Sif v. Industrial Claim Appeals Office

• Decision Date: 09 February 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05CA0278.,05CA0278.
• Citation: 131 P.3d 1224
• Parties: SUBSEQUENT INJURY FUND, Petitioner, v. INDUSTRIAL CLAIM APPEALS OFFICE OF THE STATE OF COLORADO, Carole S. Trudeau, and Donovan N. Trudeau, Respondents.
• Court: Colorado Court of Appeals

131 P.3d 1224

SUBSEQUENT INJURY FUND, Petitioner, v. INDUSTRIAL CLAIM APPEALS OFFICE OF THE STATE OF COLORADO, Carole S. Trudeau, and Donovan N. Trudeau, Respondents.

No. 05CA0278.

Colorado Court of Appeals, Division IV.

February 9, 2006.

John W. Suthers, Attorney General, Jill M.M. Gallet, First Assistant Attorney General, Denver, Colorado, for Petitioner.

No Appearance for Respondent Industrial Claim Appeals Office.

Dawes and Harriss, P.C., Robert C. Dawes, Durango, Colorado, for Respondents Carole S. and Donovan N. Trudeau.

CARPARELLI, J.

The Subsequent Injury Fund (SIF) appeals the final order of the Industrial Claim Appeals Office (Panel) awarding death benefits to Carole S. Trudeau, widow, and Donovan N. Trudeau, great-grandson (survivors), based upon the determination that Craig S. Trudeau (decedent) died as a proximate result of an occupational disease. We affirm.

At the time of his death, decedent was disabled from pulmonary fibrosis, a disease he contracted as a result of radiation exposure while working in uranium mines. He began receiving permanent total disability benefits from the SIF in May 1993.

In 2002, he became critically ill as the result of acute pulmonary edema and coronary artery disease. After receiving a coronary angiogram, he was diagnosed as having artery lesions. The next day, he died of cardiopulmonary arrest and progressive shock.

A pulmonary specialist testified that one of the lesions was probably the immediate cause of death and that coronary artery disease was the primary cause. He estimated that decedent's lung problems contributed to fifteen percent of decedent's low cardiac output and shock that developed after his coronary occlusion. He stated that decedent's severe pulmonary disease contributed to his death by weakening his heart over time and lessening his chances of surviving a myocardial infarction. He also said the pulmonary condition accelerated or aggravated the cardiac condition that resulted in decedent's death.

The ALJ found that decedent's lung disease "contributed to his death, both by weakening his heart over time and by lessening his chances of surviving the myocardial infarction." Addressing the question of proximate cause, she stated that the injury must have done more than contribute to the death. She explained that although "proximate cause" does not require that the occupational disease be the only cause of death, it does require that the injury must have been a significant cause, in that it bore a direct causal relationship to the death, and must have been a precondition or trigger of the death. She concluded that the evidence did not establish that decedent's lung condition was a precondition or trigger of his death and, thus, ruled that decedent's lung condition was not a proximate cause of his death.

The Panel concluded that the ALJ misapplied the law and that the ALJ's findings compelled the legal conclusion that the lung disease was "a significant causative factor" in and "a trigger or precondition" of decedent's death. Consequently, the Panel reversed the ALJ's order and remanded for findings regarding the amount of death benefits.

I.

The SIF first contends that the award of death benefits was improper because decedent's death was caused by the nonindustrial coronary artery disease and did not proximately result from the occupational disease. We disagree.

A.

The right to compensation under the Workers' Compensation Act, articles 40 to 47 of title 8, obtains in all cases in which, among other conditions, death "is proximately caused by an injury or occupational disease arising out of and in the course of the employee's employment and is not intentionally self-inflicted." Section 8-41-301(1)(c), C.R.S. 2005. Under § 8-42-115, C.R.S.2005, death benefits are due when "death proximately results from the injury" or occupational disease. See also §§ 8-41-301, 8-41-302, C.R.S.2005.

Our task in construing a statute is to give effect to the intent of the General Assembly by looking first at the language of the statute. We give statutory words and phrases their plain and ordinary meanings, and avoid forced, subtle, or strained constructions when the language is simple and the meaning clear. Miller v. Indus. Claim Appeals Office, 985 P.2d 94 (Colo.App.1999). We presume the General Assembly does not use language idly, but, rather, understands the legal import of words and phrases. Dep't of Transp. v. Stapleton, 97 P.3d 938, 943 (Colo. 2004).

B.

When determining the meaning of one statutory section, we may look to the legislative scheme as a whole to give effect to the General Assembly's intent. Dep't of Transp. v. Stapleton, supra. Thus, we may look to the use of the meaning of "proximate result," "results from," "proximate cause," and "caused by" elsewhere in the Workers' Compensation Act.

1.

We first reject the SIF's contention that, in accordance with the holding in Standard Metals Corp. v. Ball, 172 Colo. 510, 474 P.2d 622 (1970), to award benefits, the ALJ was required to find that decedent would not have died from the heart attack "but for" his occupational disease.

In Standard Metals, the question was whether the claimant was entitled to additional benefits after he suffered a subsequent injury that was not work related.

The claimant had suffered an earlier compensable injury, a fractured leg bone, and had corrective surgery. About fourteen months later, when not on the job, the claimant slipped on an icy sidewalk and again fractured his leg. The Industrial Commission granted a claim for additional compensation benefits. The employer contended that the claimant's fall was an independent intervening event because it occurred when the claimant was not working for his employer, but was on a personal errand.

There, the attending physician testified that the fracture did not cause the claimant to slip and fall and that conditions in the claimant's bone and musculature unrelated to the previous fracture contributed to the new fracture. However, he also testified that, notwithstanding these other factors, the previous fracture helped produce the second fracture, which occurred in the vicinity of the first fracture and the bone graft that had been done in response to it. The record also included correspondence in which the physician stated that it was unlikely that the claimant would have experienced the second fracture had he not had the earlier one.

The court ruled that this evidence was sufficient to support the Panel's findings that the claimant's leg would not have been fractured "but for" the prior fracture and that the refracture was "a result of" and "flowed from" the original injury. Standard Metals Corp. v. Ball, supra, 172 Colo. at 515, 474 P.2d at 625.

However, unlike the case now before us, the court in Standard Metals did not apply or interpret § 8-42-115, the predecessor death from injury statute, did not address death benefits, and did not discuss the meaning of "proximate." Therefore, although it is instructive, we are not persuaded that Standard Metals provides an exclusive definition of "proximately results from" as used in § 8-41-115.

2.

We also reject the SIF's reliance on Subsequent Injury Fund v. State Compensation Insurance Authority, 768 P.2d 751 (Colo. App.1988) (SCIA), aff'd, 793 P.2d 580 (Colo. 1990), for the assertion that, in the field of workers' compensation, the "proximate cause" of a disability is "the necessary precondition or trigger" of that disability. The question in SCIA was whether the claimant was entitled to benefits when employment conditions caused asbestosis that, combined with a history of heavy smoking, caused a bronchogenic cancer.

In SCIA, the SIF contested its liability under the former § 8-51-112(2) (concerning last injurious exposure rule now codified with amendments as § 8-41-304(2), C.R.S.2005). The SIF argued that the claimant's cancer had not been "caused by" asbestos exposure, but by smoking. Similar to its argument here, the SIF argued that there was no disability benefit unless the disability was caused solely by asbestos exposure.

In SCIA, a division of this court rejected the SIF's contention that asbestosis had to be the sole cause of a claimant's disability. Instead, it held that one or more of the partial disabilities that contribute to a total disability may take into account nonindustrial factors or conditions. However, it ruled that a noncompensable disabling condition may not "trigger" SIF liability under the former § 8-51-106 (now codified with amendments as § 8-46-101, C.R.S.2005). From this premise, the division concluded that there is a compensable occupational disease when employment conditions act upon a pre-existing weakness so as to disable a worker. And, upon the same premise, it further concluded that if asbestosis was the "necessary precondition or trigger" of the cancer, then the cancer was "caused by" and "proximately caused by" asbestosis within the meaning of the statute. SCIA, supra.

Thus, the essential holding in SCIA was that, although SIF liability for a disability may not be triggered solely by a noncompensable injury itself, it may be triggered by a combination of a noncompensable injury and a compensable injury to cause disability.

Therefore, we reject the contention that SCIA established a rule that, in the context of workers' compensation, a death or disability cannot "proximately result from" a compensable injury or occupational disease unless the injury or disease is a "necessary precondition" or "trigger" of the death or disability. No such test appears in § 8-42-115, or in the statute that was applied in SCIA.

Again, although the decision in SCIA is instructive, we reject the SIF's contention that the division's holding in SCIA established the meaning of "proximately results from" as used in § 8-42-115.

3.

In Johnson v. Industrial Commission, 148 Colo. 561, 366 P.2d 864 (1961)(Johnson II), decedent sustained similar compensable...