Mesa v. ICA/Tryon

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NOTICE: THIS DECISION DOES NOT CREATE LEGAL PRECEDENT AND MAY NOT BE CITED EXCEPT AS AUTHORIZED BY APPLICABLE RULES. See Ariz. R. Supreme Court 111(c); ARCAP 28(c); Ariz. R. Crim. P. 31.24 IN THE COURT OF APPEALS STATE OF ARIZONA DIVISION ONE ) ) ) Petitioner Employer, ) ) CITY OF MESA, ) ) Petitioner Carrier, ) ) v. ) THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION OF ARIZONA, ) ) ) Respondent, ) ) LEEROY TRYON, ) ) Respondent Employee, ) CITY OF MESA, DIVISION ONE FILED: 07/07/2011 RUTH A. WILLINGHAM, CLERK BY: DLL No. 1 CA-IC 10-0055 DEPARTMENT E MEMORANDUM DECISION (Not for Publication Rule 28, Arizona Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure) Special Action Industrial Commission ICA Claim No. 20073-510042 Carrier Claim No. WC2007012898 Administrative Law Judge Michael A. Mosesso AWARD AFFIRMED Klein, Lundmark, Barberich & LaMont, P.C. By R. Todd Lundmark Eric W. Slavin Attorneys for Petitioners Employer and Carrier Andrew Wade, Chief Counsel The Industrial Commission of Arizona Attorney for Respondent Phoenix Phoenix Taylor & Associates, PLLC By Dennis R. Kurth Attorneys for Respondent Employee Phoenix B R O D M A N, Judge ¶1 This is a special action review of an Industrial Commission of Arizona ( ICA ) award and decision upon review granting a petition for rearrangement and awarding the respondent employee ( claimant ) unscheduled permanent partial disability benefits. The appeal presents a single issue: whether the administrative law judge ( ALJ ) erroneously granted rearrangement pursuant to Arizona section 23-1044(F)(2) (Supp. 2010). Revised Statutes ( A.R.S. ) We conclude that the record contains sufficient evidence to support the ALJ s finding of changed circumstances supporting rearrangement and thus affirm the award. I. JURISDICTION AND STANDARD OF REVIEW ¶2 This court has jurisdiction pursuant to A.R.S. §§ 12- 120.21(A)(2) (2003), 23-951(A) (1995), Procedure for Special Actions 10. and Arizona Rules of In reviewing findings and awards of the ICA, we defer to the ALJ s factual findings but review questions of law de novo. Young v. Indus. Comm n, 204 Ariz. 267, 270, ¶ 14, 63 P.3d 298, 301 (App. 2003). We consider the evidence in a light most favorable to upholding the ALJ s 2 award. Lovitch v. Indus. Comm n, 202 Ariz. 102, 105, ¶ 16, 41 P.3d 640, 643 (App. 2002). II. PROCEDURAL AND FACTUAL HISTORY ¶3 The claimant sustained an industrial low back injury on December 5, 2007, while working as a firefighter for the self-insured petitioner employer, City of Mesa ( Mesa ). filed a benefits. workers compensation claim, which was accepted He for The claimant received conservative medical treatment from James Maxwell, M.D., who found the claimant s condition permanent and stationary on June 11, 2008, with an eight percent permanent impairment. Based on Dr. Maxwell s report, Mesa issued a notice of claim status finding the claimant stationary with an unscheduled permanent impairment. As a result of his back injury, Mesa medically retired the claimant. ¶4 The ICA next entered its findings and award for an unscheduled permanent partial disability with no loss of earning capacity ( LEC ). The basis stated for the award was: Insurance carrier submitted a loss of earning capacity recommendation authored by Gecko 1 indicating of the employers surveyed the reported wages on average would be $14.42 per hour or $2,501.01 per month. Currently, applicant would be able to obtain employment that currently exceeds his previously established average 1 The August 13, 2008 Loss of Earning Capacity Recommendation was authored by Rebecca Lollich and was filed with the ALJ on March 1, 2010. 3 monthly wage. 2 Therefore, it is respectfully recommended that applicant not be awarded any monthly earning ability based on employers contacted for the vocational directives of dialysis technician, medical assistant, phlebotomist and cardiac monitor assistant. Per information contained in the file the position of a medical assistant would have paid $14.42 per hour. $14.42 x 40 x 4.333 = $2,499.27 Medical limitations would not preclude applicant [from] performing the duties of a medical assistant or comparable work earning an average monthly sum equal to or in excess of established average monthly wage thereby sustaining no loss of earning capacity. The claimant did not protest the ICA s award, and it became final. ¶5 the Approximately one year after the ICA s no LEC award, claimant filed a petition for rearrangement. At the rearrangement hearing, he testified that at the time the ICA entered its no LEC award, he had been looking for the type of positions recommended by Ms. Lollich, but he had been unable to find that type of work. He stated that he did not protest the ICA s award because he believed it was just a matter of time before . . . [he] found one of those positions. In fact, the only job the claimant found was as a part-time employee in the liquor department at Fry s Food Stores. Due to his inability to find a better paying job, claimant eventually filed the petition 2 February 22, 2008 Notice of Average Monthly Wage setting claimant s wage at the statutory maximum of $2,400.00 per month. 4 for rearrangement accompanied by Richard Prestwood s labor market report. ¶6 The ICA issued administrative findings and award denying rearrangement, and the claimant timely requested an ICA hearing. Two ICA hearings were held for testimony from the claimant and two labor market experts, Mr. Prestwood and Ms. Lollich. ¶7 for Mr. Prestwood performed an earning capacity evaluation the claimant. In doing so, he reviewed the claimant s medical records, the ICA records and reports, and interviewed the claimant. He explained that the best measure claimant s earning capacity was his job at Fry s. of the Based on the Fry s employment, Mr. Prestwood testified that the claimant was entitled to a loss of earning capacity award in the amount of $924.40 per month based on part-time employment or $528.79 per month based on full-time employment. ¶8 Mr. Prestwood also commented on Ms. Lollich s initial August 13, reports. education, positions 2008 and supplemental March 3, 2010 labor market He testified that the claimant lacked the appropriate certification, listed and and that experience none of them for were any of the appropriate. Furthermore, he stated that the jobs Ms. Lollich recommended at the time of the petition for 5 rearrangement were largely unchanged from the jobs that she had recommended at the time of the ICA s initial no LEC award. Finally, he testified that these recommendations caused the ICA s November 10, 2008 no LEC award to be incorrect. ¶9 13, Ms. Lollich testified in accordance with her August 2008 and March 3, 2010 labor market reports that the positions identified in those reports were both suitable for and reasonably available to the claimant. The fact that claimant had not found work in any of the listed positions did not change her opinion. ¶10 At the conclusion of the hearings, the ALJ entered an award granting rearrangement. Mesa timely requested administrative review, and the ALJ supplemented and affirmed the Award. Mesa next brought this appeal. III. DISCUSSION ¶11 Mesa claimant s argues petition that for the ALJ erroneously rearrangement. granted the Rearrangement is governed by A.R.S. § 23-1044, which provides in pertinent part: F. For the purposes of subsection C of this section, the commission, in accordance with the provisions of § 23-1047 when the physical condition of the injured employee becomes stationary, shall determine the amount which represents the reduced monthly earning capacity and upon such determination make an award of compensation which shall be subject to change in any of the following events: . . . . 6 2. Upon a showing of a reduction in the earning capacity of the employee arising out of such injury where there is no change in the employee s physical condition, subsequent to the findings and award. This subsection permits rearrangement when there is a reduction in earning capacity causally related to the industrial injury that results occurring from after some the external commission change issued in its circumstances final award. Gallegos v. Indus. Comm n, 144 Ariz. 1, 2, 695 P.2d 250, 251 (1985). ¶12 The proof. Ariz. party seeking rearrangement has the of See Pima Cnty. Bd. of Supervisors v. Indus. Comm n, 149 38, 44, 716 P.2d 407, 413 (1986) (whichever petitions for rearrangement has burden of proof). in burden earning capacity is measured by party A reduction comparing the facts determined by the [prior] final findings and award with those existing filed. ¶13 at the time of the petition for rearrangement is Gallegos, 144 Ariz. at 5, 695 P.2d at 254. In this case, Mesa argues there is no change in circumstances to support rearrangement because the claimant was earning the same wage at the time the prior no LEC award became final as he was when he filed his petition for rearrangement. Since the facts are unchanged, Mesa asserts that the claimant had to protest the no LEC award before it became final and that 7 now he is precluded from doing so. But cf. Stainless Specialty Mfg. Co. v. Indus. Comm n, 144 Ariz. 12, 18, 695 P.2d 261, 267 (1985) (rearrangement by definition is a statutory exception to finality). We disagree and find support for the ALJ s award in Gallegos. ¶14 In Gallegos, the claimant sustained an industrial back injury while employed as a laborer earning $4.15 per hour. Ariz. at 2, 695 P.2d at 251. 144 After being released to return to work, financial need caused him to accept work as a furniture mover earning $8 per hour. After six weeks as a furniture mover, he had to quit because the work was too strenuous. Id. The ICA subsequently entered a findings and award for a fifteen percent permanent partial impairment and no LEC based on the claimant s earnings as a furniture mover. ICA entered furniture but the award, was the working earning minimum wage. Id. claimant at a Id. was family dry At the time the no longer cleaning moving business He did not protest the ICA award, and despite being factually erroneous, the award became final and res judicata. ¶15 Thereafter, rearrangement earnings. Id. based the on his claimant actual Id. at 3, 695 P.2d at 252. filed minimum a wage petition for reemployment The Arizona Supreme Court held that, despite being erroneous, the ICA s findings and award 8 for no LEC was final and established the comparison point for the claimant s petition for rearrangement. at 253. Id. at 4, 695 P.2d For that reason, the court found that the claimant s minimum wage earnings at the time he filed the petition for rearrangement satisfied the A.R.S. § 23-1044(F)(2) requirement of changed circumstances. ¶16 Id. at 5-6, 695 P.2d at 254-55. In this case, the prior final findings and award found that the claimant could work full time as a medical assistant and earn $14.42 per hour. At the time he filed the petition for rearrangement, the claimant had been unable to obtain that type of position and was working as a grocery clerk earning $8.30 per hour. 643, See Maness v. Indus. Comm n, 102 Ariz. 557, 559, 434 P.2d 645 (1967) (evidence of post-injury earnings presumption of post-injury earning capacity). market expert also testified that this raises a Claimant s labor represented measure of the claimant s current earning capacity. the best These facts are consistent with the holding in Gallegos. ¶17 Although Mesa s labor market expert disagreed with the claimant s allegation, it is the ALJ s duty to resolve all conflicts in the evidence and to draw all warranted inferences. Malinski v. Indus. Comm n, 103 Ariz. 213, 217, 439 P.2d 485, 489 (1968). market Here, the ALJ resolved the conflict between the labor experts in favor of the 9 claimant. Mr. Prestwood s testimony established that the claimant s earning capacity at the time he filed the petition for rearrangement was $8.30 per hour. hour Because that is substantially less than the $14.42 per found properly by found 1044(F)(2) and the a prior change final in findings circumstances rearrangement under and award, under Gallegos was the A.R.S. § ALJ 23- appropriate. For all of the foregoing reasons, we affirm the award. /s/ ______________________________ ROGER E. BRODMAN, Judge* CONCURRING: /s/ ________________________________ MAURICE PORTLEY, Presiding Judge /s/ _______________________________ LAWRENCE F. WINTHROP, Judge * Pursuant to Article VI, Section 3 of the Arizona Constitution, the Arizona Supreme Court designated the Honorable Roger E. Brodman, Judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court, to sit in this matter. 10

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