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.
Owen's medical records from Jan. 8, 2007, showed that Owens was experiencing right knee pain, occasional giving out, and tenderness at the medial aspect of the right knee, but that there was no swelling. By the Jan 12. 2007, the doctor noted that there was much less tenderness and that Owens had a very difficult time pinpointing an area of pain. He opined that Wise's condtion would resolve in two weeks and discharged Wise from his care. Based on this evidence, the Commission determined that Wise's pain was lessening and he was on his way to recovery.
Although Wise's treating doctor opined that Wise's symptoms after April 2007, were due to the work accident, the Commission found the doctor did not have a complete and thorough understanding of Wise's medical history. As the doctor could not properly attribute Wise's current condition to the work accident, the Commission discounted and placed little weight on his causation opinion.
In contrast, the defendant's examining doctor was provided with a complete set of Wise's medical records, along with a medical history as provided by Wise. Based on the information, the examining doctor opined that Wise's current condition of ill-being and the need for surgery arises from the April 2007 accident. Specifically, the doctor found that the twisting of Wise's ankle in April 2007 was the type of mechanism that one would expect to see in a medial meniscus tear injury. Given the doctor's complete understanding of what occurred, the Commisison relied on the examining doctor's causation opinion.
