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Edmiston v. City of Hobbs and Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.6/17/1997
here would be a waiting period of perhaps two or three years to see if controlling the disease would improve the compression fractures. Evaluating Worker's condition after MMI to determine permanent partial disability, the WCJ determined that (1) without the multiple myeloma, Worker would have reached MMI from a compression fracture within 8 to 12 weeks after the accident, (2) there had been no additional specific treatment for the fractures since the initial x-rays and none had been recommended for the future, (3) Worker's current inability to work was a natural and direct result of the multiple myeloma alone and not the compression fracture, and (4) although the multiple myeloma was a preexisting condition it did not constitute a preexisting impairment as there had been no evidence of its existence before the accident.
{6} Based on these determinations, the WCJ concluded that Worker was entitled to impairment benefits at only 10% based upon the compression fracture alone and was not entitled to any formula points under NMSA 1978, Sections 52-1-26.1 to -26.4 (Repl. Pamp. 1991) because her current inability to work was due solely to the multiple myeloma. Worker appeals from that order. Employer does not challenge the award of temporary total disability.
Discussion
{7} Worker argues that the WCJ erred as a matter of law in determining the degree of Worker's permanent partial disability because the WCJ failed to take into account the combined effect of the workplace injury and her preexisting condition. This case requires us to determine whether the WCJ imposed two new standards to be met by a worker who has a preexisting condition and then sustains a workplace injury: (1) whether the preexisting condition must actually impair the worker prior to the job injury and may not be a mere latent condition, and (2) whether the workplace injury must demonstrably worsen the preexisting condition. Worker contends that the WCJ's decision runs counter to New Mexico law as reflected in and . Before discussing these contentions, we review the applicable legal standard.
Preexisting Condition
{8} New Mexico workers' compensation cases hold that when a preexisting condition combines with a work-related injury to cause a disability, an employee is entitled to benefits commensurate with the total disability sustained; our courts do not apportion workers' compensation benefits according to different causal factors as long as the disability is a natural and direct result of the accident as required by the Act (NMSA 1978, Section 52-1-28 (Repl. Pamp. 1991)). ; . It does not diminish the worker's entitlement to benefits that the preexisting condition may make a worker more susceptible to injury, nor does it matter that without the preexisting condition the work-related injury might have been less disabling or perhaps not disabling at all. ;
{9} In defining this principle, both Reynolds and Leo relied upon Professor Larson's treatise on workmen's compensation. The following passage from the treatise which was cited in Reynolds bears repeating:
Pre-existing disease or infirmity of the employee does not disqualify a claim under the 'arising out of employment' requirement if the employment aggravated, accelerated, or combined with the disease or infirmity to produce the death or disability for which compensation is sought.
(quoting an earlier edition of the treatise which is unchanged in the latest edition at 1 Arthur Larson & Lex K. Larson, The Law of Workmen's Compensation ยง 12.21 (1996)).
{10} The facts of Reynolds are similar to those of this case. There, the worker, who handled horses at a race track, suffered from
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