Summary 2010 WY 85

Summary of Decision issued June 25, 2010

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

Case Name: Judd v. State ex rel., Wyo. Workers’ Safety & Comp. Div.

Citation: 2010 WY 85

Docket Number: S-09-0095

Appeal from the District Court of Converse County, the Honorable John C. Brooks, Judge.

Representing Judd: Nancy L. Williams, Douglas, Wyoming.

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

Facts/Discussion: Judd suffered an injury to her right knee while at work. The Workers’ Compensation Division (the Division) found the injury to be compensable and awarded benefits. Judd’s knee continued to cause her pain and approximately six months later she sought preauthorization from the Division for knee replacement surgery. The Division determined that Judd’s current knee problems related solely to preexisting degenerative arthritis and denied further benefits.

Jurisdiction: Judd contended that the Division improperly referred her case to the Medical Commission. She argued that because she did not request or agree to the referral of her case, the Medical Commission lacked jurisdiction. The option of the parties to agree to have a contested case referred to the Medical Commission is only one of the methods by which the Medical commission may attain jurisdiction. The Division itself has authority to directly refer medically contested matters to the Medical Commission for hearing. Additionally, once Judd had undergone surgery without preauthorization, the issue was not moot and the Medial Commission did not lose jurisdiction.
Material aggravation of preexisting condition: Neither Judd nor her treating physician disputes the preexisting degenerative arthritis in Judd’s knee nor the severity of that preexisting condition. There was no dispute among the medical experts who examined and evaluated Judd as to the cause of the degenerative arthritis. Neither Judd nor her treating physician suggested that her fall in the workplace caused her degenerative condition. There is no dispute that Judd’s job as a physical therapy aid was physically demanding or that for the approximately three months before the fall that Judd was working full-time without restriction. There is no dispute that prior to her work accident, she experienced only minor aching in her right knee with changes in the weather and after the fall, she was in pain, could not put weight on the knee, and did not regain function in the knee until the total knee replacement surgery was performed. The point on which the experts disagreed was whether Judd’s fall in the workplace materially aggravated Judd’s preexisting arthritis in her right knee. The Medical Commission denied compensation for Judd’s total knee replacement surgery concluding it was inevitable and the “contribution of the significant preexisting condition to the total knee replacement was far more considerable than the relatively minor fall that occurred on that date.” Wyoming law requires that the work injury combine with the preexisting condition to create the present disability and need for treatment. The Court noted Slaymaker presented facts similar to the instant case. In Straube the Court held that the employer takes an employee as he finds him and it is not material that injury could have occurred at anytime. In Roggenbuck, the court stated that surgery to treat preexisting condition was compensable where work effort brought the need for surgery to a head and forced the surgery to be done at that time.

Conclusion: The evidence is undisputed that despite Judd’s preexisting degenerative condition, she was able to work full-time without restriction before her work injury and after her work injury she suffered debilitating pain that prevented her from putting weight on her knee and from working. The work injury brought Judd’s need for surgery to a head, and the Medical Commission erred in denying benefits for the surgery.

Reversed.

J. Golden delivered the decision.

Link: http://tinyurl.com/28p5pcv .

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