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Maxwell v. SIIS3/24/1993
By the Court, Rose, C. J.:
While employed by Greyhound Exposition Services (Greyhound), appellant Rosalie Maxwell (Maxwell) fell and suffered serious injuries. After respondent State Industrial Insurance System (SIIS) offered a permanent partial disability award of fifteen percent, the appeals officer directed SIIS to offer Maxwell an award of twenty percent. The appeals officer's recommendation of awards for lower back impairment and psychological impairment accounted for the five percent difference. The district court reversed the decision of the appeals officer, finding that NRS 616.605(3) precludes a permanent partial disability award for psychological impairment, and finding there was insufficient evidence before the appeals officer to support the award for lower back impairment. We affirm the district court's reversal of the award for psychological impairment, as NRS 616.605(3) clearly and explicitly limits permanent partial disability awards to physical impairment, but we reverse the district court's reversal of the award for lower back impairment, and we remand to the district court with instructions to remand to the appeals officer for a proper determination of Maxwell's whole person permanent partial disability award.
Facts
While employed by Greyhound, Maxwell fell fourteen to twenty feet from a scaffolding device and landed on her face. She suffered serious physical injuries, which required numerous sur
[109 Nev. 327, Page 329]
geries. Following the accident, Maxwell also suffered from depression and other psychological conditions attributable to the accident.
Maxwell filed an industrial accident claim with SIIS for injuries suffered from her fall. SIIS offered Maxwell a permanent partial disability award of fifteen percent. After an appeal to the hearing officer, the appeals officer reversed the fifteen percent award and directed SIIS to offer Maxwell permanent partial disability of twenty percent. The decision of the appeals officer was based primarily on the recommendations of two SIIS rating physicians, Drs. Molzen and Kudrewicz, whose independent rating reports recommended a twenty percent whole body impairment based upon Maxwell's facial disfigurement, lower back impairment, and psychological impairment.
On appeal, the district court reversed the decision of the appeals officer, finding that NRS 616.605(3) precludes a permanent partial disability award for psychological impairment and finding there was insufficient evidence before the appeals officer to support the award for lower back impairment. The district court remanded the case with instructions to offer Maxwell the fifteen percent permanent partial disability award originally offered.
Psychological Impairment
The district court construed NRS 616.605(3) to preclude a permanent partial disability award for psychological impairment resulting from an industrial accident, and we agree. NRS 616.605(3) provides: No factors other than the degree of physical impairment of the whole man may be considered in calculating the entitlement to compensation for a permanent partial disability. (Emphasis added.) The district court found “that the word ‘psychological' is not included with the term ‘physical' as used in this statute,” and it further found that “SIIS may not pay an award for psychological impairment.”
Maxwell contends that the district court gave NRS 616.605(3) an unduly narrow construction in limiting permanent partial disability awards exclusively to physical impairments. Maxwell asserts that, where a physical impairment is coupled with a psychological impairment, both injuries should be compensable.
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