Opinion ID: 2534396
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: DeMain

Text: Precision argues that DeMain v. Bruce McLaughlin Logging, 132 Idaho 782, 979 P.2d 655 (1999), stands for the proposition that for an occupational disease to be preexisting under Nelson the occupational disease does not have to be manifest as set forth in I.C. § 72-102(18). Precision's reading of DeMain is incorrect. In DeMain the claimant sought compensation for lower back pain and numbness in his right leg. 132 Idaho at 783, 979 P.2d at 656. In 1976, many years before coming to work for the defendant-employer (McLaughlin), DeMain injured his back in a work-related accident. Id. at 782, 979 P.2d at 655. Although DeMain's injuries from that earlier accident were asymptomatic by the time he began working for McLaughlin, the Industrial Commission found those earlier injuries to have already been preexisting relative to DeMain's position with that employer. Id. at 783-85, 979 P.2d at 656-58. The Industrial Commission did not characterize the lingering effects of DeMain's 1976 injuries as a preexisting occupational disease, but rather as a preexisting weakness or susceptibility. Id. at 783, 979 P.2d at 656. The Commission found that DeMain's preexisting injury was aggravated or `lit up' by the repetitive trauma he incurred operating heavy equipment for McLaughlin. Id. In DeMain, this Court stated the holding in Nelson is not limited to those cases where the pre-existing condition amounts to an occupational disease. Accordingly, DeMain's weakness or susceptibility arising from the 1976 work accident was found to bring Nelson into play, and without a second accident with his new employer the aggravation of DeMain's preexisting condition was not compensable. Id. at 784-85, 979 P.2d at 657-58. In short, DeMain expanded Nelson to apply not only to preexisting occupational diseases, but also to the effects of preexisting injuries. Id. at 782-83, 979 P.2d at 655-56. The Nelson doctrine was applied in DeMain because there the claimant had been found to have aggravated a preexisting injury caused by an accident. Id. at 784, 979 P.2d at 657. In the present case, it was found by the Industrial Commission that Sundquist suffers from an occupational disease that was not preexisting to his employment with Precision. Unlike in DeMain, here the record contains no suggestion Sundquist's pain resulted from having aggravated a preexisting injury caused by an accident. Consequently, the holding in DeMain does not apply to the present facts.