Opinion ID: 1885322
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Locality: vocational rehabilitation

Text: In addition to his employer's writ application, Haynes also filed a writ application with this Court as to that portion of the appellate court decision that held the employer's locale primed the employee's locale in determining where a vocational rehabilitation consultant was to focus its job search attention. Based upon this holding the appellate court affirmed the OWC's denial of Haynes's request for attorneys' fees for Williams's arbitrary discontinuance of vocational rehabilitation. We granted Haynes's writ application to address the question of whether LA.REV. STAT. ANN. § 23:1221(3)(c)(i) or LA.REV. STAT. ANN. § 23:1226(B)(2) governs the locality where a vocational consultant should first focus his efforts in returning the injured worker to gainful employment. Haynes v. Williams Fence and Aluminum, XXXX-XXXX (La.4/26/02), 813 So.2d 1096. In a nutshell, the undisputed facts show that Haynes suffered a work related injury on January 19, 1999, while he was employed at Williams, a small aluminum siding and fence company located in the area of Pineville, Louisiana. After Haynes underwent initial orthopedic surgery on January 22, 1999, to repair a rather serious wrist injury, LUBA, Williams's workers' compensation provider, hired Vocational Solutions to provide vocational rehabilitation services to Haynes. Haynes originally met with a vocational rehabilitation consultant twice in the Pineville area. Thereafter, between May 17, 1999 and June 12, 2000, Haynes continued to have pain, popping, and clicking in his wrist which required orthopedic consultations. Ultimately, arthroscopic surgery was required on June 12, 2000, to assess and repair frayed ligaments in the wrist. [13] On July 14, 1999, LUBA converted Haynes's temporary total disability benefits to supplemental earnings benefits. [14] Shortly thereafter, Haynes moved to Breaux Bridge, Louisiana so that his family could give him assistance. An entry in the vocational rehabilitation activity log showed that as of September 7, 1999, the consultant needed to check the Lafayette area for reasonable availability of minimum wage employment to reduce SEB. On January 18, 2000, almost a year to the day after the accident, Williams sent a letter to Haynes offering him a light-duty job at its place of business in Pineville. On January 25, 2000, counsel for Haynes wrote Williams a letter informing him that he was not available for the light-duty job in Pineville because he had relocated to Breaux Bridge. At that time, Haynes's attorney asked Williams to concentrate his search for jobs to locations within a reasonable geographic area of Breaux Bridge. LUBA, relying on the provisions of LA. REV.STAT. ANN. § 23:1221(3)(c)(i), declined to seek jobs for Haynes in the Breaux Bridge area, and closed its vocational rehabilitation file. The OWC denied Haynes's request for attorneys' fees for LUBA's failure to pursue vocational rehabilitation services in the employee's geographic area. The appellate court affirmed the OWC, stating: The employer is required to prove that the job was available to the employee in either the employee's or employer's community or reasonable geographic region. La. R.S. 23:1221(3)(c)(i). Although the Pineville area was no longer in Haynes's community or reasonable geographic region due to his move, it was in [Williams's] community or reasonable geographic area. Haynes, 805 So.2d at 232. It is a fundamental rule of statutory construction that when two statutes deal with the same subject matter, the statute specifically directed to the matter at issue must prevail as an exception to the more general statute. LeBreton v. Rabito, 97-2221 (La.7/8/98), 714 So.2d 1226, 1229. LA.REV.STAT. ANN. § 23:1221(3)(c)(i) provides that for purposes of determining supplemental earnings benefits it is appropriate to consider employment that is proven available to the employee in the employee's or employer's community or reasonable geographic region. Accordingly, as regards supplemental earnings the inquiry must focus on employment shown available in either the employee's or the employer's geographic area. On the other hand, LA.REV.STAT. ANN. § 23:1226(B)(2) provides that for purposes of rehabilitation services, [w]henever possible, employment in a worker's local job pool must be considered and selected prior to consideration of employment in a worker's statewide job pool. Accordingly, for purposes of vocational rehabilitation, it is the duty of the vocational rehabilitation consultant to examine the job pool in the worker's geographic area. The goal of rehabilitation services is to return a disabled worker to work as soon as possible after an injury occurs. LA.REV.STAT. ANN. § 23:1226(B)(1). To effectuate this goal LA.REV.STAT. ANN. § 23:1226(B)(1) lists prioritized options, the first two of which are to return the worker to the same position or a modified position. In the present case, these first two prioritizations were no longer appropriate options because of the passage of time since the date of injury and because financial circumstances required Haynes to relocate a significant distance from the place of his former employment. Based upon the particular proviso in the Workers' Compensation Act relative to vocational rehabilitation, we find the lower courts improperly relied upon the more general provisions used in the determination of supplemental earnings benefits. [15] Therefore, we find it necessary to remand this matter to the appellate court for reconsideration of Haynes's assignment of error relative to his entitlement to attorneys' fees because of Williams's discontinuation of vocational rehabilitation services after the consultant only looked for jobs in the employer's geographic area.