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Sanchez v. Zanio's Foods10/20/2005
Defendants Zanios Foods, Inc. and Food Industry Self-Insurance Fund of New Mexico (collectively, Employer) seek review of a Workers' Compensation Administration (the Administration) award of benefits to Ray Sanchez (Worker) and of fees to his attorney.
BACKGROUND
Worker was a truck driver for Employer. On August 1, 2001, Worker suffered an injury to his back when unloading meat he was delivering to a customer. Following the incident, Worker first saw Dr. Anthony Reeve on August 13, 2001. Dr. Reeve referred Worker to Dr. Richard Castillo for surgical evaluation. Dr. Castillo saw Worker in October 2001. In November 2002, Worker's counsel caused him to change medical providers from Drs. Reeve and Castillo to Dr. Jonathan Burg. Dr. Burg, who did not trust and, it appears, regularly rejected Dr. Castillo's surgical evaluations, referred Worker to Dr. Claude Gelinas for surgical evaluation.
Employer paid temporary total disability and permanent partial disability benefits and on October 15, 2001, offered a light-duty position to Worker. After Worker rejected the offer, Employer reduced the benefits it paid to Worker. Thereafter, on October 17, 2002, Worker filed a complaint with the Administration.
Sometime after litigation commenced, Employer discovered that Worker had suffered at least three back injuries before the August 2001 accident. The first incident occurred in 1988, when Worker suffered a low back injury while lifting materials on the job at Bowers Electric. He was treated by Dr. McCutcheon, and was unemployed for approximately a year and a half while pursuing a workers' compensation claim. The second incident occurred in 1992, when Worker suffered a low back injury while lifting kegs on the job at Coors Distributing. He was treated at Lovelace Medical Center and was unable to work for a period of time. The third incident occurred in 2000, when Worker was involved in an automobile accident for which he sought treatment at Lovelace for back pain and muscle spasms, again requiring Worker to take a leave of absence from work.
After learning about Worker's medical history, Employer filed a motion in limine and, in the alternative, for sanctions. Employer asserted that Worker had not disclosed relevant and pertinent material information concerning his prior back injury condition and history. Employer contended that the doctors' causation opinions were inadmissible because they were based on misinformation and an untrue history. Employer asked the court to sanction Worker for untrue statements in his deposition and for misrepresenting his medical history to his doctors. The workers' compensation judge (WCJ) denied the motion. After a hearing on the merits, the WCJ entered findings of fact and conclusions of law and a compensation order was entered in Worker's favor. The appeal in No. 24,315 followed.The WCJ later awarded attorney fees to Worker's attorney and ordered Employer to pay one-half of the fees. Employer's appeal in No. 24,500 followed. We consolidated the two appeals.
Employer raises four points of error, challenging: (1) the sufficiency of the evidence of causation to support the compensation order, (2) the denial of a motion to exclude certain expert testimony as a sanction for alleged bad faith discovery practices, (3) the determination that an offer of employment was reasonably rejected, and (4) the award of attorney fees.
In short, we do not think the WCJ's disability determination can stand on the WCJ's findings, due to lack of sufficient clarity, explanation, and specificity in the findings and the disability conclusion, and we think it appropriate to remand for further consideration. In
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