Opinion ID: 2258212
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: entitlement to an inflation adjustment

Text: [¶ 6] The first issue is whether the hearing officer erred in failing to apply an inflation adjustment to the benefit related to the 25% of Dunson's incapacity attributable to her 1991 injury. Section 201(6) provides a mechanism for determining the applicable law in cases involving multiple work-injuries: 6. Prior work-related injuries. If an employee suffers a work-related injury that aggravates, accelerates or combines with the effects of a work-related injury that occurred prior to January 1, 1993 for which compensation is still payable under the law in effect on the date of that prior injury, the employee's rights and benefits for the portion of the resulting disability that is attributable to the prior injury must be determined by the law in effect at the time of the prior injury. 39-A M.R.S.A. § 201(6). Section 201(6) requires the hearing officer to apportion liability in a multi-injury case and apply the law at the time of each injury to that portion of the incapacity attributable to that injury. See Cust v. Univ. of Maine, 2001 ME 29, ¶ 10, 766 A.2d 566, 568-69. [¶ 7] Section 201(6) was enacted in response to our decision in Ray v. Carland Constr., Inc., 1997 ME 206, ¶ 4, 703 A.2d 648, 650, in which we concluded that, when two or more injuries contribute to an employee's incapacity and the most recent injury occurred after the effective date of title 39-A, the employee's entitlement to benefits is governed exclusively by title 39-A. See P.L.1997, ch. 647, § 1 (effective June 30, 1998); L.D. 1318, Statement of Fact (118th Legis.1997). As we have stated, [t]he purpose of subsection 201(6) was to preserve the law in effect at the time of the injury for injuries occurring prior to the effective date of title 39-A. Cust, 2001 ME 29, ¶ 12, 766 A.2d at 569. [¶ 8] The most recent employer in a multiple injury case is responsible for the combination of all injuries, and can look to prior employers, or their insurers, for reimbursement for their respective proportion of liability for the employee's incapacity. [5] Under conventional principles, an employee is entitled to total incapacity benefits for the combination of two or more work-injuries, resulting in total incapacity, even though each injury considered separately would have caused partial incapacity only. See Johnson v. S.D. Warren, Div. of Scott Paper Co., 432 A.2d 431, 435 (Me.1981); Kidder v. Coastal Constr. Co., 342 A.2d 729, 734 (Me.1975). [¶ 9] Section 201(6) provides that, in multi-injury cases, the employee's rights and benefits for the portion of the resulting disability that is attributable to the prior injury must be determined by the law in effect at the time of the prior injury. 39-A M.R.S.A. § 201(6) (emphasis added). As in traditional apportionment cases, the phrase resulting disability requires the hearing officer to consider an employee's entire disability that results from all of the injuries in a multiple injury case. The hearing officer must then determine the proportion of the resulting disability related to each injury and apply the applicable law to that portion of the injury. We agree with the Housing Authority that because the resulting disability in this case was total incapacity, the hearing officer should have applied the former total incapacity statute, 39 M.R.S.A. § 54-B, repealed by P.L.1991, ch. 885, § A-7, and required an inflation adjustment to 25% of Dunson's total incapacity attributable to the 1991 injury. [6]