Opinion ID: 2264450
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: issue one: permanent partial disability calculation

Text: Mitchell argues the Board majority improperly combined his multiple left and right arm injuries into one scheduled injury for each arm at the shoulder level. Instead, Mitchell argues his injuries should have been compensated separately according to the schedule in K.S.A. 44-510d at the level corresponding to each injury. Travelers asserts it was proper to combine these injuries into two awards, noting the number of weeks assigned to each arm at the shoulder level on the statutory schedule includes the value of the lower members. The Mitchell panel agreed with Travelers. 41 Kan.App.2d at 537, 203 P.3d 76. But the Board has used, and other Court of Appeals panels have affirmed, conflicting methods for calculating an award under similar circumstances. See, e.g., Redd v. Kansas Truck Center, 2008 WL 4149955, at  (Work. Comp. Bd., No. 1,020,892, filed August 27, 2008); Conrow v. Globe Engineering Co., No. 99, 718, 2009 WL 744086, unpublished Court of Appeals opinion filed March 13, 2009. This statutory interpretation issue is a question of law over which we have unlimited review. See Redd, ___ Kan. at ___-___, 239 P.3d 66; Ft. Hays St. Univ. v. University Ch., Am. Ass'n of Univ. Profs., 290 Kan. 446, 457, 228 P.3d 403 (2010). The Mitchell panel interpreted K.S.A. 44-510d to allow compensation at the highest level of injury when multiple injuries occur within a single extremity. It noted the statutory structure of the scheduled injuries is progressive, meaning an injured worker is entitled to more weeks if the injury occurs at a higher level, i.e., 200 weeks for a forearm, but 210 weeks for the loss of an arm. 41 Kan.App.2d at 537-38, 203 P.3d 76. The panel also relied upon Casco, 283 Kan. at 522, 154 P.3d 494, which found that if an injury is on the schedule, the amount of compensation stated in the statutory schedule includes compensation for the complete loss of the member or the partial loss of the member. The panel then reasoned that because the number of weeks is reduced by the percentage of the loss, the principle of compensating an extremity at the highest level affected applies regardless of whether the loss is total or partial. 41 Kan.App.2d at 537, 203 P.3d 76. In the end, this justified the Board majority's statutory interpretation, which the Mitchell panel found was entitled to judicial deference. 41 Kan.App.2d at 538, 203 P.3d 76. But in Redd, a Board majority awarded an injured worker five scheduled injuries to his left hand, left forearm, left arm, right forearm, and right arm. The employer argued the Board was required to combine the individual impairment ratings into a whole body impairment because K.S.A. 44-510d(a)(23) requires loss of a scheduled member be based on the permanent impairment of function to that member as determined using the American Medical Association Guides to Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (4th ed. 1995) (Guides). The Guides instruct physicians to generate a whole body impairment rating as part of a recommended three-step evaluation process. We agreed that this created an ambiguity in the statute, but we rejected the employer's statutory interpretation in Redd, ___ Kan. at ___-___, 239 P.3d 66, because it rendered meaningless the statutory schedules set out in K.S.A. 44-510d(a)(1)-(22). To reach this conclusion, we analyzed the governing statutes from the Workers Compensation Act; K.S.A. 44-501 et seq.; the case law interpreting those statutes; the Guides; and the legislative history for K.S.A. 44-510d(a)(23). We found the legislature created its own statutory mechanism to calculate permanent partial disability awards in K.S.A. 44-510d and K.S.A. 44-510e. Thus, the more reasonable interpretation for K.S.A. 44-510d(a)(23) was that the legislature meant to adopt the evaluation requirements and methods for combining impairments to the same statutorily specified level, but not the Guides' process for combining multiple scheduled injuries occurring at different levels or on different members. Redd, ___ Kan. at ___-___, 239 P.3d 66. For example, if there are several injuries causing impairment to an injured worker's thumb, those injuries should be combined to generate a total impairment to the thumb because it is specifically identified in K.S.A. 44-510d. But the thumb injury should not be combined with a scheduled injury to the hand, which also is specifically identified in the statute. This view, we reasoned in Redd, ___ Kan. at ___, 239 P.3d 66, maintains the Guides' purpose of bringing greater objectivity to the physician's task of estimating the magnitude of permanent impairments but also allows for application of the scheduled injury calculations specified in the statute. See K.S.A. 44-510d(a)(1)-(22). In Redd, we also touched on the Mitchell panel's decision to combine impairments to the highest level of the extremity, by stating: Admittedly, [the Mitchell ] approach does not render the statutory schedule meaningless, but it does read something into K.S.A. 44-510d(a)(1)-(22) that does not exist. The schedule does not contain any language requiring the combination of scheduled injuries, and the panel does not explain where it finds the authority permitting the Board to combine injuries in the manner the panel approved.  (Emphasis added.) Redd, ___ Kan. at ___, 239 P.3d 66. While in Redd we found that the adoption of the Guides in K.S.A. 44-510d(a)(23) created an ambiguity in the statute, the schedule's plain language helps us resolve the arguments made by Travelers and adopted by the Court of Appeals' panel in this case. See Higgins v. Abilene Machine, Inc., 288 Kan. 359, 362, 204 P.3d 1156 (2009) (Canons of statutory construction are used to resolve an ambiguity only if the plain reading of a statute yields an ambiguity or lack of clarity.). We find the statutory schedule plainly does not authorize the combining of impairment values to be found for the specific scheduled members identified in K.S.A. 44-510d(a)(1)-(22). K.S.A. 44-510d defines a permanent partial disability as a disability partial in character but permanent in quality. K.S.A. 44-510d(a) then states permanent partial disability compensation is to be paid for not to exceed the number of weeks allowed in the following schedule: (1) For the loss of a thumb, 60 weeks. . . . . (12) For the loss of a forearm, 200 weeks. (13) For the loss of an arm, excluding the shoulder joint, shoulder girdle, shoulder musculature or any other shoulder structures, 210 weeks, and for the loss of an arm, including the shoulder joint, shoulder girdle, shoulder musculature or any other shoulder structures, 225 weeks. . . . . (21) Permanent loss of the use of a finger, thumb, hand, shoulder, arm, forearm, toe, foot, leg or lower leg . . . shall be equivalent to the loss thereof. For the permanent partial loss of the use of a finger, thumb, hand, shoulder, arm, toe, foot or leg, or the sight of an eye or the hearing of an ear, compensation shall be paid as provided for in K.S.A. 44-510c . . . per week during that proportion of the number of weeks in the foregoing schedule provided for the loss of such finger, thumb, hand, shoulder, arm, toe, foot or leg, or the sight of an eye or the hearing of an ear, which partial loss thereof bears to the total loss of a finger, thumb, hand, shoulder, arm, toe, foot or leg, or the sight of an eye or the hearing of an ear; but in no event shall the compensation payable hereunder for such partial loss exceed the compensation payable under the schedule for the total loss of such finger, thumb, hand, arm, toe, foot or leg, or the sight of an eye or the hearing of an ear, exclusive of the healing period. As used in this paragraph (21), `shoulder' means the shoulder joint, shoulder girdle, shoulder musculature or any other shoulder structures. (Emphasis added.) There are three relevant points apparent from the statute. First, it does not contain a provision treating multiple injuries differently than singular injuries. Second, it also does not expressly provide for the combination of impairment values. Third, K.S.A. 44-510d(a)(21) states that the permanent partial loss of the finger, thumb, hand, [arm, or shoulder] shall be compensated by the number of weeks which the partial loss thereof bears to the total loss of [the] finger, thumb, hand, [arm, or shoulder]. . . . It does not provide that the permanent partial loss shall be compensated by the percentage of loss of the extremity. Unlike the arguments made in Redd, the Mitchell panel did not rely upon the adoption of the Guides as justification for combining impairments. It found the statute's progressive nature, which allots more weeks for the higher levels of the extremity, justified the Board majority's decision to combine Mitchell's injuries under the operative construction doctrine, which allows judicial deference to an administrative agency's statutory interpretation when it is supported by a rational basis. Mitchell, 41 Kan.App.2d at 537-38, 203 P.3d 76. But this ignores this court's recent decisions recognizing there is little utility for such deference given the long-standing admonition that appellate courts are always free to substitute their judgment for that of the administrative agency when reviewing a question of law. Ft. Hays St. Univ., 290 at 457, 228 P.3d 403 (In this matter, an appellate court exercises unlimited review on the determinative question of statutory interpretation without deference to [the agency's] view as to its own authority.); Higgins, 288 Kan. at 361, 204 P.3d 1156 (No significant deference is due [an administrative law judge's] or the [Workers Compensation] Board's interpretation or construction of a statute.). Indeed, when an agency applies the same statute in conflicting ways, as the Board has on this question, any judicial deference is stymied. Redd, ___ Kan. at ___, 239 P.3d 66. Therefore, the Mitchell panel's rationale is not compelling. Travelers presents a better argument in its brief by contending that the number of weeks contained on the schedule compensates the injured worker for the complete loss of the body member. For example, when a claimant suffers an amputation at the level of the shoulder, the 225 weeks on the schedule necessarily includes the loss of the entire arm. Since the number of weeks for the complete loss is simply reduced by the percentage of loss in partial loss cases, Travelers argues the number of weeks assigned to the highest level must include the lower parts of the member. But this argument also fails because it is contrary to the plain language of the statute and reads a rule into the schedule that does not exist. We find the Act requires that an injured worker is entitled to an award at each separate level for multiple injuries to the same extremity corresponding to the statutory schedule set out in K.S.A. 44-510d. Redd, Syl. ¶ 5. We reverse the Board's and the Court of Appeals' determinations combining the multiple scheduled injuries/impairments to the same extremity, and this case is remanded to the Board for a recalculation of Mitchell's award consistent with this opinion.