Opinion ID: 1162806
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the awareness doctrine

Text: The awareness doctrine as related to a single event injury like the claimant's has been previously defined in Oklahoma. In McDonald v. Time, D.C., 773 P.2d 1252 (Okla. 1989), this Court discussed at length the awareness doctrine as related to single event injuries. A single event injury was defined as an injury which can be identified with an occurrence that is injurious from which some ill-effect will be, or should be, recognizable immediately. Id., at 1256. The Court stated that when a worker knows that a single event industrial accident has taken place that the worker is charged with awareness of its occurrence. The awareness of the present as well as any potential harm that may result from the single event injury is therefore charged to the employee at the time the employee knows or should have recognized some ill-effect from the accident. The time limitation in which to file a claim for a single event injury is set out in 85 O.S. 1971, § 43, and begins from the time the employee is charged with legal awareness. Id. at 1257. That point is coincidental with the injury of which the worker knew or should have known. The law to be applied in the present case is 85 O.S. 1971, § 43, which was recently applied in Hackler v. Speed Parts Warehouse, 775 P.2d 1362 (Okla. 1989). The facts in Hackler are closely analogous to the present case. The Court applied § 43 to bar the 1985 claim of a woman who was diagnosed permanently disabled in 1984 as a result of a job related accident that occurred in 1975. In Hackler, all the petitioner's medical expenses immediately following the accident were paid by her employer, and there was no Form 3 filed within one year of the accident or the date of the last payment of medical benefits related to the accident. [1] The Court cited McDonald and held that from the time of the accident, employee was charged with legal awareness of both present as well as potential harm that results from a single compensable event. Id., at 1363. Without a Form 3 being filed within the statutory time limitation, the claimant's rights to compensation lapsed. Hackler can be directly applied to this case. The trial court found that Seaton was aware of his injury at the time he was crushed by the forklift and taken to the hospital. Obviously claimant could not know that his leg would be amputated, however, 85 O.S. 1971, § 43, states that a claim must be filed within One Year of the accident or the date of the last payment of medical benefits related to the accident. If Seaton had filed a Form 3 or other claim before August, 1978, his rights would have been preserved until at least 1983, as the employee would have the right to a rehearing on disability benefits within five years. This was not the case, and as in Hackler, a worker's asserted lack of knowledge of a yet to unfold disability is irrelevant. Hackler, at 1363.