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Sanchez v. Memorial General Hospital8/16/1990
{PA}
Page 684} DONNELLY, Judge.
Claimant appeals from an order of a workers' compensation judge (WCJ) dismissing claimant's workers' compensation claim with prejudice. Claimant has raised four issues on appeal, which we have consolidated and discuss as follows: (1) whether claimant's misrepresentations on his employment application concerning his prior medical condition and employment history provides a bar to his workers' compensation claim; and (2) whether substantial evidence supports the workers' compensation judge's decision to deny claimant compensation benefits. We affirm.
In April 1978 claimant applied for employment as a custodian with respondent Memorial General Hospital (Hospital). In response to questions contained in the employment application, claimant denied ever having received any benefits from workers' compensation insurance or having any physical limitations which might affect his
ability to perform custodial work. The employment application also directed that claimant list the names of his previous four employers. Claimant's written response listed three previous employers, but omitted any reference to having been previously employed for two years by New Mexico State University (NMSU).
In 1968 while employed with NMSU, claimant suffered an injury to his lower back. After filing a workers' compensation claim in district court, claimant settled with NMSU and its compensation carrier for temporary total disability, medical and related benefits. Several different physicians treated claimant for his back injury incurred during his employment with NMSU.
In 1978, claimant was hired as a janitor in the housekeeping department of the Hospital and worked without incident until September 12, 1987. While employed with the Hospital claimant suffered work-related injuries to his lower back on September 12, 1987 and October 14, 1987. Claimant testified that while he was lifting several laundry bags he experienced an onset of low back pain. He stayed home for a week and stated that his back pain improved with bed rest. Claimant returned to work, and three weeks later, while stacking laundry bags, he again suffered a reoccurrence of lower back pain. For these injuries, claimant received temporary and partial disability benefits from the Hospital.
On June 8, 1988 claimant filed a workers' compensation action against the Hospital. After a formal hearing, the WCJ entered orders on August 24, 1989 and September 26, 1989, incorporating findings and conclusions determining, among other things, that claimant had sustained an injury in 1968 while working for an employer other than the Hospital; that claimant had filed a workers' compensation complaint based on his 1968 injury, receiving compensation benefits and a lump-sum settlement totalling $9,114.44; that claimant knowingly and willfully made false representations on his application for employment regarding his past employment with NMSU; that until March 1989 claimant failed to reveal his past work with NMSU; that the Hospital relied on claimant's false representations contained in his employment application relating to his physical condition, and that this reliance was a substantial factor in hiring him.
The findings of the WCJ also determined that claimant never fully recovered from his 1968 injury, and that injury was causally connected to his false representations concerning his physical condition, contained in the Hospital application; that because of his false application of employment, claimant was barred from receiving compensation benefits due to the 1987 incidents; that claimant was not entitled to futur
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