudication of the claimant's disabilities. This Court answers both questions in the affirmative.
¶ 2 On April 29, 1991, Tommy Garrett (Claimant) sustained a compensable on-the-job injury while working for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT). Claimant stated that he was driving a road grader when a semi-truck, traveling approximately sixty-miles-per-hour, ran off the road and struck the left side of the grader.
¶ 3 Claimant was diagnosed with L5–S1 bilateral disc herniation with irritation of the S1 nerve root. Claimant was treated but ultimately required surgery to his back. The operative report described the surgery as a "[b]ilateral decompressive laminectomy and bilateral right and left sided laminectomy with discectomy L5–S1 interspace with bilateral decompression S1 nerve roots."1
¶ 4 Claimant subsequently filed a claim against ODOT in the WCC.2 On August 13, 1992,3 Claimant, ODOT and ODOT's insurance carrier settled Claimant's claim and memorialized that settlement in a WCC-prescribed form titled: Joint Petition. The Joint Petition disclosed injury to Claimant's "NECK, BACK AND ARM AND ALL OTHER INJURIES BOTH KNOWN AND UNKNOWN." As a result of Claimant's injuries, "claimant was temporarily totally disabled from 4/29/91 to 7/7/92 ... for which claimant received $15,293.00, from the respondent or insurance carrier." The Joint Petition further stated that, "[c]laimant further alleges that in addition to said temporary total disability, claimant has sustained certain permanent disabilities which are compensable under the Workers' Compensation Act of the State of Oklahoma, which last allegation is by respondent or insurance carrier expressly denied." The Joint Petition also indicated Claimant's acceptance of a $100.00 settlement payment as "compensation for temporary disability, permanent disability, permanent disfigurement , ... and vocational rehabilitation or loss of wage earning capacity which claimant now has or may hereafter have as a result of said injury" against "respondent and insurance carrier ." (emphasis provided). That same day, the WCC, after reviewing the evidence, the stipulation of the parties, the files and record, approved the Joint Petition. Neither party appealed.
¶ 5 Over fifteen years later, on March 22, 2007, Claimant suffered another compensable on-the-job injury while working for Rodger Jeffcoats, Inc. (Employer). Claimant filed a claim against Employer in the WCC on May 15, 2008. As a result of this injury, the tribunal ordered Employer or its insurance carrier to pay Claimant fifty-two weeks of temporary total disability (TTD).4 Claimant, Employer and Employer's insurance carrier entered into a Compromise Settlement on May 24, 2012, another WCC-prescribed form.5 That agreement awarded Claimant $125,000 for the permanent partial disability (PPD) and impairment ratings to the following body parts: 40% right knee, 40% left knee and 42% back. The WCC approved the parties' settlement that same day. Neither party appealed.
¶ 6 On October 31, 2012, Claimant filed a Form 3F seeking benefits from the Fund.6 This form recited Claimant's impairment ratings from the latest on-the-job injury as 40% right leg, 40% left leg and 42% back.7 Claimant also referenced the 1991 on-the-job injuries to his neck, back and arm.8 The Fund denied liability and jurisdiction alleging that Claimant was not a "previously impaired person" as defined by Okla. Stat. tit. 85, § 171 (Supp. II 2005).9 Specifically, Fund alleged that there was no disability or percentage therefrom adjudged and determined prior to Claimant's latest on-the-job injury.
The IME also opined that Claimant's injuries were synergistic and assessed a "material increase of 10% over and above the numerical sum of these injuries, giving him a total of 116.5% impairment to the body as a whole." Combining those findings with Claimant's age, education and work experience, the IME found Claimant to be permanently totally disabled and "unable to return to the workforce."12
¶ 8 The tribunal found Claimant to be a "previously physically impaired person" at the time of Claimant's latest, compensable on-the-job injury and ordered Fund to pay Claimant $289.00 per week for fifteen years.13 Fund appealed to the en banc panel of the tribunal. Upon reexamination, the panel found the tribunal's order contrary to law and against the clear weight of the evidence.14 Based on its findings, the panel remanded the matter "for a redetermination of whether Claimant was a previously impaired person and the amount of disability and then for determination of whether claimant is permanently, totally disabled due to a combination of injuries."15
¶ 9 On remand, the tribunal again determined that both of Claimant's compensable on-the-job injuries resulted in permanent impairments. The tribunal adjudged Claimant permanently totally disabled as a result of those injuries and the "material increase resulting therefrom."16 Although the tribunal stated that it "no longer [was] allowed to award [a] specific percent of disability," the tribunal applied Okla. Stat. tit. 85, § 329(J) and held that the IME opinion "shall be followed unless there is clear and convincing evidence to the contrary." It found none. Fund appealed.
¶ 10 The Court of Civil Appeals reversed. Relying on Ball v. Multiple Injury Trust Fund, 2015 OK 64, 360 P.3d 499, COCA held that the tribunal's "finding of preexisting permanent disability where there was no such prior finding ... is in essence a Crumby 17 finding."18 As such, Claimant failed to establish that he was a physically impaired person. Claimant appealed. This Court granted certiorari review.
¶ 11 On certiorari, Claimant urges that COCA's vacation of the tribunal's order awarding Claimant permanent total disability (PTD) benefits against Fund was error. Relying on the rationale in Multiple Injury Trust Fund v. Sugg, 2015 OK 78, 362 P.3d 222, Claimant urges that the 1992 Joint Petition constitutes an adjudication of Claimant's disabilities and renders Claimant a "physically impaired person" as contemplated by section 171 at the time of Claimant's 2007 on-the-job injuries. Fund, on the other hand, disagrees and avers that Ball is controlling.
¶ 12 At the outset, this Court distinguishes Ball v. Multiple Injury Trust Fund, 2015 OK 64, 360 P.3d 499 from the issues and facts presented here. In Ball, this Court held that assigning a Crumby finding of preexisting disability to an unrelated injury in the absence of a prior adjudication , simultaneously with an adjudication of a subsequent, compensable on-the-job injury to render a worker a "physically impaired person" was prohibited. (emphasis added). The crucial element missing in Ball was that the worker lacked a prior adjudicated injury. Ball, 2015 OK 64 ¶¶ 1, 13, 360 P.3d at 504–05. For reasons discussed in Part III, infra, this Court finds Ball inapplicable.
¶ 13 The overarching issue pressed on appeal is whether Claimant constituted a "physically impaired person" at the time of Claimant's subsequent work-related injury on March 22, 2007. Resolution of this issue hinges upon whether the 1992 Joint Petition constituted a prior adjudication of Claimant's disabilities as contemplated by section 171. Okla. Stat. tit. 85, § 171 (Supp. II 2005). Whether a worker was correctly adjudged a "physically impaired person" within the meaning of the Act is a jurisdictional question of law this Court reviews de novo. Special Indem. Fund v. Choate, 1993 OK 15 ¶ 12, 847 P.2d 796, 801.
¶ 14 This Court first determines that the 1992 Joint Petition is an adjudication of Claimant's injuries and resulting disabilities. The WCC is a creature of statute. Strong v. Laubach, 2004 OK 21, ¶ 10, 89 P.3d 1066, 1070. This statutory creation not only provided a scheme for compensation of injured workers' claims, but also a means for settling disputes, absent a full adversary hearing. See Okla. Stat. tit. 85, §§ 1 – 203(1981 & Supp. II 1990); See also In re Hyde, 2011 OK 31 ¶ 10, 255 P.3d 411, 414. The statutes and rules governing the parties' 1992 Joint Petition, here, are those in effect at the time of Claimant's first injury. Bertrand v. Laura Dester Ctr., 2013 OK 18 ¶ 14, 300 P.3d 1188, 1192. Claimant's first compensable injury was April 29, 1991. Accordingly, the 1981 version and 1990 supplement of Title 85, controls.
¶ 15 Rule 11 provides in pertinent part:
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