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Karber/Interstate Air v. Industrial Commission3/17/1994
TOCI, Judge
The employer, Karber/Interstate Air, and carrier, Argonaut Insurance Company ("Argonaut"), bring this special action review of an Industrial Commission award. Robert Nixon ("claimant") tripped on an expansion strip in his parents' driveway while under treatment for an industrial injury to his right knee. Although the right knee injury itself did not cause claimant to trip, he tried to protect his vulnerable right knee from further injury by placing his full weight on his left leg. The left leg gave way, and claimant fell on it, tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. Accepting the medical opinion of claimant's doctor, the administrative law Judge ("ALJ") found that claimant suffered an acute left knee injury. The ALJ concluded that the left knee injury was a compensable consequence of the industrial injury.
We conclude that the ALJ erred in finding that medical causation alone was sufficient to support the award. Nevertheless, when we apply the proper legal test for causation, the record compels only one Conclusion--that the later injury to the left knee is a compensable consequence of the work injury. Therefore, we affirm.
I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
In June 1991, claimant, a sheet-metal mechanic, sustained a work-related injury to his right knee. Eli Krigsten, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon, examined the knee and found that claimant had torn his medial and lateral menisci and his anterior cruciate ligament. Claimant filed a workers' compensation claim, and Argonaut accepted liability.
In July and August 1991, Dr. Krigsten performed arthroscopic surgery on claimant's right knee. He repaired the torn medial and lateral menisci and reconstructed the torn anterior cruciate ligament. He later examined the knee on February 11, 1992, and found that it was not yet medically stationary. During the examination, he also noted that claimant's right knee pain was interfering with claimant's right knee physical therapy.
On February 17, 1992, claimant injured his left knee. The next day, Dr. Krigsten examined claimant's left knee and reported the following history: Claimant "was walking in his driveway the other day when he slipped and his left knee gave out as he landed onto it." When Dr. Krigsten arthroscopically examined claimant's left knee, he discovered a completely torn anterior cruciate ligament that had attached itself to the posterior cruciate ligament. After the examination, he wrote a letter to Argonaut expressing his opinion that the left knee injury "was in fact as a result and secondary to his industrial injury previously operated upon." Benefits for the left knee injury were denied by Argonaut. Claimant then retained counsel and protested the denial of benefits.
After claimant's protest, Argonaut scheduled an independent examination with Alfred F. Miller, M.D. In his report of August 18, 1992, Dr. Miller stated that the anterior cruciate ligament tear probably preexisted the driveway trip and fall of February 17, 1992. He concluded that the left knee injury was not related to the industrial right knee injury.
At the hearing, claimant testified that while wearing his right knee brace he walked up his parents' driveway, caught his right foot on an expansion joint, and tripped. The evidence is undisputed that the right knee injury did not cause the claimant to trip. Nevertheless, claimant was attempting to protect his industrially injured right knee from further injury when he injured his left knee. In claimant's words, "So, when it happened, and protecting this leg [right leg], I put the full force of my weight onto the left leg, and when I did, [the left knee] kind of gave ou
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