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Turjan v. Valley View Estates8/4/1995
52 St.Rep. 740
Submitted on Briefs April 20, 1995.
Appellant Donna Turjan appeals from a November 1993 order of the Workers' Compensation Court denying her claim for failure to report an injury within the time prescribed by statute. We affirm.
Appellant raises the following issue on appeal:
Is the one-year time limit for filing a written workers' compensation claim under § 39-71-601, MCA (1985), and the 60-day time limit for giving an employer notice of injury under § 39-71-603, MCA (1985), tolled while claimant is receiving benefits under a prior claim?
Appellant was employed at Valley View Estates, a nursing home, from September 1986 through April 1987. On September 16, 1986, appellant injured her lower back and right shoulder while lifting a patient with a co-worker. She reported the injury to her supervisor, Bonnie Hicks. Appellant filled out a Valley View Accident Investigation Report and Valley View filed a workers' compensation claim on appellant's behalf. Appellant received treatment for this injury from Dr. Fuhrman. At the time of this workers' compensation claim, Valley View's insurer was Industrial Indemnity and its claims were adjusted by Crawford & Company Adjustors. Industrial covered the September 1986 workers' compensation claim. In January 1987, they began payment of medical costs associated with appellant's back injury. Beginning January 1, 1987, Valley View's insurer was Royal Insurance. Royal's claims were adjusted by General Adjustment Bureau.
On April 21, 1987, appellant was again lifting a patient and felt a sharp pain in her lower back. Appellant claims that she told Connie Strong, an employee at Valley View, about the incident and that she filled out a Valley View accident report for Strong to give to Hicks. Appellant initially claimed that Strong was her supervisor, but later testified that Hicks was her supervisor. Strong disputes appellant's testimony and testified that she does not remember appellant either telling her anything about the incident, or giving her a completed Valley View accident report for the April 1987 incident. Strong also testified that she was not appellant's supervisor. Appellant returned to Dr. Fuhrman and he instructed her that she was restricted from any work. He found that she had new symptoms and that she was "worse" in reference to her September 1986 injury. Appellant delivered two doctor's notes to this effect, dated April and June 1987, to Hicks at Valley View. Appellant failed to tell Hicks of the April 1987 incident, and failed to fill out a Valley View accident report when she twice delivered Dr. Fuhrman's notes.
After learning that appellant would not be returning to work, Valley View called Industrial to report appellant's separation from work due to her September 1986 back injury. Since appellant's injury occurred during Industrial's coverage period, they were liable. At Industrial's request, Crawford called appellant on April 30, 1987, to interview her about the circumstances of her September 1986 injury. Crawford called as a result of her April 1987 separation from employment. After discussion of the September 1986 injury, the following dialogue took place:
Crawford: Mmmhmm. Okay. And now it's [injury] apparently started to cause you more problems recently here?
Appellant: Uh, yea. It was, it's been coming off and on ever since I injured it, but boy, when she put me back on afternoon shift, she put me on the worse wing that she could have. And that's when there's only two girls lifting all those heavy people all night long.
Crawford: Mmmhmm.
Appellant: Get em up and then you got
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