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Perkins v. Hea of Iowa9/5/2002
ar in this record with respect to the "condition" to which the commissioner referred, it is that as of the time Perkins is charged with inquiry notice she had not been injured. She had been exposed through a traumatic and frightening event, but she was not injured. If, as we have said, inquiry notice does not arise from "every minor ache, pain, or symptom," Swartzendruber, 613 N.W.2d at 650, inquiry notice surely cannot be triggered when there is no ache, pain, or symptom of an injury. An injury is generally defined as " he violation of another's legal right, for which the law provides a remedy; a wrong or injustice." See Black's Law Dictionary 789 (1999). Our workers' compensation law does not provide a remedy for a person who has merely been exposed to injury.
We hold the date of injury was the date Perkins discovered she had hepatitis C, April 20, 1996, the date it was diagnosed. It did not commence from the date she was exposed to it. The industrial commissioner's application of a contrary rule in this case is "affected by other error of law," Iowa Code ยง 17A.19(8)(e), and must be reversed. We therefore affirm, although on different grounds, both the ruling of the court of appeals and the judgment of the district court.
DECISION OF COURT OF APPEALS AND JUDGMENT OF DISTRICT COURT AFFIRMED.
All justices concur except Neuman, J., who takes no part.
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