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King v. District of Columbia Department of Employment Services12/16/1999
Petition for Review of a Decision of the District of Columbia Department of Employment Services
Argued September 16, 1999
Petitioner, Michael T. King, was temporarily disabled by acute back pain, which he suffered while working as an electrician at a job site in the District of Columbia. He filed a claim for benefits under the District of Columbia Workers' Compensation Act of 1979, as amended, D.C. Code §§ 36-301 et seq. (1997) (hereinafter, the "Act" or the "WCA"). His claim was dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction on the ground that his employment was not "principally localized" in the District.
King's petition for review of that decision calls upon us to analyze the coverage provision of the Act, D.C. Code § 36-303, as it was amended effective March 6, 1991. We are asked to decide how that statute applies to a case of cumulative traumatic injury arising out of employment that is carried on both inside and outside the District of Columbia. The answer to that question depends on how the "time of injury" is fixed in a cumulative trauma case. We do not decide that legal question, however, because we find that respondent District of Columbia Department of Employment Services failed to make findings of material fact, while misapprehending and failing to construe the applicable law. We are therefore constrained to reverse the dismissal of King's claim and to remand for further proceedings. On remand, the Department needs to make a clear finding as to whether King's disability was in fact caused by his employment. If the Department does find that King sustained a job -related, cumulative traumatic injury to his back, then it must construe § 36-303 in order to articulate the rule under that statute for fixing the "time of injury" in cumulative trauma cases. The Department must then apply that rule to the facts of King's case in order to determine whether his injury is covered by the WCA.
I.
Petitioner King began working for intervenor Moonlighting Electric Company ("Moonlighting") in July 1986 as a foreman and service electrician. King was hired in Maryland, where Moonlighting is headquartered, and he resided in that state at the time of the hearing. Most of King's jobs as an employee of Moonlighting were in Maryland, but he also worked from time to time at sites in other jurisdictions, including the District of Columbia.
On April 11, 1994, King was performing work on the second day of a job in the District of Columbia when he experienced back pain severe enough that he had to stop working. He did not return to work until August 31, 1994. King subsequently filed a claim under the WCA for temporary total disability benefits from April 11 through August 31, 1994, as well as for medical expenses. Moonlighting and its insurer, intervenor ITT Hartford, contested this claim. A hearing was held on April 12, 1996.
The evidence before the hearing examiner established that King had a history of back problems and raised the issue of the relationship of those back problems to King's employment. The examiner found that the electrician position that King held with Moonlighting for some eight years did involve a degree of physical exertion, requiring King to lift at least sixty pounds, bend, climb ladders, carry material, stoop, crawl, and get into awkward positions. King testified that he first experienced back pain on the job in December 1993 while working in an electrical closet and that his symptoms progressively worsened over the next few months. He also testified that in the early 1980s he had seen a doctor for back pain, which medical records indicated was related to a tennis injury, and again in1992 for back pain that lasted
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