Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission rules: Intervening accident breaks causal connection
The Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission modified the arbitrator's decision awarding benefits by finding that the claimant sustained a nonwork-related intervening accident that broke the causation chain between the work accident and the claimant's present condition of ill-being. Accordingly, the Commission reduced the temporary total disability award from 82 weeks to 14 weeks and adjsuted the permanent disability from 20 percent of a person as a whole under Section 8(d)2 to 10 percent loss of use of the right leg under Section 8(e) of the Illinois Workers' Compensation Act.
Case name: Owens v. United Parcel Services Inc., 17 IlWCLB 215 (Ill.W.C.Comm.2009).
Owens was hired as a driver's helper for the defendant for the holiday season from November 2006 through December 31, 2006. On Dec. 14, 2006, Owens was delivering a package for work when he slipped on a step and fell forward, hitting the inside of his right knee on a wooden deck. He was diagnosed with a right knee contusion and sprain and was prescribed medication and a knee brace. On April 10, 2007, Owens sprained his right ankle when he stepped off a sidewalk and into a grass covered hole. The arbitrator awarded benefits. Upon review, the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission modified the arbitrator's decision to find that the April 2007 incident was a significant enough event to constitute an intervening accident that broke the causation chain between the Dec 14, 2006, work accident and Owens present condition of ill-being. In so finding, the Commission relied on the mechanism of the accidents, the doctors' foundational knowledge of the events and Wise's overall credibility. As such, the Commission reduced the benefit award.
