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Lee v. St. James Parish Council12/30/2003
AFFIRMED IN PART; REVERSED IN PART AND RENDERED
Plaintiff, Laura Lee, appeals an adverse judgment from the Office of Workers' Compensation that denied her request for reinstatement of indemnity benefits, along with related penalties and attorney fees, and dismissed her claim with prejudice at her cost.
The record shows that claimant, who was employed as a bus driver for St. James Parish, sustained a work-related injury to her lower back on July 16, 2001. A disputed claim for workers' compensation was filed on March 27, 2002. At the time of the accident claimant was earning $8.00 per hour and working a forty-hour week. She received compensation benefits from July 2001 until September of 2002 in the amount of $426.66 every two weeks. The matter came up for a hearing on March 27, 2003 and judgment was rendered on May 9, 2003.
In brief to this court, claimant assigns four errors for our review. She contends she is entitled to temporary total disability or supplemental earnings benefits, additional medical tests and procedures, and an award for penalties and attorney fees for defendant's arbitrary and capricious termination of benefits.
At the beginning of the hearing, the parties stipulated that the accident on July 16, 2001 was work-related, and that compensation in the correct amount was paid every two weeks from July 18, 2001 until September 3, 2002. A further stipulation was made that Dr. Lucien Miranne is the claimant's treating neurosurgeon and Dr. John Watermeier is her treating orthopedist. Dr. Chad Millet is defendant's choice of orthopedist.
At the hearing the court heard testimony of claimant, Laura Lee, who stated that she is a forty-six year old mother of three grown children. Mrs. Lee was employed as a bus driver by St. James Parish since 1991. On the day of the accident, Mrs. Lee was dispatched as a bus driver for handicapped citizens. She had to pick up two individuals, who were confined to wheel chairs, from a nursing home. Mrs. Lee was required to push the wheel chair on the bus lift, wheel the person onto the bus and tie the chair down to prevent injury to the handicapped person. One of the individuals was an overweight man. As Mrs. Lee attempted to maneuver the chair in order to get it into position and tie it down, she felt something pull in her back. She experienced pain in her lower back, arms and legs. The next day, when the pain continued, she filed an accident report.
Mrs. Lee saw her personal physician first, who prescribed muscle relaxers and referred her to Dr. Lucien Miranne, a neurosurgeon. Dr. Miranne ordered an MRI for diagnostic purposes, and epidural injections of steroids. Because the pain continued, Dr. Miranne referred Mrs. Lee to Dr. John Watermeier, an orthopedic surgeon.
Mrs. Lee stated that, at the time of trial her main complaint was pain in her legs. She stated that the right leg is worse than the left, and is painful from the center of her back. She also stated that she has pain in both arms, making is difficult to hold anything. She is currently taking Celebrex and Robaxin every day. Mrs. Lee stated that she was released by Dr. Watermeier to light duty. However, her job was not light duty.
She asserted that she attempted to return to her job , but the Parish would not re-hire her. She testified that the Parish gave her a "pink slip" because the Family Medical Leave Act time had expired. She stated that she can no longer perform her job as a bus driver, because since the accident she cannot sit in the same position for long periods of time and because of the pain in her arms.
Mrs. Lee also testified that she met with a vocational rehabilitation expert abo
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