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Wal-Mart Stores11/12/2004
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ("the employer"), appeals from an order of the Houston Circuit Court granting a motion, filed pursuant to Rule 60(b), Ala. R. Civ. P., by Susan Pitts ("the employee") seeking relief from a judgment determining the employee's rights to various medical benefits under the Alabama Workers' Compensation Act, ยง 25-5-1 et seq., Ala. Code 1975 ("the Act"). Because we conclude that the trial court erred in granting the employee's Rule 60(b) motion, we reverse that court's order and remand the cause for the entry of an order denying that motion.
The employee sued the employer in 1993 seeking workers' compensation benefits for a back injury the employee suffered in 1989. In 1994, the parties entered into a settlement agreement under which the employee's right to receive future medical benefits was left open. In February 2002, the employer petitioned the trial court for a compensability determination as to the employee's continued medical treatment for various infirmities, including, among other things, peripheral neuropathy in her lower extremities, pulmonary problems requiring the use of a blood-thinning medication, and the development of a toenail fungus on her left foot. In response to the employer's petition, the trial court appointed an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. C.J. Talbert, to perform an independent medical evaluation of the employee. After examining the employee and reviewing her medical records, Dr. Talbert opined that the employee's neuropathy and toenail fungus were not causally related to her back injury. However, Dr. Talbert declined to express an opinion regarding the employee's pulmonary problems and the use of the blood-thinning medication as part of the employee's treatment. Instead, Dr. Talbert deferred that assessment to a pulmonologist.
In August 2002, the employer requested that the trial court determine that the employee's claims for medical treatment regarding her neuropathy and toenail fungus were not causally related to her job - related back injury and that the employer was, therefore, not responsible for providing medical treatment as to those conditions. The employer also requested that the trial court appoint a pulmonologist to review whether the cost of the blood-thinning medication that had been prescribed for the treatment of the employee's pulmonary problems was compensable under the Act. The pulmonologist appointed by the trial court subsequently opined that the employee's continued use of a blood- thinning medication was causally related to the employee's having developed a blood clot during back surgery.
On January 10, 2003, the employee was hospitalized for recurring infections in her left leg and she subsequently underwent an amputation of her lower left leg. On January 31, 2003, during the employee's hospitalization , the employee's counsel advised the employee by letter of his intent to withdraw as her counsel; he also filed a motion to withdraw on that date.
On February 27, 2003, after the trial court had granted the motion to withdraw filed by the employee's counsel, the trial court issued an order providing the employee 45 days within which to secure new counsel and "prosecute the case." However, on March 4, 2003, the trial court entered an order finding that the employer was responsible for providing the employee with the prescribed blood-thinning medication but that it was not responsible for the treatment for the employee's neuropathy in her lower extremities or the toenail fungus on her left foot because those ailments were not causally related to the employee's on-the-job back injury. On June 16, 2003, more than 90 days after the trial court's judgment, the employee, appearing pro se, filed a motion to set aside
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