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Texas Gas Transmission Corporation v. Dabney8/2/2005
NATURE OF THE CASE: CIVIL - WORKERS' COMPENSATION
DISPOSITION: AFFIRMED 08/02/2005
BEFORE LEE, P.J., IRVING AND ISHEE, JJ.
. Elmer Dabney filed a petition to controvert, alleging that he had received a snakebite on September 1, 1992, while in the course and scope of his employment with Texas Gas Transmission Company. On January 25, 1995, a hearing was held before an administrative law judge, and the administrative law judge found that Dabney had a compensable injury as a result of the snakebite. The administrative law judge awarded temporary total disability benefits from September 1, 1992, to and including September 13, 1993, at the rate of $227.18 per week. She also ordered fifty-two and one-half weeks of permanent partial disability benefits, at the same weekly rate, based upon a thirty percent impairment rating of the lower extremity and a maximum medical improvement date of September 13, 1993. The administrative law judge further ordered Texas Gas and Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, its workers' compensation carrier (Texas Gas/Liberty Mutal), "to provide medical services and supplies as required by the nature of [Dabney's] injury and the process of his recovery therefrom. . . ." The order of the administrative law judge was entered on July 17, 1995. Texas Gas/Liberty Mutual appealed the administrative law judge's decision to the Full Commission which, on March 15, 1996, affirmed the order of the administrative law judge. Texas Gas/Liberty Mutual did not appeal the decision of the Full Commission. Therefore, the Full Commission's March 15, 1996 order became final and binding upon Texas Gas/Liberty Mutual.
. Over three years later, on May 7, 1999, Dabney filed a motion with the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission seeking to reopen the case and to compel the payment of a medical bill in the amount of $1,135.99 from Neurology Clinic, P.A. On May 7, 2002, a hearing was held before an administrative law judge. On September 11, 2002, the administrative law judge held that the immunoglobulin treatment rendered by Dr. Charles A. Cape of the Neurology Clinic was medically necessary and ordered Texas Gas/Liberty Mutual to provide " edical treatment, services and supplies . . . for such period as [Dabney's injury and the process of [Dabney's] recovery may require, specifically including the immunoglobulin treatment recommended by Dr. Cape and now tendered by Dr. O'Brien. . . ." However, the administrative law judge did not award additional benefits for temporary total disability or permanent partial disability.
. Thereafter, Dabney filed a motion to amend the opinion of the administrative law judge to include additional benefits. This motion was denied, and both Dabney and Texas Gas/Liberty Mutual appealed to the Full Commission. The Full Commission affirmed in toto the order of the administrative law judge. Texas Gas/Liberty Mutual appealed to the circuit court, and Dabney filed a cross-appeal. The Circuit Court of DeSoto County affirmed the decision of the Full Commission.
. Texas Gas/Liberty Mutual has now appealed the decision of the circuit court, asserting the following issues: (1) whether the order of the Full Commission should be overruled because there is no expert scientific or medical evidence which proves by a reasonable degree of medical probability that Dabney's condition of peripheral poylneuropathy was caused by a copperhead snakebite, and (2) whether Dabney suffers from pre-existing diseases or unrelated medical conditions which are medically recognized causes of neuropathy and, if so, whether Dabney proved a direct causal relationship between his current medical condition of peripheral polyneuropathy and the inci
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