Opinion ID: 1846026
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Appeal: The Review Panel Erred When It Reversed the Award of Penalties, Interest, and Attorney Fees.

Text: Manchester claims on appeal that the review panel erred in reversing the trial judge's award of waiting-time penalties, interest, and attorney fees based on Drivers Management's failure to pay benefits from February 7 through August 18, 2006. Because there was no real controversy, we agree with Manchester that the trial judge's award of penalties, interest, and attorney fees was warranted, and we reverse the decision of the review panel in this regard. Neb.Rev.Stat. § 48-125 (Cum.Supp. 2008) requires an employer to pay the 50-percent waiting-time penalty in the following circumstances: if (1) the employer fails to pay compensation within 30 days of the employee's notice of a disability and (2) no reasonable controversy existed regarding the employee's claim for benefits. Lagemann v. Nebraska Methodist Hosp., 277 Neb. 335, 762 N.W.2d 51 (2009). A reasonable controversy may exist (1) if there is a question of law previously unanswered by the appellate courts, which question must be answered to determine a right or liability for disposition of a claim under the Nebraska Workers' Compensation Act, or (2) if the properly adduced evidence would support reasonable but opposite conclusions by the Nebraska Workers' Compensation Court concerning an aspect of an employee's claim for workers' compensation, which conclusions affect allowance or rejection of an employee's claim, in whole or in part. See Guico v. Excel Corp., 260 Neb. 712, 619 N.W.2d 470 (2000). Whether a reasonable controversy exists under § 48-125 is a question of fact. Id. In this case, the review panel reversed the trial judge's award of penalties, interest, and attorney fees. The review panel determined that there was a reasonable factual controversy whether Manchester was owed temporary benefits after being terminated from her employment at Drivers Management, where she could have been offered light-duty work but for the fact that she was fired from her position owing to her actions leading to the accident at issue. Referring to the record, the review panel noted that Manchester was cited for speeding, and an employee of Drivers Management testified that if Manchester had not been terminated from her employment, Drivers Management would have had light-duty work available for her. As previously stated in this opinion, compensability under the Nebraska Workers' Compensation Act is determined by § 48-101, which provides: When personal injury is caused to an employee by accident or occupational disease, arising out of and in the course of his or her employment, such employee shall receive compensation therefor from his or her employer if the employee was not willfully negligent at the time of receiving such injury. (Emphasis supplied.) In this case, the record shows that Manchester was injured as a result of the January 8, 2006, accident and that due to the injuries Manchester sustained, she was unable to work. Although Drivers Management suggests on appeal that Manchester was willfully negligent, it did not allege or prove that the accident was the result of willful negligence. Ordinary negligence is not a defense to a workers' compensation action, Neb.Rev.Stat. § 48-102 (Reissue 2004), and Manchester's entitlement to benefits was not meaningfully at issue. Further, in Guico, we explained that [t]he fact that an employer has terminated the employment of an employee, whose ability to perform the work for which he is fitted has been restricted due to an injury arising out of and in the course of his employment, does not destroy the right of the employee to compensation for the injury. 260 Neb. at 723, 619 N.W.2d at 479 (quoting Aldrich v. ASARCO, Inc., 221 Neb. 126, 375 N.W.2d 150 (1985)). This was the law at the time of Manchester's accident. The law and the record in this case support the trial judge's determination that there was no reasonable controversy whether Manchester was entitled to temporary benefits. We therefore reverse the review panel's reversal of the trial judge's award of waiting-time penalties, interest, and attorney fees and reinstate the trial judge's award.