Summary 2009 WY 118

Summary of Decision issued September 24, 2009

Summaries are prepared by Law Librarians and are not official statements of the Wyoming Supreme Court.

Case Name: Jacobs v. State, ex rel., Wyo. Workers’ Safety and Comp. Div.

Citation: 2009 WY 118

Docket Number: S-08-0255

Appeal from the District Court of Albany County, the Honorable Jeffrey A. Donnell, Judge.

Representing Appellant Jacobs: Bill G. Hibbler of Bill G. Hibbler, Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Representing Appellee State: Bruce A. Salzburg, Wyoming Attorney General; John W. Renneisen, Deputy Attorney General; James Michael Causey, Senior Assistant Attorney General.

Facts/Discussion: Jacobs injured his toe in a work-related accident in 1982. He received workers’ compensation benefits for a number of conditions related to the accident for many years including payment for treatment of chronic abdominal pain. In 2003, the Division entered a Final Determination denying further benefits for chronic abdominal pain. Jacobs challenged that action and the OAH determined that the claim was barred by the doctrine of collateral estoppel.

Claim barred under doctrine of collateral estoppel: Collateral estoppel applies in the administrative context. The Court considers four factors: whether the issue decided in the prior adjudication was identical with the issue presented in the present action; whether the prior adjudication resulted in a judgment on the merits; whether the party against whom collateral estoppel is asserted was a party or in privity; and whether the party against whom collateral estoppel is asserted had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue in the prior proceeding. The Court stated it was clear that no prior adjudication had resulted in a judgment on the merits. The Court’s affirmance in Jacobs II sustained the denial of benefits for the knee and lung claims but allowed that benefits for Jacobs’ chronic abdominal pain had not been denied and no decision determining that issue had been formalized.
OAH jurisdiction: Jacobs asserted that the availability of benefits should have been determined under § 27-14-605, which governs modification of benefits previously awarded. The Court stated that the Division’s Final Determination denying benefits was not an effort to modify benefits relating to the original toe injury or retract or modify the previously-uncontested benefits paid in relation to the chronic abdominal pain. Instead, the Final Determination dealt with a new claim and was a separate administrative determination.

Conclusion: After reviewing the record on appeal, the Court was unable to say that a final decision was ever entered determining that Jacobs’ chronic abdominal pain was or was not, causally related to this original, compensable injury. Thus the OAH’s conclusion that Jacobs’ was estopped from raising the claim for benefits was not in accord with the law. The Court found that collateral estoppel does not preclude the Division from determining the compensability of benefits for the chronic abdominal pain. Finally, because the Division was not modifying an award of benefits, its denial of benefits was not subject to the requirements of § 27-14-605.

Reversed and remanded.

C.J. Voigt delivered the decision.

Link: http://tinyurl.com/ycyflkq .

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