 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Kaibab Industries v. The Industrial Commission of Arizona5/16/2000
This is a special-action review of an Industrial Commission award and decision upon review reopening a 1995 backinjury claim of Kim Sinks. The issue raised is the application of the Arizona successive-injury doctrine to an out-of-state worker's compensation claim. See ARIZ. R.P. SPEC. ACT. 10 (Supp. 1999). We affirm the award and decision upon review.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Ms. Sinks sustained three separate industrial injuries between 1994 and 1997. The first two injuries occurred in Arizona; the last, in Utah. Specifically, the first one occurred in November 1994 when Ms. Sinks strained her back while working at a Johnny Rockets restaurant. She was treated for this injury , and the claim was closed the same month without permanent impairment.
Ms. Sinks' second injury took place on April 9, 1995, while she was working as a gas-station attendant for Kaibab Industries. This back injury was sustained when her right leg slipped off a curb as she was returning from the storeroom to the cashier's booth. She then began to suffer acute pain in her right hip and numbness in her right leg between the knee and ankle. Ms. Sinks was treated, and her claim was closed on August 28, 1995, without permanent impairment. While she returned to work with Kaibab and her condition improved, Ms. Sinks continued to have pain and numbness in her leg.
Ms. Sinks moved to Utah in 1996 and began work at a convenience store not owned by Kaibab. On June 11, 1997, she suffered her third industrial injury when she felt a sharp pain in her back as she attempted to stand after sitting for a break; the pain was similar to that she had felt in April 1995. As a consequence, Ms. Sinks received further medical treatment.
Ms. Sinks filed a claim for benefits under Utah's worker's compensation statute; it was denied. She then filed petitions to reopen her 1994 and 1995 Arizona claims, and they were denied. The claims were consolidated for hearing and disposition.
At the hearing, Ms. Sinks, as well as two board-certified orthopedic surgeons, Irwin Shapiro and Zoran Maric, testified. According to Ms. Sinks, after her 1994 injury , she did not experience any weakness or numbness in her back. Rather, it was only in 1995, when she sustained her second back injury, that she began to feel numbness in her right leg from her calf to her ankle. Although by the time of the hearing she could not specifically recall her 1995 symptoms, she testified that she had experienced ongoing pain associated with her lower back. By the time she moved to Utah, she explained, her symptoms had become aggravated, such that merely standing up caused her third industrial injury.
Dr. Shapiro examined Ms. Sinks on March 26, 1998. He testified that he had reviewed her earlier medical reports and spoken with Ms. Sinks about her back pain from the three injuries. An MRI showed degenerative disc disease and a disc herniation. Dr. Shapiro concluded that Ms. Sinks' present pain was causally related to the 1995 injury .
In contrast, Dr. Maric, who examined Ms. Sinks in September 1998, believed that the 1995 injury was unrelated to her 1997 injury. Rather, based on the medical history pertaining to the three injuries and the MRI films, Dr. Maric concluded that Ms. Sinks' symptoms were not necessarily indicative of a herniated disc and that there was no evidence that the 1995 injury had caused any structural change to Ms. Sinks' spine. He felt that, because Ms. Sinks had not experienced constant severe pain but had only reported general complaints of back pain between 1995 and 1997, there was no causal connection between her disc herniation and the 1995 injury.
Page 1 2 3 4 5 Arizona Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|