Waskiewicz v. General Motors Corp.

• Decision Date: 01 September 1995
• Docket Number: No. 105,105
• Citation: 679 A.2d 1094,342 Md. 699
• Parties: Robert WASKIEWICZ v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION. ,
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 699

342 Md. 699

679 A.2d 1094

Robert WASKIEWICZ v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION.

No. 105, Sept. Term, 1995.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

July 29, 1996.

David E. Fink (David Kimmelman, on brief) Baltimore, MD, for Petitioner.

Joseph F. Zauner III (Diane S. Deros, Mason, Ketterman & Morgan, on brief) Baltimore, MD, for Respondent.

Argued before MURPHY, C.J.; and ELDRIDGE, RODOWSKY, CHASANOW, KARWACKI, BELL, and RAKER, JJ.

KARWACKI, Judge.

The Maryland Workers' Compensation Act, Maryland Code (1991 Repl.Vol.), § 9-101 et seq. of the Labor & Employment Article (hereinafter "the Act") ¹, provides in § 9-502 for compensation for workers who are disabled as a result of an occupational disease. Such diseases are by nature insidious and gradual, worsening over time as an employee is continually exposed to the hazards of the disease. We are asked today to determine whether such continued exposure to hazardous workplace duties constitutes the basis for a new claim for benefits within the meaning of § 9-502, when the exposure does not cause a new disability but exacerbates an existing one for which the employee has already claimed workers' compensation benefits. We hold that, under § 9-502, an employee who has already claimed benefits for a disability caused by an occupational disease cannot base a new claim for benefits upon additional injurious exposures which cause a worsening of his or her condition but not a new disability.

I.

The parties to this case stipulated in Circuit Court to the facts we recite here. Robert Waskiewicz, claimant and petitioner in this case, was employed as an assembly line worker by General Motors Corporation (hereinafter "GM") for twenty years. Early on in his employment, in 1973, he developed bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome ² as a result of his repetitive motion work on the assembly line. He underwent surgery for his condition, and filed a claim for workers' compensation benefits based on occupational disease. ³ In an order dated April 21, 1976, the Workers' Compensation Commission (hereinafter "the Commission") found that Mr. Waskiewicz had indeed fallen prey to the occupational disease of carpal tunnel syndrome. It awarded him certain temporary total and permanent partial disability benefits based on its finding that he had sustained a permanent disability of 15% loss of use of both hands.

Mr. Waskiewicz had further treatment for his carpal tunnel syndrome, including several surgeries, in 1976, 1983, 1986 1987, 1988, and 1989. ⁴ The medical records in this case reflect that in 1987, as a result of his continuing pain and aggravation of his carpal tunnel syndrome, GM placed Mr. Waskiewicz on "light duty" involving no use of power tools or heavy lifting. Meanwhile, he continued under the constant care and treatment of his surgeon, Dr. Dennis Franks. In May 1991, Dr. Franks recommended to GM certain restrictions on Mr. Waskiewicz's work duties, including "no lifting, no repetitive motion and no use of air guns." Despite the physician's recommendation, and for reasons unexplained in the record, GM decided to place Mr. Waskiewicz back on the line in a job requiring the use of hand tools in a repetitive manner. As a result, his carpal tunnel syndrome worsened in both hands, confirmed by a nerve conduction test performed on February 27, 1992. On March 3, 1992, Dr. Franks recommended to Mr. Waskiewicz that he not return to work; the doctor performed more surgery in September 1992, but apparently to no avail, because Mr. Waskiewicz never returned to work. In March 1994, according to the joint "Stipulation of Agreed Facts and Agreed Issues" submitted to the trial judge in this case, "the doctor stated that as a result of [Mr. Waskiewicz's] carpal tunnel syndrome, caused by repetitive motion of the hands and the use of power tools, he could no longer engage in gainful employment." Although not specifically stated in the stipulated facts, the parties' briefs to this Court portray the claimant as suffering 100% loss of use of both hands.

On August 25, 1992, Mr. Waskiewicz filed the instant claim for compensation for disability beginning on March 3, 1992, resulting from carpal tunnel syndrome. He noted on his claim form that this was the only workers' compensation claim he had filed for "this Accident or Occupational Disease." At trial however, he stipulated to the contrary that "the Claimant's bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome is the disease from which he has suffered in varying degrees since it was first diagnosed in the early 1970s...." Mr. Waskiewicz did not file a request to reopen his previous claim for carpal tunnel syndrome, for which he had last received permanent partial disability compensation in 1976.

The Commission disallowed Mr. Waskiewicz's claim on May 26, 1993, tersely stating that "the claimant did not sustain an occupational disease of carpal tunnel syndrome arising out of and in the course of employment as alleged to have occurred on 3/3/92...." The reasoning of the Commission is not illuminated either by the transcript of the Commission hearing or the one-sentence order, but we glean from its holding that the Commission did not regard Mr. Waskiewicz's condition in 1992 as a new occupational disease. Mr. Waskiewicz appealed the Commission's decision to the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, where the case was tried before a judge without a jury. The trial judge reversed the Commission in an oral opinion. He reasoned that the 1992 date of Mr. Waskiewicz's most recent injurious exposure to the hazards of the occupational disease, which caused total disability, effectively constituted a new compensable event. To relate Mr. Waskiewicz's current condition and most recent exposures back to the first date of partial disablement in the 1970s, the trial judge ruled, would "unnecessarily create a hardship and would result in an unreasonable interpretation of [§ 9-502]."

The Court of Special Appeals reversed the trial court in an unreported opinion, agreeing with the Commission that Mr. Waskiewicz did not sustain a new disablement in 1992 and finding his current injury instead to be an aggravation of an existing disability from 1973. The intermediate appellate court noted that continued injurious exposures to hazards of an occupational disease leading to aggravation of the existing disease and resulting disability could not be the basis for a new claim under § 9-502. The court also pointed out that Mr. Waskiewicz could only have recovered compensation for his current 100% disability through a reopening and modification of his 1973 claim, but that the five-year statute of limitations on the reopening of claims found in § 9-736 of the Act barred any attempt to reopen.

II.

The question of first impression the instant case presents is simply whether a new workers' compensation claim, rather than a request for modification of an existing award, can be based on an additional injurious exposure to hazards aggravating an existing disability resulting from an occupational disease. The answer is no. Mr. Waskiewicz's increase in disability due to carpal tunnel syndrome from 15% loss of use of both hands to 100% loss of use is non-compensable under the current statutory scheme. We review the parties' arguments within the context of the relevant law to explain our holding.

a.

Mr. Waskiewicz argues that the Court of Special Appeals misinterpreted the facts when it first regarded his claim of August 25, 1992, as an attempt to reopen his original 1973 claim, an attempt barred by the statute of limitations found in § 9-736(b)(3) of the Act. Instead, contends Mr. Waskiewicz in his brief to this Court, the 1992 claim is "an entirely new claim for a new exposure which caused him to become totally disabled due to the occupational disease," brought under § 9-502. Mr. Waskiewicz essentially asks us to hold that any injurious exposure worsening a disability for which compensation has already been paid is sufficient to support a new claim, not simply a reconsideration of the existing claim.

GM, naturally, disputes Mr. Waskiewicz's interpretation of the stipulated facts and the law. The company contends to the contrary that, while the worsening of an existing disability caused by an additional injurious exposure may support a modification of an original award within the limitations period of § 9-736, it does not create a right to file a new claim.

Section 9-502 of the Act provides in relevant part:

" § 9-502. Occupational disease--Compensation.

(a) 'Disablement' defined.--In this section, 'disablement' means the event of a covered employee becoming partially or totally incapacitated:

(1) because of an occupational disease; and

(2) from performing the work of the covered employee in the last occupation in which the covered employee was injuriously exposed to the hazards of the occupational disease.

(b) Scope of application to employer and insurer.--Subsection (c) of this section applies only to:

(1) the employer in whose employment the covered employee was last injuriously exposed to the hazards of the occupational disease; and

(2) the insurer liable for the risk when the covered employee, while employed by the employer, was last injuriously exposed to the hazards of the occupational disease.

(c) Liability of employer and insurer.--Subject to subsection (d) of this section and except as otherwise provided, an employer and insurer to whom this subsection applies shall provide compensation in accordance with this title to:

(1) a covered employee of the employer for disability of the covered employee resulting from an occupational disease;

....

To bolster his claim that he is entitled to compensation, Mr. Waskiewicz proposes a strained interpretation of subsection (a) of § 9-502, which merely defines "disablement." ⁵ By his account, "[b]y this provision, the Legislature intended that whenever an employee is exposed to the hazards of an occupational disease and he thereby becomes ...