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Getson v. WM Bancorp6/12/1997
Opinion by Raker, J.
In this workers' compensation case, the claimant suffered a compensable injury to her right shoulder when she slipped and fell on the ice in her employer's parking lot on February 4, 1993. The primary question we must decide in this case is whether a shoulder injury, which causes permanent partial disability, is an injury to the arm under Maryland Code (1991 Repl. Vol., 1996 Cum. Supp.) § 9-627(d)(1)(iii) of the Labor and Employment Article or whether permanent partial disability resulting from a shoulder injury is properly classified under § 9-627(k), "Other cases." We must also decide whether the Court of Special Appeals erred in concluding that the Workers' Compensation Commission ("Commission") committed an error of law when it awarded permanent partial disability benefits based on thirty percent loss of industrial use of the body. We shall hold that the Commission correctly categorized claimant's injury as an "Other cases" impairment and that the finding of permanent partial disability based on thirty percent loss of use of the body was not error.
The claimant, Patricia M. Getson, sustained an accidental injury to her right shoulder arising out of and in the course of her employment with WM Bancorp. Getson fell on ice in her employer's parking lot on February 4, 1993, fracturing the right humeral head of her right shoulder. She underwent surgery to repair her rotator cuff and to have inserted a prosthesis in her right shoulder. After the surgery, Getson received six months of physical therapy to regain mobility and strength in her right shoulder. Eventually, in late summer 1993, Getson returned to her position as a bank teller with Respondent WM Bancorp. She was able to perform most of her duties as a teller, but she could not lift heavy trays of coins, and she had difficulty reaching over a high counter to give customers their money.
The claimant completed her course of treatment and was evaluated by two physicians, Dr. Renato Lapidario at the request of the employer and insurer, and Dr. Neil Novin at the request of the claimant. Dr. Lapidario concluded that the claimant sustained an injury to her right shoulder resulting in a twenty percent permanent impairment of her right upper extremity; Dr. Novin concluded that the claimant sustained an injury to her right shoulder resulting in a forty-one percent permanent impairment of her right upper extremity.
Getson filed a Workers' Compensation claim for an accidental injury . The Commission held a hearing on her claim on October 25, 1994. The issue before the Commission was permanent disability. Concluding that an impairment of the shoulder is considered an impairment of the "whole person," the Commission found that Getson had suffered a permanent partial disability resulting in a thirty percent loss of industrial use of her body as a result of the accidental injury.
The employer and insurer petitioned the Circuit Court for Alleghany County for judicial review of the Commission's order and presented two arguments: first, that the Commission should have decided the case as a loss of use of the arm or upper extremity, not of the whole body, because the Guides for Evaluation of Permanent Impairment , AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, GUIDES TO THE EVALUATION OF PERMANENT IMPAIRMENT (3d ed. 1988) (hereinafter AMA GUIDES), adopted by the Commission as the method of evaluation of permanent impairment, define the arm or upper extremity to include the shoulder; and second, that if the Commission properly classified the shoulder injury as one to the whole body, it should have followed its regulations and converted impairment of the upper extremity to impairment of the body as a whole, in acco
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