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Eastman v. Insurance Co.8/10/2000
devoted to major appliance repair and the second year consisted of the HVAC program. He informed Fairclough of his intention of pursuing this program in December 1996.
In February 1997, Fairclough referred Eastman's file to Crawford and Company (Crawford), a rehabilitation provider, to determine whether major appliance and HVAC repair were consistent with Eastman's physical restrictions. Patricia Murray (Murray), a Crawford employee, prepared a job analysis for major appliance service technicians and forwarded it to Eastman's treating physician, who disapproved the position because Eastman could not tolerate the physical demands required of the service position.
When Eastman discovered his physician had disapproved the program, he asked his vo-tech instructor Dave Foster (Foster) to help him convince Crawford that he would be employable in HVAC sales upon graduating from the program. In April 1997, Murray met with Eastman and Foster to discuss the type of employment Eastman could expect to find upon graduation. Foster said that vo-tech graduates had a 100% placement rate and that 20% of graduates found jobs in sales rather than service positions.
Eastman's physician approved the sales position because it required only light labor. Once the sales position was medically approved, Murray conducted labor market research to determine the availability of HVAC sales positions. She searched for positions only in Billings, because Eastman had indicated his unwillingness to relocate. She found that Foster's claim that 20% of vo-tech graduates found sales positions was not true in the Billings area. Based on Murray's findings, North America rejected the vo-tech program and provided no further rehabilitation services and did not pay rehabilitation benefits.
Eastman contested North America's denial of rehabilitation benefits and petitioned the Workers' Compensation Court for payment of the vo-tech program and also requested attorney fees and costs. The court held trial on the matter on February 2, 1998, after Eastman had completed his first year of training, and again on April 26, 1999, after Eastman had graduated from the vo-tech program. At the close of the first phase of the trial, the court ruled from the bench that under Eastman's rehabilitation plan-attending the vo-tech program-he would only be eligible for HVAC service jobs exceeding his physical abilities because sales positions were virtually nonexistent in Billings and that his plan was unreasonable in light of Eastman's physical restrictions. The judge encouraged the parties to work together to develop and implement a new plan and postponed a final decision until the parties had agreed upon a new plan.
In April 1998, the parties informed the court that Eastman had decided to go ahead with the vo-tech program and was unwilling to consider alternative options. The parties had agreed that rehabilitation assistance would cease at this point and that North America would offer Eastman rehabilitation assistance in finding employment upon graduation.
Eastman received his degree in December 1998. Upon graduation, he renewed his petition to the Workers' Compensation Court to retroactively award rehabilitation benefits for the vo-tech program. The court agreed to a hearing on the issue of benefits for his job search but ordered that "I do not intend to reopen or reconsider my . . . finding the HVAC program inappropriate."
At the second phase of the trial, Eastman testified that he had not been able to find employment in a sales position following graduation. Instead, in February 1999, he and his wife purchased a building and opened their own business-The Appliance Shack. Eastman buy
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