Opinion ID: 2033543
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Nature and Extent

Text: It does not, however, necessarily follow that claimant is entitled to a total and permanent disability award. As noted above, claimant is entitled to a disability award only for the nature and extent of his disability that was caused by employment exposure. In his memorandum of decision, the arbitrator clearly stated that the permanent partial disability award was based upon temporary aggravation of claimant's breathing problems by employment exposure to coal dust. A finding of temporary aggravation, however, does not support a permanent disability award. If the aggravation was only temporary, the Commission should have awarded temporary disability to the extent of claimant's disability. See J. McElveen & L. Postol, Compensating Occupational Disease Victims Under the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 32 Am. U.L.Rev. 717, 739 (1983) ([I]f a worker's employment only temporarily aggravated a chronic non-occupational disability, a permanent disability compensation award would not be justified. Rather, compensation could be awarded only for the temporary time period of the aggravation). Furthermore, employment exposure that only temporarily aggravates a claimant's ailment lacks the causal connection necessary to support a permanent disability award. 820 ILCS 310/1(d) (West 1994) (an employment-aggravated occupational disease is a disease which has become aggravated and rendered disabling as a result of the exposure of the employment (emphasis added)); Hash v. Montana Silversmith (1993), 256 Mont. 252, 846 P.2d 981 (holding that a totally disabled claimant whose preexisting osteoarthritis was temporarily aggravated by her employment was entitled to temporary total disability benefits but not permanent total disability benefits because there was no causal connection between the temporary aggravation and the permanent disability). Accordingly, the arbitrator's permanent disability award is inconsistent with his finding of temporary aggravation and cannot be upheld. A claimant whose preexisting ailment was temporarily aggravated by employment exposure is entitled to a disability award to the full extent of his disability, but only for the time the aggravation persists, even though the claimant may remain permanently and totally disabled after the effects of the aggravation have subsided.