After holding a hearing, the hearing examiner granted the division's motion. The claimant appealed to the district court, and the district court affirmed the hearing examiner's decision. The claimant perfected his appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court. When a worker's compensation case comes before the Wyoming Supreme Court, we do not accord special deference to the district court's decision. We review the case as if it had come directly from the hearing examiner.
Summary judgments are available in worker's compensation cases.
A summary judgment should be granted when no genuine issue of material fact exists and the moving party is entitled to have a judgment as a matter of law. We do not give deference to those conclusions of law. Instead, if the hearing examiner has not invoked and properly applied the correct rule of law, we remedy the errors. The claimant contends that the hearing examiner erred when it refused to allow him to reopen his case. The claimant attempts to distinguish his case from Erhart by pointing out that Erhart had a hearing while he did not have one.