Valadzic v. Briggs & Stratton Corp.

• Decision Date: 04 December 1979
• Docket Number: No. 77-072,77-072
• Citation: 92 Wis.2d 583,286 N.W.2d 540
• Parties: Rodojka VALADZIC, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. BRIGGS & STRATTON CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellant, Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations, Defendant-Respondent.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

Page 540

286 N.W.2d 540

92 Wis.2d 583

Rodojka VALADZIC, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. BRIGGS & STRATTON CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellant,

Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations,

Defendant-Respondent.

No. 77-072.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Submitted on Briefs Sept. 12, 1979.

Decided Dec. 4, 1979.

Peter W. Bunde, D. Thomas Armstrong, Jr., and Quarles & Brady, Milwaukee, on briefs, for defendant-appellant.

Bronson C. La Follette, Atty. Gen., and Beatrice Lampert, Asst. Atty. Gen., on brief, for Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations.

Eisenberg & Kletzke, Milwaukee, on brief, for Rodojka Valadzic.

ABRAHAMSON, Justice.

The circuit court reversed an order of the Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations (Department) granting worker's compensation to Rodojka Valadzic, an employee, for temporary total disability and denying compensation for permanent disability. The circuit court remanded the case to the Department for the taking of additional evidence as to the healing period for a conversion reaction (a mental injury). Briggs & Stratton Corporation, the employer, appealed to this court, and we reverse the order of the circuit court.

Mrs. Valadzic was employed by Briggs & Stratton Corporation to affix labels on small engines which moved past her on a conveyor system. It is undisputed that on August 14, 1973, she was injured while she was at work when some large pieces of cardboard fell on her head, neck, and shoulders. She was hospitalized from August 14, 1973 through August 22, 1973 at St. Joseph's Hospital in Milwaukee. After her release from the hospital she did not return to work until January 15, 1974. She worked from January 15, 1974, until April 2, 1974, when she was admitted to Nicolet Hospital, Milwaukee, where she remained until April 24, 1974. Her complaints were of pain in her head, neck, right shoulder and arm, and dizzy spells. Acting on the advice of Dr. Verdone, her treating physician at Nicolet Hospital, she went to the Mayo Clinic in December, 1974, January, 1975 and May, 1975, for further evaluation and treatment.

A hearing was held on September 2 and October 20, 1975. The hearing examiner made the following findings of fact:

". . . that on August 14, 1973 the applicant (Mrs. Valadzic) sustained an injury caused by an accident arising out of the applicant's employment by the respondent; that at the time of the injury the applicant was performing services incidental to her employment by the respondent; that as a result of the injury of August 14, 1973 the applicant sustained temporary total disability from August 14, 1973 to January 15, 1974 and from April 2, 1974 to January 31, 1975 at which time the applicant was discharged from the Mayo Clinic; . . . that as a result of the injury of August 14, 1973 the applicant sustained a mild cerebral concussion and a para cervical muscular strain; that when the applicant was examined at the Mayo Clinic in January of 1975 no objective evidence of brachial plexus injury was found and there was no evidence of any neurological damage; that the applicant did sustain a conversion reaction as a result of the injury of August 14, 1973, however, that conversion reaction did not result in permanent disability; that as a result of the injury of August 14, 1973 the applicant did not sustain any permanent partial disability . . .."

The hearing examiner's findings can be summarized as follows: After the accident there was evidence that Mrs. Valadzic suffered physical injury. There was no evidence of physical injury as of January, 1975. As a result of her injury, Mrs. Valadzic sustained two periods of temporary total disability. One of these periods lasted from the date of the accident until January 14, 1974. The second period began on April 2, 1974 and lasted until January 31, 1975. Mrs. Valadzic sustained a conversion reaction which did not result in permanent disability. Mrs. Valadzic did not sustain any permanent partial disability.

The Department adopted the findings and order rendered by the hearing examiner. ¹

The first issue to which we must turn is whether the Department was required to make a specific finding as to the healing period for the conversion reaction suffered by Mrs. Valadzic.

A conversion reaction has been defined as "a mental defense mechanism whereby unconscious emotional conflict is transformed into physical disability." Gallagher v. Industrial Comm., 9 Wis.2d 361, 366, 101 N.W.2d 72, 76 (1960), Quoting from Blakiston's New Gould Medical Dictionary, pp. 280, 1012 (2d ed., 1956). See also, Stedman's Medical Dictionary Unabridged Lawyer's Ed. 362 (21st ed., 1966). ²

The circuit court, relying on Johnson v. Industrial Comm. (Johnson I), 5 Wis.2d 584, 93 N.W.2d 439 (1958), and Johnson v. Industrial Comm. (Johnson II), 14 Wis.2d 211, 109 N.W.2d 666 (1961), concluded that the Department's finding that no permanent partial disability resulted from the conversion reaction was defective, because the Department, having found that Mrs. Valadzic had suffered a conversion reaction, failed to determine specifically the healing period for that injury. Without establishing the healing period for mental injury, reasoned the circuit court, the Department could not determine that Mrs. Valadzic suffered no permanent disability.

In this case the healing period or period of recovery is the same as the duration of temporary total disability. Professor Larson states that "The current tendency is to abandon the classical terminology of temporary total (disability) and refer instead to the 'healing period' or 'the period of recovery'." The healing period (the duration of temporary disability) ends when the claimant has reached his maximum improvement from the injuries. At that time residual permanent disability, if any, must be determined. 2 Larson, The Law of Workmen's Compensation, sec. 57.10, p. 10-6, n. 6 (1976).

Applying these concepts to mental injury, this court in Johnson I, 5 Wis.2d at 593, 93 N.W.2d at 444, defined the healing period relating to mental injury as follows:

"The healing period applied to mental harm . . . would be the period prior to the time when the mental condition becomes stationary and would require a postponement of fixing permanent disability, if any, to the time it becomes apparent that the mental condition, to a medical certainty, will become no better or worse."

Accord, Swiss Colony, Inc. v. ILHR Dept., 72 Wis.2d 46, 59, 240 N.W.2d 128 (1976).

We have recognized the importance of the Department's making findings which separately deal with mental and physical injury:

"In cases involving mental injury caused by accident or disease, either directly or as a part of the 'process which the injury started,' the industrial commission should find the nature of the injury, what caused it, and its healing period. It is not sufficient in such cases to find merely an injury and leave it to the reviewing court to determine whether the injury is mental or physical, or both. What the industrial commission considers to be ultimate facts in some cases may not furnish the reviewing court with sufficient findings to determine the correctness of the industrial commission's order. This is especially true where the nature of the injury and its cause are in dispute." Johnson II, supra, 14 Wis.2d at 216, 109 N.W.2d 669.

The Johnson Cases, however, do not support the circuit court's conclusion that the Department must always explicitly make a finding of the termination of the healing period of traumatic neurosis. In Johnson I there was direct, credible and uncontroverted testimony that the worker's mental injury had not yet stabilized and could be improved or cured through psychiatric treatment. The Department's finding of a termination of the healing period arrived at solely on a physiological basis was erroneous as a matter of law and could not be sustained. Accordingly in the Johnson Cases we held that where the Department finds that a claimant has sustained both physical and mental injury and the undisputed medical testimony demonstrates that the mental injury is capable of being improved or cured through psychiatric treatment, the Department cannot determine the end of the healing period for the mental injury solely on a physiological basis. The Department must, under those circumstances, determine the end of the healing period for the mental injury separately from the end of the healing period for the physical injury.

In cases subsequent to Johnson I, this court has emphasized that the Johnson rationale is confined to cases where there is medical testimony that the mental injury may be cured or improved by psychiatric therapy. Gallagher v. Industrial Commission, 9 Wis.2d 361, 367, 101 N.W.2d 72 (1960); Mednicoff v. ILHR Dept., 54 Wis.2d 7, 21, 194 N.W.2d 670 (1972).

In the case at bar the accident had occurred in August 1973; the hearing was held in the fall of 1975. Mrs. Valadzic had been treated extensively for her condition. There was no testimony that Mrs. Valadzic's condition could be aided or cured by psychiatric therapy. There was no testimony that Mrs. Valadzic's condition had not stabilized permitting an appraisal of permanent disability.

Because there was a complete absence of testimony that her mental injury could be improved or cured by psychiatric treatment, we conclude that in the instant case the Department's failure to find specifically the end of the healing period for the mental injury does not in and of itself render the Department's findings insufficient or defective requiring reconsideration by the Department. Gallagher v. Industrial Commission, 9 Wis.2d 361, 367, 101 N.W.2d 72 (1960); Swiss Colony, Inc. v. ILHR Dept., 72 Wis.2d 46, 59, 240 N.W.2d 128 (1976).

Although the Department's findings in the case at bar might be improved upon, we conclude that they are not fatally ambiguous, and they are adequate for purposes of judicial review. The findings made by the Department...