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[T] Wilson v. Good Will Publishers2/12/2003
David Wilson appeals from a district court order affirming an arbitration decision of the Iowa Workers' Compensation Commissioner. REVERSED AND REMANDED TO THE WORKERS' COMPENSATION COMMISSIONER.
David Wilson appeals from a district court order affirming an arbitration decision of the Iowa Workers' Compensation Commissioner. We reverse and remand to the agency for further proceedings.
I. Factual Background.
Wilson was employed as the National Sales Trainer for Good Will Publishers, a company that markets religious tracts to businesses. He was the company's only trainer of sales representatives who were paid solely by commission. Wilson was kept very busy because Good Will's sales force experienced a high rate of turnover. He worked seventy-five to eighty hours per week, traveling across the country primarily by automobile. In 1993, he drove in excess of 51,000 miles in the course and scope of his employment, and in the following year, he logged almost 43,000 miles as he performed his training responsibilities.
The company's employee manual directed Wilson to give very high priority to his training mission:
ABOVE ALL. . . REMEMBER!
During your new reps first four (4) weeks of his training, he and his family must be the most important thing in your life.
You have a responsibility to this newest member of the Good Will Family. He and his entire family will be looking to you to teach and lead them to a successful future.
DON'T LET THEM DOWN!
The company provided Wilson with the names, addresses and starting dates of each new sales representative. Because Good Will's training was to be undertaken on weekdays, Wilson was typically required to travel to new training locations on the weekend.
On April 16, 1995 (Easter Sunday), Wilson departed from his home in Tabor, Iowa, to travel approximately six hundred miles to Dexter, Missouri, where he was scheduled to begin training a new Good Will representative the next day. At about 1:00 a.m. on April 17, Wilson stopped in Columbia, Missouri to rest at a motel for a few hours. While there, he noticed symptoms of indigestion. After resting and taking antacids for his discomfort, he continued driving so as to arrive in Dexter as scheduled by 8:00 a.m. The symptoms escalated as he drove, and when he arrived at his destination, he received a diagnosis of myocardial infarction.
Wilson made a claim for workers' compensation benefits. Good Will and its workers' compensation carrier denied liability.
II. The Agency Decision.
After a hearing, the presiding deputy issued an arbitration decision. In her discussion of medical causation, the deputy concluded:
Under the medical (factual) test, the doctors must say whether the exertion in fact caused the heart attack. . . While the medical evidence does establish that claimant had a pre-existing heart condition and was at risk for a heart attack based in large part on his smoking history, the medical evidence fails to establish that claimant's heart attack was a result of the work he performed for defendant employer.
The deputy's arbitration decision also found that Wilson failed to meet his burden to establish legal causation by proving Good Will "required to continue working after first began to experience symptoms of chest discomfort."
Wilson sought intra-agency review. In its appeal decision of January 21, 2000, the agency "affirm and adopt as final agency action those portions of the proposed decision in this matter that relate to issues properly raised on intra-agency appeal." Wilson sought judicial review
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