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NOBLE v. LAMONI PRODUCTS2/23/1994
This appeal by an injured worker challenges the industrial commissioner's finding that carpal tunnel syndrome is an occupational injury, not an occupational disease, and therefore compensable under Iowa Code chapter 85 (1991). On judicial review, the district court upheld the commissioner's ruling. We affirm.
The facts are not disputed. Appellant Judith Noble began working for appellee Lamoni Products in 1983. In 1986 she was transferred from quality control to the production line, building cross-body electrical harnesses for automobiles. Her duties entailed holding a collection of wires known as the "tail" with one hand, and with the other hand flipping a roll of tape over and under the wires to create a continuous roll. The task required repeated flexion and extension of her wrists. Excluding breaks and lunch, she completed one "tail" every seventy seconds during her eight-hour work day.
After three to four weeks on the job , Noble reported numbness and a loss of feeling in her hands. Her supervisor then assigned her to a job "blocking ripcords." This involved inserting a terminal into a connector with a "push, click, tug" motion to ensure that the connector was seated properly. The motion was repeated approximately 3500 times per day. Again Noble reported numbness, pain, and gradual loss of strength in her hands.
In December 1986, Noble told her doctor about the numbness and pain she was experiencing in her hands. He referred her to a specialist who diagnosed her condition as "overuse syndrome" and recommended that the condition would improve if she rotated to different positions within the plant. She remained, however, at her job blocking ripcords.
On July 2, 1987, Noble and about twenty other employees were laid off their jobs at Lamoni. Because the numbness in her hands persisted after the layoff, she was referred to yet another doctor who diagnosed her condition as bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome. [512 NW2d Page 292]
He recommended surgery. The doctor also determined that the carpal tunnel syndrome was work-related and that if Noble continued blocking ripcords, a one-in-four chance existed that her symptoms would recur. Noble underwent surgery for decompression of the right carpal and ulnar tunnels in October 1987, and the left carpal tunnel in December 1987. Although she was released to return to work in January 1988, no position was extended to her. The plant closed later that year.
Noble filed an arbitration petition with the Iowa industrial commissioner, alleging that her bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome was an occupational disease entitling her to compensation under Iowa Code chapter 85A. Following hearing, a deputy found the evidence insufficient to sustain Noble's claim of occupational disease but concluded that she had suffered a work-related injury. The deputy awarded Noble permanent partial disability benefits for injuries to both hands (resulting in a four percent functional impairment to the body as a whole) in accordance with Iowa Code section 85.34(2)(s).
Noble appealed to the industrial commissioner, who sustained the deputy's order. Rejecting Noble's argument that the syndrome was a disease process, the commissioner found under this record that Noble suffered a series of microtraumas to her hands over time. Such a traumatic cumulative injury, he concluded, is compensable under Iowa Code chapter 85, not 85A. The district court affirmed on judicial review and this appeal followed.
I. Our review is for the correction of errors at law. Suluki v. Employment Appeal Bd., 503 N.W.2d 402, 404 (Iowa 1993). The industrial commissioner's interpretation of the workers' compensation statutes is enti
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