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Centralia Mining Co. v. Frost3/15/2005
In 2000, after the Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) denied Dennis Frost's application to reopen his 1992 neck injury claim, the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals (Board) reversed. On review, the superior court reinstated L&I's ruling. We reverse and remand for reinstatement of the Board's decision.
FACTS
On July 10, 1992, Frost, a 42-year-old heavy equipment operator, suffered an industrial neck injury while working for Centralia Mining Company. Ten months later, he filed a workers' compensation claim with L&I.
Dr. Christiansen, Frost's physician since 1984, initially treated his injury with pain medications and traction. In 1993, when a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of Frost's neck revealed a herniated disk at the C5/6 vertebrae, Christiansen referred him to a neurosurgeon, who performed a C5/6 left cervical laminectomy to remove part of the disk. Four months later, Frost returned to his regular job and L&I closed his claim.
On March 15, 1994, Frost terminated his employment with Centralia due to neck pain. On November 4, 1994, he asked L&I to reopen his 1992 claim. L&I reopened his claim for temporary aggravation of his injury and closed it on December 22, 1995. On December 23, 1996, Frost filed his second application to reopen his 1992 claim, but when L&I denied it, Frost did not appeal.
On March 8, 1999, Frost filed his third application. On May 28, 1999, L&I denied the application on the grounds that the condition caused by his injury had not worsened since his final claim closure. Frost did not appeal.
In 2000, the MRI of Frost's neck revealed marked degenerative disk disease at levels C4/5 and C6/7, the levels right above and below the point of his 1993 neck surgery. On August 18, 2000, Frost filed his fourth application with the L&I to reopen his 1992 claim.
In October 2000, Dr. Tobin, a retired orthopedic surgeon, performed an independent medical examination of Frost and noted that during the seven-year interval, Frost's spinal canal progressively degenerated throughout his neck at the levels C3/4, C4/5, and C5/6. But Tobin noted that these changes could be the result of Frost's natural aging process, not the 1992 industrial injury. Based on that evaluation, L&I denied Frost's application.
On May 22, 2001, Frost appealed L&I's decision to the Board. In February 2002, Christiansen, who did not see Frost between 1995 and 2002, examined him and concluded that his medical condition had worsened between May 28, 1999, and April 10, 2001. He testified: It's my studied opinion that the degenerative condition that caused his widespread neuropathy was probably caused by his idiosyncratic work behavior of 15 or 17 years running heavy equipment and, no doubt, the accident that he had wherein he had the specific finding of a C6 neuropathy and herniated disk at C5-6 probably injured more levels of disk to some degree, but the level that was injured the most was at C5-6, and that's where he had an overt herniated disk. . . . It would be . . . unlikely that a person who had a meaningful injury to his neck by a sudden accelerated motion, and all the force and all the damage would be on one little level. No doubt there was a certain amount of damage at other levels, but it didn't show up at that small frame of time.
Clerk's Papers (CP) at 204-05.
Thereafter, an Industrial Appeals Judge (IAJ) entered a proposed decision ordering L&I to reopen Frost's claim. In response to Centralia's petition for review, the Board adopted the IAJ's proposed order and directed L&I to reopen Frost's claim.
Centralia app
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