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Carter v. Lakeview Regional Medical Center9/23/2005
BEFORE: CARTER, C.J., DOWNING, AND GAIDRY, JJ.
In this workers' compensation case, the plaintiff appeals a trial court judgment denying her claim for benefits and for penalties and attorney fees. We affirm.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Plaintiff, Geraldine Carter, was allegedly injured in the course and scope of her employment with defendant, Lakeview Regional Medical Center ("Lakeview"), on January 16, 2002. Carter had been working for Lakeview as a nuclear medicine technologist since 1995. Her duties, which were often physical in nature, included lifting and moving supplies, machinery, and patients. She claims that on the morning of January 16, while lifting a container of isotopes weighing between twenty and twenty-five pounds off of the floor and placing it on the counter, she experienced a sharp pain on the right side, lumbar region of her back, after which the muscles "went into spasm causing more pain." The accident was unwitnessed. Carter reported the injury later that same day to Julius Aldano, the director of radiology, and an accident report was completed. She also claims to have reported the accident to two co-workers, Kevin Samrow and Denise Barrara. Carter continued working that day and then saw her treating physician, Dr. Craig Parker, for a previously-scheduled appointment that afternoon. Carter was put on light duty by Dr. Parker, but she quit her job on February 4, 2002, claiming she was no longer able to work at all due to her injury.
Carter admitted to a long history of both work-related and non-work-related back injuries dating back to 1982, including a herniated L5-S1 disc, which was not repaired. However, from the time she returned to work in April 2001 after taking a medical leave of absence due to a back injury, until her January 16, 2002 accident, she testified that she did not miss any work due to back pain and that she completed all requirements of her position. She claims that while she continued to have pain during this period, it did not prevent her from working until her January 2002 accident.
Lakeview initially denied Carter's claim for workers' compensation benefits, and on January 14, 2003, she filed a disputed claim for compensation. She later amended this claim to request attorney fees and penalties for the workers' compensation insurer's failure to pay the bills of her treating physician and other pharmaceutical charges which were directly related to her work injury. Approximately thirty days prior to the trial of this matter, Carter began receiving workers' compensation checks back-dated from August 2003.
After a trial, the Workers' Compensation Judge ("WCJ") entered judgment against Carter, finding that she had failed to carry her burden of proving entitlement to compensation benefits. Carter filed this appeal, asserting that the trial court erred in finding that she failed to prove that an accident occurred, that she failed to prove she sustained an injury, and that sanctions in the form of penalties and attorney fees were not owed to plaintiff for Lakeview's failure to pay benefits.
DISCUSSION
In a workers' compensation case, as in other cases, we are bound by the manifest error rule and may not set aside the trial court's findings of fact unless they are clearly wrong or manifestly erroneous. Smith v. Louisiana Dept. of Corrections, 93-1305 (La. 2/28/94), 633 So.2d 129, 132. Even though an appellate court may feel its own evaluations and inferences are more reasonable than those of the factfinder, reasonable evaluations of credibility and reasonable inferences of fact should not be disturbed upon review where conflict exists in the testimony. Id.; Rosell v. ESCO, 549
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