Opinion ID: 201309
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Consultation of Whitman's Physician

Text: 28 Whitman's final argument is that maintenance and cure should have continued until her physicians declared her condition permanent. See Vella v. Ford Motor Co., 421 U.S. 1, 4-5, 95 S.Ct. 1381, 43 L.Ed.2d 682 (1975) (holding that maintenance and cure continues until a seaman's injury is medically diagnosed as permanent); Hubbard v. Faros Fisheries, Inc., 626 F.2d 196, 202 (1st Cir.1980) (concluding that a seaman was entitled to maintenance and cure until his physicians diagnosed his condition as permanent). According to Whitman, Miles's insurance representative, Patrick O'Toole, terminated her maintenance and cure benefits prior to consulting her physicians and without any evidence that Whitman's MS was permanent and incapable of being improved. Whitman argues that the earliest the diagnosis of permanency could have occurred was July 30, 2003, when Miles deposed her doctor. 29 In Vella, the Supreme Court quoted with approval a Second Circuit decision stating that [t]he shipowner is liable for maintenance and cure only until the disease is cured or recognized as incurable.  Vella v. Ford Motor, 421 U.S. at 6 n. 5, 95 S.Ct. 1381 (quoting Desmond v. United States, 217 F.2d 948, 950 (2d Cir.1954) (emphasis added)). In the instant case, it is undisputed that, as of August 15, 2000, Whitman was diagnosed by her physicians as having MS, a disease that is by definition recognized as permanent and incurable. 8 In this situation, we do not believe that a physician must use the magic words permanent or incapable of being improved in a diagnosis. We agree with the district court that such a requirement would elevate form over substance. Whitman, 294 F.Supp.2d at 124. By August 15, 2000, Whitman had been diagnosed by her physicians with MS, a condition that is recognized as incurable. Miles's obligation to provide maintenance and cure therefore ended by August 15, 2000.