Court Opinion

ID: 9791615
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:14:37.174351+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:37.314568
License: Public Domain

HARTZ, Judge (concurring in part, dissenting in part). I agree with the majority that we must affirm the Workers’ Compensation Judge (Judge) on the issues of judicial bias and employer bad faith. I also agree that we should remand on the issue of the percentage extent of Claimant’s permanent partial disability. My disagreement is with the ruling that the Judge must find a percentage of disability of at least 51%. I would simply remand for further findings and/or conclusions. Additional findings may justify the original award. If not, new conclusions of law are in order. My chief concern about the majority opinion, however, is not with the result. I am much more concerned about the apparent ad hoc nature of the opinion. The majority opinion does not explain why the record will not support a finding of a percentage of disability below 51%. Without a more complete explanation of the legal standard for measuring the percentage extent of disability, a ruling that the evidence did not measure up appears to be no more than a visceral reaction. Before today, no reported appellate decision in this state had held that a party was entitled to a finding of partial disability either greater or less than the finding made at trial. When the record would support findings that the worker was permanently disabled but not totally disabled, the appellate courts have deferred to the fact finder regarding what percentage of disability to award. Indeed, the appellate courts have given the trial bench very little guidance on how to go about measuring the percentage of disability. The applicable statute states that partial disability is a condition whereby a worker “is unable to some percentage extent to perform any work for which he is fitted by age, education and training.” NMSA 1978, § 52-l-26(B) (Repl.Pamp.1987). Appellate decisions have explicated the language only to the extent of saying that capacity to perform work is not related to income-earning capacity but rather “is based on the reduction in the spectrum of work for which the injured worker is fitted.” Barnett & Casbarian, Inc. v. Ortiz, 114 N.M. 322, 327, 838 P.2d 476, 481 (Ct.App.), cert. quashed (August 20, 1992). The quoted language could be interpreted to mean that one’s percentage extent of disability is measured by the percentage decrease in the tasks one can perform. This measure would seem appropriate when a worker is able to retain the job held at the time of injury but can no longer perform all the tasks previously associated with the job (as, for example, when a secretary can no longer lift heavy boxes). The Judge may have used this measure in this case. Yet when a worker can no longer hold the job at which the worker was employed at the time of injury, which is the situation here, the reduetion-in-tasks measure is inappropriate. As noted in Barnett & Casbarian, 114 N.M. at 316, 838 P.2d at 480: [Wjhether an individual’s skills constitute a capacity to perform work depends upon what work is being performed by members of society. A physically disabled mathematician may have no capacity to perform work in a primitive society but be a prized employee in the post-industrial age. Thus, in measuring one’s capacity to perform work it is necessary to look to the job market. The capacity to perform tasks is economically meaningful only insofar as that capacity enables the worker to hold a job that exists in the job market. If one follows Barnett & Casbarian in construing “work” in the phrase “capacity to perform work” as meaning “jobs that exist in the relevant economy,” then the decrease in the capacity to perform work should be measured by the decrease in the worker’s ability to meet the requirements of jobs in the job market. That decrease would ordinarily be simply the percentage reduction in the number of jobs for which the worker is fitted. On occasion adjustments may be appropriate. For example, if a worker has special qualities (such as leadership skills or proficiency in languages) that make the worker especially attractive for the jobs the worker can still perform but that are not particularly relevant to the jobs that the worker can no longer perform, perhaps the percentage disability should be adjusted downward. The appropriateness of such adjustments can be determined on a case-by-case basis. In general, I would expect there to be no grounds for adjustment. This is not to say that a worker’s percentage disability will usually be clear-cut. On the contrary, precision in evaluating the percentage of disability is impossible. It is unlikely that available data can state exactly the number of positions that employers in an area have for a particular job. Even if the data were available for one point in time, there would still be room for discretion in determining (1) the relevant geographic area for available jobs and (2) whether adjustments should be made to the data for a specific date because of, for example, unusual economic circumstances that differ from long-term trends and are likely to change in the near future. Of course, there will also often be questions concerning the capabilities of the individual worker. What is the role of an appellate court in this process? In other words, what is the appropriate standard of review to be applied by the appellate court? Because this depends on the allocation of the burden of persuasion at trial, I will first address that issue. It is a long-standing rule that the worker has “the burden of persuading the [trier of fact] as to all elements of her compensation claim.” Aguilar v. Peñasco Indep. Sch. Dist. No. 6, 100 N.M. 625, 628, 674 P.2d 515, 518 (1984) (Supreme Court adoption of opinion by Court of Appeals); see Baca v. Bueno Foods, 108 N.M. 98, 102, 766 P.2d 1332, 1336 (Ct.App.1988); Dibble v. Garcia, 98 N.M. 21, 23, 644 P.2d 535, 537 (Ct.App.), cert. denied, 98 N.M. 50, 644 P.2d 1039 (1982). To be sure, once the worker establishes incapacity to perform the tasks comprising the job held at the time of the injury and produces evidence with respect to the worker’s age, education, training, and general physical and mental capacity, the employer then has the burden to produce evidence that the worker is fitted for work other than the job at the time of the injury. See Sanchez v. Molycorp, Inc., 113 N.M. 375, 378, 826 P.2d 971, 974 (Ct.App.1992); Brown v. Safeway Stores, 82 N.M. 424, 427, 483 P.2d 305, 308 (Ct.App.1970). If the employer fails to produce such evidence, the worker must be awarded benefits for total disability. But once the employer satisfies this burden of production, there remains the factual issue of the percentage extent of the worker’s permanent disability, and the burden of persuasion on that issue is the worker’s. Cf. SCRA 1986, 11-301 (presumption imposes burden of going forward with rebutting evidence but does not shift burden of persuasion). In other words, once the employer provides evidence that the worker is capable of performing jobs, the worker has the burden of establishing the percentage of disability that the worker seeks. A determination that the worker is, say, 40% permanently partially disabled is proper if the fact finder is unpersuaded that the partial disability exceeds' 40%. The proper standard of appellate review follows from the above. Because the worker bears the burden of persuasion on the percentage extent of disability, the appellate court must affirm on appeal by the worker if it was rational for the fact-finder to rule against the worker. See Whittenberg v. Graves Oil & Butane Co., 113 N.M. 450, 453 n. 2, 827 P.2d 838, 841 n. 2 (Ct.App.1991) (“[Alppellate court will sustain finding against party with burden of persuasion if it was rational for the fact-finder to disbelieve the evidence contrary to the finding.”), cert. denied, 113 N.M. 352, 826 P.2d 573 (1992); Sosa v. Empire Roofing Co., 110 N.M. 614, 616, 798 P.2d 215, 217 (Ct.App.1990) (same). In other words, the determination of partial disability by the fact finder must be sustained on an appeal by the worker if it was rational for the fact finder not to be persuaded that the worker’s partial disability exceeded the percentage expressed in the award. Thus, in this case the question on appeal is whether it was rational for the Judge to be unpersuaded that Claimant’s partial disability exceeded 38%. Perhaps it was. On this record, however, I cannot sustain the determination of partial disability without further findings by the Judge justifying his ruling. As I indicated above, the base figure for determining Claimant’s partial disability is the percentage reduction as a result of Claimant’s injury in the number of jobs for which he is fitted in the relevant geographic area. The City’s central evidence on this point was the testimony of its expert, Debra Brewster. She stated that the number of jobs in the Albuquerque job market for which Claimant was fitted had dropped by 51% as a result of his injury. There may be rational grounds for not fully crediting Brewster’s figure and then arriving at a lower percentage of disability. But none is apparent from the record. What was it that failed to persuade the Judge that Claimant was more than 38% disabled? I do not fault the Judge in this case for not making explicit findings on the issue. Given the past failure of the appellate courts in this state to provide significant review of determinations regarding the percentage of partial disability, the Judge could naturally decide that it was necessary to provide only the specific partial disability figure. Nevertheless, when the record strongly suggests that a conclusion is not justified by the evidence, it is appropriate to remand for additional findings or conclusions. See Barnett & Casbarian, Inc.; Foutz v. Foutz, 110 N.M. 642, 798 P.2d 592 (Ct.App.1990). I should add two final comments regarding the award of Social Security disability and the age factor. First, I agree with the majority that evidence of the award of Social Security disability benefits to Claimant after his injury is not relevant to the award of workers’ compensation benefits, even if it were otherwise admissible. Testimony at the hearing in this case made clear that the Social Security award was based on a table used by the Social Security Administration and was independent of whether Claimant in fact could find suitable employment. Second, although age is listed in the Workers’ Compensation Act as a factor to be considered in evaluating disability, NMSA 1978, §§ 52-1-25, -26 (Repl.Pamp.1987), it would not be unreasonable for the Judge to find that specific consideration of Claimant’s age would not materially affect Brewster’s percentage calculation. To the extent that age affects suitability for employment because of physical deterioration with time, Brewster’s analysis took into account an evaluation of Claimant’s physical capacity. To the extent that age affects one’s capacity to learn new skills (or affects the cost-benefit ratio of training a person with a limited future worklife), this consideration should be unimportant when the worker’s job possibilities are limited to unskilled work, as was Claimant’s situation. To the extent that employers may prefer younger workers (i.e., will discriminate against older workers), it is noteworthy that the jobs specifically described by Brewster as being suitable for Claimant were jobs with employers who would be prohibited by federal law from discriminating against workers on the basis of age. See 29 U.S.C. §§ 623, 630, 631.