Walter v. Evans Products Co., 83-98

• Decision Date: 23 November 1983
• Docket Number: No. 83-98,83-98
• Parties: Valentine WALTER, Claimant and Respondent, v. EVANS PRODUCTS COMPANY, Employer, and Evans Products Company, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: Montana Supreme Court

Page 613

672 P.2d 613

207 Mont. 26

Valentine WALTER, Claimant and Respondent, v. EVANS PRODUCTS COMPANY, Employer, and Evans Products Company, Defendant and Appellant.

No. 83-98.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Submitted on Briefs Aug. 25, 1983.

Decided Nov. 23, 1983.

Andrew J. Utick, Helena, for defendant and appellant.

John Dostal; Patterson, Marsillo, Tornabene & Schulyler, Missoula, for claimant and respondent.

SHEEHY, Justice.

The Workers' Compensation Court on December 22, 1982, awarded to Valentine Walter on his Workers' Compensation claim temporary disability benefits from May 20, 1980, until he reaches maximum healing, medical benefits for his injuries, and ordered a lump sum to be paid to the claimant for his temporary total disability benefits from May 20, 1980 to the date of the judgment in the Workers' Compensation Court. Walter was also awarded reasonable costs and attorneys fees. No penalty was applied by the Workers' Compensation Court. Evans Products Company has appealed from the judgment and decision of the Workers' Compensation Court.

We affirm the decision of the Workers' Compensation Court.

On or prior to August 1, 1977, Valentine Walter was employed by Evans Products Company at its plant in Missoula. It is uncontested that on August 1, 1977, in the course and scope of his employment, Walter injured his right knee. Medical benefits were paid by Evans Products Company as a result of that injury. Walter filed a claim for compensation benefits on June 6, 1980, and such claim was denied.

The Workers' Compensation Court found that the claimant did not lose any wages because of his work-related injury on August 1, 1977 and so did not file his claim for disability benefits. When he did file his claim on June 6, 1980, he did so at the suggestion of George Wood, the manager of Compensation Adjusters, Inc., which does Workers' Compensation adjustments for Evans Products Company. However, Wood denied the claimant's initial claim for compensation because it was filed more than a year after August 1, 1977. Claimant then appealed to the Administrator of the Division of Workers' Compensation for a waiver of the one year filing requirement which request was by the Division denied.

The Workers' Compensation Court found further that on May 16, 1980, while the claimant was working for Evans as a green chain off-bearer, Walter slipped off a catwalk while stacking a piece of lumber, and struck his right knee below the kneecap on the concrete edge of a recessed floor beneath. He immediately experienced severe pain which forced him to stop work and rest before he could resume stacking lumber. The Workers' Compensation Court also found that one-half hour thereafter claimant notified Roy Newton, Evans' supervisor on the job. Newton allowed the claimant to leave work before his shift ended and observed claimant limping on May 16, 1980. Newton authored an undated accident report acknowledging that the claimant was unable to work on the green chain because his knee was bothering him so much. In his accident report, Newton reported to Evans that the claimant's knee problem was the result of his August 1977 accident, even though the claimant had asked Newton to report his accident of May 16, 1980. Newton did not report the May 16 incident as the date of claimant's accident because Newton believed "no sudden traumatic incident" had caused the knee pain of which Walter complained.

Walter returned to work on May 17, 1980, and worked until May 20, 1980, at which time he ceased working because of the pain.

The medical evidence adopted by the Workers' Compensation Court indicated that he suffered an industrial accident on August 1, 1977 with an injury to his right knee, and that in the intervening years his injured condition has continued so that the accident of May 16, 1980 aggravated the pre-existing condition. The injury is now diagnosed as chrondromalacia patellae which will totally disable him until such time as surgery can be performed to relieve the kneecap problem.

On appeal, the Workers' Compensation Court has stayed the payment of the lump sum judgment.

Evans raises two issues on appeal: (1) that the Workers' Compensation Court should have reopened the case to permit Evans to introduce additional evidence that would show that the claimant's alleged industrial injury of May 16, 1980 could not have happened as claimant testified and (2) that there is not substantial evidence to support the grant to the claimant of temporary total disability retroactive to May 20, 1980.

The post-trial additional evidence offered by Evans would consist of testimony of its industrial relations manager, Lee Mentzer, who would lay the foundation for introduction into evidence of company timesheets covering the claimant's employment by Evans during 1980. Employer contends that after proper foundation, the timesheets would show that on May 16, 1980, Walter was not working on the green chain when he slipped and struck his knee, rather on a planer, which was in a different part of the plant, involving an entirely different type of job. It further contends that on May 16, 1980, Roy Newton was not the claimant's supervisor. Moreover, the records would show that on May 16, 1980, Walter worked a full eight hour day and was paid for the same. The Workers' Compensation Court denied the motion to allow additional evidence.

In its petition for rehearing, Evans alleged that reasonable...