Opinion ID: 2013537
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Whether a Cumulative Injury Was Established.

Text: The employer contends that a cumulative injury has not been established. It urges that to show a cumulative injury a claimant must produce evidence of having suffered a distinct and discreet disability solely attributable to work activities over time, as opposed to an aggravation of a preexisting injury from an identified traumatic event. The employer urges that this argument is supported by our decision in Ellingson v. Fleetguard, Inc., 599 N.W.2d 440, 444 (Iowa 1999). In Ellingson the claimant sustained a traumatic injury to her neck when a box fell on her in 1985. She continued to suffer problems over the next several years and subsequently alleged that a cumulative injury unrelated to the 1985 traumatic injury had manifested itself in 1992. Claimant's counsel admitted in argument that the cumulative-injury claim was designed to produce a new date of injury, which would provide a higher wage base for computing her compensation. The significant factor in the Ellingson case was that the extent of the 1985 injury was being litigated in the same proceeding in which the separate cumulative-injury claim was being urged. Moreover, the evidence conclusively showed that the ultimate extent of industrial disability was affected by job-related activities that aggravated the 1985 neck injury. As a result of that circumstance, this court held that the compensable consequences of the aggravation of the 1985 neck injury must be adjudicated as part of the disability flowing from that injury. In the present case, claimant's arbitration petition seeking benefits for the September 3, 1993 injury was voluntarily dismissed in the face of a statute-of-limitations defense by the employer. The industrial commissioner concluded that the dismissal of that petition precluded any consideration of the September 3, 1993 injury as a compensable event. Given this circumstance, we believe that claimant should be permitted to recover by way of a cumulative-injury claim for any increase in functional disability shown to have occurred as the result of day-to-day activities in the workplace subsequent to the September 3, 1993 injury. Some support for our conclusion on this issue is found in Ziegler v. United States Gypsum Co., 252 Iowa 613, 620, 106 N.W.2d 591, 595 (1960). In that case, an earlier traumatic injury had been compensated, and the claimant, in lieu of a review reopening proceeding, elected to file an original arbitration petition in which he sought compensation for the increased degree of disability that resulted from day-to-day workplace activities that aggravated a prior back injury. We approved a separate award for the percentage of permanent partial disability shown to exist over and above the percentage of disability adjudged with respect to the prior injury. The Ziegler decision stands for the proposition that, when a permanent disability has been established by an adjudicated award, a later aggravation may provide an independent compensable event but only to the extent of the increased disability that flows therefrom. See Ziegler, 252 Iowa at 620, 106 N.W.2d at 595. We do not believe that the results should be different in the present case simply because there was no award for the prior injury as a result of the claim having become time barred. We are convinced that the agency's conclusion that the evidence supported an award of compensation for a cumulative injury is not contrary to law.