Opinion ID: 2321891
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Cust v. University of Maine

Text: [¶ 8] In Cust, we held that, pursuant to section 201(6), an insurer in a multiple-injury case was entitled to take a proportionate reduction when liability for the most recent injury had expired due to the durational limit. 2001 ME 29, ¶¶ 10, 15, 766 A.2d at 568, 570. The employee in Cust suffered work injuries to her right arm in 1984, and to her left arm in 1988. Id. ¶ 2, 766 A.2d at 566. She was awarded 60% partial incapacity benefits for the combined effects of both injuries. Id., 766 A.2d at 566-67. Later, the employer filed a petition to suspend benefits for the 1988 injury. Id. ¶ 3, 766 A.2d at 567. The hearing officer determined that the employer was entitled to cease paying the percentage of the benefit attributable to the 1988 injury because the employee had received more than 400 weekly payments for that injury pursuant to the law in effect at the time, 39 M.R.S.A. § 55-B (Pamph. 1988) (establishing a 400-week durational limit). [3] Cust, 2001 ME 29, ¶¶ 3-4, 766 A.2d at 567. The hearing officer treated the 1988 injury as a subsequent nonwork injury for purposes of determining the University's continued liability for the 1984 injury, and ordered the University to continue paying unreduced benefits for the 1984 injury, due to the combined effects of both injuries. Id. ¶ 4, 766 A.2d at 567. [¶ 9] On appeal, we first determined that the hearing officer erred in concluding that the expired 1988 work injury could be treated as a subsequent nonwork injury. Id. ¶¶ 5-9, 766 A.2d at 567-68. Then, pursuant to section 201(6), we analyzed the employer's liability according to the law in effect at the time of each injury. Id. ¶¶ 10, 15, 766 A.2d at 568, 570. We concluded, pursuant to the 400-week durational limit in section 55-B, that the employer was entitled to suspend benefits for the portion of the employee's incapacity attributable to the 1988 injury. Id. ¶ 15, 766 A.2d at 570. [¶ 10] Miller contends that Cust is distinguishable because although Cust was a multiple-injury case, it involved a later injury to a different body part rather than an earlier injury to the same body part. Miller essentially argues that the Act treats prior injuries that combine with subsequent injuries differently from later injuries that are unrelated. In support of his argument, Miller cites 39-A M.R.S. § 201(4) (2010), which allows compensation for pre-existing conditions if those conditions combine with or are aggravated or accelerated by a work injury, and 39-A M.R.S. § 201(5) (2010), which provides that incapacity from subsequent, noncausally-connected nonwork injuries must be subtracted out. [4] Miller also asserts that the concept of continued payment for earlier injuries is reflected in the permanent impairment statute, 39-A M.R.S. § 213(1-A)(A), (B) (2010) (allowing stacking of permanent impairment from a pre-existing condition that is aggravated or accelerated by the work injury with permanent impairment from the work injury at issue, and for injuries after 2002, for any prior, recognized work injury that combines with the work injury at issue); see also Buckley v. S.D. Warren Co., 2010 ME 53, ¶ 15, 997 A.2d 747, 753 (allowing injuries to be stacked for purposes of the permanent impairment threshold because the later injury resulted from the earlier injury, and all injuries were part of the work injury at issue in the determination (alteration omitted) (quotation marks omitted)). [¶ 11] Section 201(6), however, requires us to consider the portion of the employee's incapacity that is attributable to each injury, and to apply the law in effect at the time of each injury. Dunson, 2003 ME 16, ¶¶ 6, 9, 814 A.2d at 976, 977. The law applicable to the 1992 injury established a 520-week durational limit for partially incapacitating injuries. 39 M.R.S.A. § 55-B (Supp.1992). Miller has received all benefits to which he is entitled for that injury, and any additional payments would result in his receipt of compensation over and above what the law provides. See, e.g., Edwards v. Travelers Ins. Co., 2001 ME 148, ¶ 10, 783 A.2d 163, 166 (We have long disfavored interpretations of the Workers' Compensation Act which result in duplicate recoveries of benefits for particular injuries.).