Opinion ID: 2293611
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Remand is Necessary Also to Permit the Agency to Clarify How it Applied the Statute's Burden Shifting Scheme

Text: Finally, we note two portions of the compensation order in which the agency has not adequately explained its application of the burden shifting called for under the Workers' Compensation Act. Accordingly, we cannot be confident that the agency has applied the statute correctly. Having first found that Georgetown had rebutted the presumption of a medical causal relationship between Ford's fall and his knee and low back condition, the ALJ went on to conclude that Georgetown's medical evidence did not persuasively contradict the existence of [such] a causal connection. The CRB approved and restated this analysis. We have made clear, however, that where the employer rebuts the presumption of a medical causal relationship, the burden reverts to the claimant to prove that relationship by the preponderance of the evidence. See McNeal, supra, 917 A.2d at 658; Washington Post, supra, 852 A.2d at 911; Washington Hosp. Ctr. v. District of Columbia Dep't of Employment Servs., 744 A.2d 992, 998 (D.C. 2000). We cannot be confident that the ALJ's statement that Georgetown's evidence did not persuasively contradict the existence of a causal relationship appropriately placed the burden of persuasion on Ford, as opposed to requiring Georgetown to carry the burden of proving the absence of a causal link. See Washington Hosp. Ctr., supra, 744 A.2d at 1000 (remand to allow agency to correct misapplication of statutory burden). We also address another problematic aspect of the agency's treatment of the statute's burden-shifting scheme. The ALJ correctly recognized that the statute affords a claimant a rebuttable presumption that the injury both (i) arose out of, and in the course of, employment, and (ii) that a medical causal relationship exists between the workplace event and the disability. McCamey, supra, 947 A.2d at 1197 n. 3; Washington Metro. Area Transit Auth., supra, 926 A.2d at 145 n. 5, 148; McNeal, supra, 917 A.2d at 658. Georgetown offered evidence to rebut both aspects of the presumption. That is to say, it presented evidence tending to suggest that Ford's symptoms were unrelated to his August 7, 2005, fall, and that his fall resulted from an idiopathic condition rather than from a condition or obligation of employment. Georgetown, supra, 830 A.2d at 872 (discussing positional-risk standard). Yet, the ALJ found that Georgetown had rebutted the statutory presumption, and re-weighed the evidence as to the existence of a medical causal relationship between Ford's symptoms and the accident, but did not re-weigh the evidence as to whether his injury arose out of and in the course of his employment. [11] See Ferreira, supra, 531 A.2d at 655 (once presumption is triggered, burden is on employer to show by substantial evidence that injury did not arise out of and in the course of employment). The agency may have simply overlooked the need to re-weigh the evidence relevant to whether the injury arose out of the employment, or it may have concluded that Georgetown had failed to rebut that presumption either because Ford's injury was compensable despite an idiopathic cause, or because Georgetown's evidence was too insubstantial to rebut Ford's testimony that he slipped on water. We cannot tell which. Unfortunately, the CRB's compensation order fails to elucidate the ALJ's analysis. Because this court has the responsibility of making sure the agency has taken a hard look at the issues in this case, the court may not be left to guess at the agency's findings or its reasoning. The Washington Times v. District of Columbia Dep't of Employment Servs., 724 A.2d 1212, 1221 (D.C.1999) (citations omitted); Gordon v. District of Columbia Unemployment Comp. Bd., 402 A.2d 1251, 1258 (D.C.1979). Given the lack of clarity in the CRB's compensation order, we cannot be confident that the agency has correctly applied the Act's burden-shifting scheme.