Opinion ID: 880530
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Back Injury

Text: This Court has been reluctant to reopen a Petition for Full and Final Settlement based on mutual mistake surrounding the injury except in a small number of situations. In Kimes v. Charlie's Family Dining & Donut Shop (Mont. 1988), 759 P.2d 986, 45 St.Rep. 1402, this Court allowed an injured worker to reopen his petition where a new and different medical problem was discovered after the settlement. In Weldele v. Medley Development (Mont. 1987), 738 P.2d 1281, 44 St.Rep. 1062, we allowed a reopening of the petition where the claimant's initial condition deteriorated substantially and the treating physician's initial assessment was a misdiagnosis of the actual extent of the injury. There is no evidence in the record indicating that Mr. Whitcher's back condition was originally misdiagnosed and that it subsequently worsened beyond the scope of the initial diagnosis. Nor is there evidence indicating that any new or different medical problem was diagnosed after the settlement. While we are sympathetic to the claimant's purported increased levels of pain, we find nothing in the record to indicate that the present state of his injury is any different than at the time of settlement. The orthopedic surgeon who gave the claimant a 20% whole body impairment rating in 1980 testified again in 1987 that, in his opinion, the impairment rating had not changed during that time. Also, in April of 1982 a myelogram was administered which revealed an area where there was pressure which did not look significantly different from the time of the myelogram at the time of his first surgery (in 1980). The claimant's testimony indicates that he has suffered extreme and often debilitating pain ever since the injury, which appears to have gotten worse over the years. We note that during this time, Mr. Whitcher has been employed in jobs requiring heavy lifting, bending, and long periods of standing, which was discouraged by his physician. Together with the lack of medical testimony justifying a reopening of the case, we conclude that while Mr. Whitcher may indeed be experiencing an increased level of pain, there is nothing to indicate the parties were mutually mistaken about the condition of his back at the time of the settlement.