Opinion ID: 2198144
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Compensation Order

Text: Petitioner filed a claim pursuant to the Workers' Compensation Act, D.C.Code § 36-301, et seq. (1997), recodified as D.C.Code § 32-1501, et seq. (2001), seeking temporary total disability benefits for intermittent days of work which he missed due to his clinic visits from May 22, 1997 through June 3, 1997, and from October 20, 1998 to the present, including related medical expenses. In a compensation order dated October 30, 2000, the hearing examiner found that petitioner's testimony that he had continuous neck, head, and shoulder pain which prevented him from working sufficed to invoke the presumption of compensability provided for by D.C.Code § 36-321(1) (1997), recodified at D.C.Code § 32-1521(1) (2001). Despite this initial showing, the hearing examiner concluded that the employer had presented evidence sufficient to overcome the presumption of a causal relationship between the injury and the disability, relying on the absence of any mention of petitioner's neck pain in five medical examinations preceding the October 14, 1998, examination, and petitioner's testimony that he returned to full duty as a laborer for the period between the May 1997 injury and the February 1998 back injury without seeking medical treatment. The hearing examiner dismissed Dr. Dee's medical opinion, reasoning that the long period between the work injury and Dr. Dee's first examination, and its reliance on the claimant's report of only slight relief from symptoms following the injury, cause me to reject the causal relationship opinion expressed therein. The claimant's acknowledgment that he returned to work not only between May 1997 and February 1998, but then again from February 1998 until September 199[8], to the heavy, laborious activities that he described, without missing any time from work and without seeking any medical treatment for his head or neck, suggests that the history given to the doctor is faulty and inaccurate, and the opinion is not based upon valid assumptions. The hearing examiner thus limited the period in which disability would be presumed to the period prior to March 4, 1998, as the medical records on that date failed to make reference to any neck or shoulder complaints. Given that petitioner had established only two days on which he was disabledMay 22 and May 23, 1997 the hearing examiner determined that petitioner was not entitled to any compensation under the Act. See D.C.Code § 36-305(a), recodified at D.C.Code § 32-1505(a) (2001).