Opinion ID: 2087795
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: Employee's Petition to Review Alleging a Return of Incapacity and Resultant Employer Liability

Text: We reject employee's contention that employer violated a WCC order to pay compensation to employee after the trial judge in 93-6139 ordered the MOA to be amended. The decree in 87-9010 did not order payment of any benefits; on the contrary, it terminated them as of September 6, 1988. Moreover, the trial judge's order in 93-6139 amending the MOA was not an order requiring employer to pay compensation to employee. Thus, there was no order or decree requiring employer to make any payments of compensation to employee. Finally, employee failed to show any failure on employer's part to provide payment of any weekly benefits due her. Failure to present evidence of an essential aspect of a petition requires entry of a decree denying and dismissing the petition. See Faria v. Carol Cable, 527 A.2d 641 (R.I.1987). Here, employee presented no evidence pertaining to this issue, and therefore the trial judge properly dismissed this aspect of her petition. In 95-5023, we conclude that the trial judge and the panel were both correct in applying the doctrine of res judicata to employee's petition alleging a recurrence of incapacity because of her neck injury as of September 7, 1988, and continuing. We recently reaffirmed that the doctrine of res judicata should have limited application when the subject matter of the litigation is a petition to review decrees or agreements in workers' compensation cases. Lavoie v. Victor Electric, 732 A.2d 52, 54 (R.I. 1999). In Lavoie, we stated, In order for the doctrine to be applicable, there must be an identity of issues, the prior proceeding must have resulted in a final judgment, and the parties must be the same parties or in privity with the parties in the original proceeding.    `It is our opinion that in enacting [the WCA]the legislature intended to give both an employer and an employee a comprehensive right to litigate from time to time, on a petition to review or one based on a new injury, questions involving an increase or decrease in the incapacity of the employee after an approved agreement or a decree has been entered. In our judgment it would do violence to the legislative intent to apply the doctrine of res adjudicata so as to preclude an employer or an employee from having an actual adjudication of the issue of alleged increased or decreased incapacity which may have inhered in the physical injury described in the agreement, although it had not become incapacitating at the time of the prior proceeding and decision.' Id. (quoting Di Vona v. Haverhill Shoe Novelty Co., 85 R.I. 122, 126, 127 A.2d 503, 505 (1956)). (Emphasis added.) Moreover, in Di Vona we held that res judicata will be applied in workers' compensation cases only with respect to such issues as were actually raised and decided in the prior action. Di Vona, 85 R.I. at 126, 127 A.2d at 506. The question then becomes one of fact: Was the questioned issue of fact raised and decided in the prior case? If it was, it is barred by the doctrine. If it was not so raised and decided, it may properly be heard in the subsequent proceeding in accordance with the act. Id. The trial judge in 95-5023 ruled that the alleged recurrence of incapacity beginning as of September 7, 1988, and continuing  must be denied in light of the decision in W.C.C. No. 89-8002. In that case, the employee alleged a return of incapacity beginning around October of 1988. The petition was denied in a decree entered on February 28, 1990. That issue is therefore res judicata, particularly since the decision reflects that the medical evidence reviewed by the trial judge in that matter discussed primarily her neck complaints. The judge evaluated that medical evidence on its merits. His decision was not based upon the ground that the memorandum of agreement did not include a neck injury. (Emphasis added.) It is clear, then, that the trial judge determined, and the Appellate Division affirmed, that the parties in 89-8002 had in fact actually litigated and the trial judge finally decided that the injury to her neck, whilenot included in the 1986 MOA, had not recurred as of October 1988, and continuing, until the 1990 ruling in that case. We affirm these determinations because the record contains factual support for these rulings. Finally, regarding employee's petition to review in 95-5023 alleging a return of incapacity because of her neck injury as of June 13, 1994, and continuing, the WCC trial judges in 87-9010, 89-8002 and 95-5023 properly found that employee failed to demonstrate a return of incapacity as a result of her work-related injuries for each of the time periods covered by those decrees. When WCC trial judges are presented with conflicting medical opinions, they are entitled to elect one expert opinion over the other, in whole or in part. See Parenteau v. Zimmerman Engineering, Inc., 111 R.I. 68, 299 A.2d 168 (1973). As long as the medical opinion relied upon is competent, the trial judge's choice should not be disturbed. Id. at 78, 299 A.2d at 174. The panel stated in its decision that the trial judge in 95-5023 reviewed the record extensively and noted in particular that the opinions of the employee's treating physician on the issue of incapacity had remained unchanged since 1988 but had twice been rejected by prior trial judges. The panel noted further that in 95-5023 the employer's medical expert concluded that employee was not disabled by any work-related injury. Ample evidence was presented by both sides. Each of the WCC's trial judges, however, chose to believe the employer's medical expert and found that the employee's work-related injuries to her neck and left shoulder no longer were disabling. The employer's medical expert concluded that the employee's injuries were consistent with her preexisting arthritis and her disability was, thus, unrelated to her work-related injuries. In our opinion, the panel in 95-5023 was not clearly wrong in upholding the trial judge's finding that theemployer's medical expert was more credible than the employee's medical expert. Thus, the panel properly declined to find that the trial judge's decision was clearly erroneous.