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Rural Metro Corp. v. Industrial Commission of Arizona11/30/1999
AWARD AFFIRMED
In this statutory special action, petitioner/employer Rural Metro Corp. and petitioner/carrier Reliance Insurance Co. challenge the Administrative Law Judge's (ALJ) award finding respondent/employee Martha Defore Porterfield's() injury claim against Rural Metro compensable.()
We affirm the award.
Facts and Procedural History
We view the evidence and all reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to sustaining the award. Faraghar v. Industrial Comm'n, 184 Ariz. 528, 911 P.2d 534 (App. 1995). The following facts were adduced during a five-day hearing before the ALJ. At all times relevant to this matter, Defore was working as a paramedic for both Rural Metro and University Medical Center (UMC). While working at UMC on May 15, 1997, Defore sustained a shoulder injury as she was attempting to move a patient from an examining table onto a bed. She filed an injury claim, which UMC accepted for benefits. On October 10, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Murray Robertson performed surgery on the shoulder. By early November, Defore was responding well to the surgery, and Robertson felt she would eventually return "to full activity."
On November 4, Robertson told Defore she could return to work at UMC. At that time, her original injury was not yet stationary and her claim with UMC was still open. Because her work as a "reserve paramedic" on an ambulance crew for Rural Metro involved more lifting, however, Robertson expressly prohibited her from returning to that work for at least another month, when he would re-examine her. Defore nevertheless chose to return to work at Rural Metro on November 19, stating she "had no choice" because of financial reasons. Although Defore and Rural Metro disagree about whether, on returning to work, she told Rural Metro personnel about her shoulder injury and surgery, Defore does not claim, nor does the record reflect, that she told anyone at Rural Metro that her physician had expressly prohibited her from working for the company.
On November 19, her first day back at Rural Metro, six weeks after surgery, Defore and her partner were raising a gurney with a patient on it when Defore felt a tearing sensation in her right shoulder. The next day, she saw Robertson, complaining of shooting pain down her right arm. He immediately took her off all work activity, to which she did not return for six weeks. On November 20, UMC issued a notice of claim status denying further benefits for the May 15 injury on the ground that Defore had sustained the new injury to her shoulder while working for Rural Metro the day before. Defore then filed new injury claims for the November 19 injury against both Rural Metro and UMC, which both denied. Defore requested a hearing on these denials of benefits and on UMC's denial of further benefits for the May 15 injury. The Industrial Commission set a hearing date to address these issues. In the meantime, Defore and UMC agreed to resolve by stipulation her claims against UMC. On the first day of the hearing, the ALJ accepted the stipulation, which she concluded effectively resolved any contested issues as to UMC.
The ALJ proceeded solely on whether Defore had a compensable claim against Rural Metro. Based on Robertson's testimony, the ALJ determined that, while working for Rural Metro on November 19, Defore had "sustained a new injury which consisted of an aggravation" of the May 15 injury. The ALJ further found that Defore had not informed Rural Metro that Robertson had prohibited her from working on the ambulance crew. Noting that Defore "did heavy lifting with Rural Metro against [Robertson's] orders," the ALJ concluded that she "most likely s
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