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Lindner Chevrolet v. Industrial Claim Appeals Office11/9/1995
In this workers' compensation case, petitioners, Lindner Chevrolet and the Colorado Compensation Insurance Authority, seek review of the final order of the Industrial Claim Appeals Panel awarding claimant temporary total and permanent total disability benefits. We affirm.
Claimant sustained a back injury in May 1991 during his employment as an automobile detailer for Lindner Chevrolet. He was off work until July 1, 1991, and returned to restricted employment until August 29, 1991, when he was terminated. It is undisputed that claimant also suffers from severe pre-existing paranoid schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder which arose during his earlier military service and for which he received an award of veterans' disability benefits. Effective November 1991, claimant also was awarded Social Security Disability Insurance benefits (SSDI) for total disability although the social security proceeding did not address the crucial issue that was present in the workers' compensation proceeding, i.e., whether the injury for which compensation was sought arose out of and in the course of claimant's employment with Lindner.
I.
Petitioners contend that the award of temporary total disability benefits was in error because claimant was terminated in part for his own misconduct. We disagree.
Sections 8-42-103(1)(a) & 8-42-105(1), C.R.S. (1995 Cum. Supp.) require a claimant to establish a causal connection between a work-related injury and a subsequent wage loss in order to obtain temporary total disability benefits. To establish eligibility for temporary disability benefits the employee need not prove that the work-related injury was the sole cause of the wage loss. PDM Molding, Inc. v. Stanberg, 898 P.2d 542 (Colo. 1995); Cf. Johnson v. Industrial Commission, 148 Colo. 561, 366 P.2d 864 (1961)(injury need not be immediate cause, but only the proximate cause of a disability).
Thus, if a claimant establishes that his or her work-related injury contributed in some degree to a temporary wage loss, the claimant is eligible for temporary disability benefits. Such benefits are precluded only when the work-related injury plays no part in the subsequent wage loss. PDM Molding, Inc. v. Stanberg, supra.
Here, the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) found that claimant's employment was terminated, at least in part, for reasons related to his disability resulting from his work-related injury. In addition, the ALJ found that claimant attempted to find and maintain employment following his discharge, but was unsuccessful because of the physical restrictions caused by the industrial injury. Accordingly, the award of temporary total disability benefits was appropriate.
II.
Petitioners also contend that claimant's pre-existing psychological condition was independently and totally disabling. Therefore, they argue that claimant was entitled only to permanent partial disability for the subsequent industrial injury. We are not persuaded.
A.
An employer takes an employee as he finds him, and if an injury is significant in that there is a direct causal relationship between the precipitating event and the resulting disability, an industrial injury is still compensable if it has caused a dormant pre-existing condition to become disabling. Colorado Fuel & Iron Corp. v. Industrial Commission, 151 Colo. 18, 379 P.2d 153 (1962); Seifried v. Industrial Commission, 736 P.2d 1262 (Colo. App. 1986).
Here, the ALJ expressly acknowledged that claimant's psyc
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