Court Opinion

ID: 9513693
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:39:15.376447+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:05:58.522303
License: Public Domain

RONALD L. HILDEN, District Judge,
dissenting.
[¶ 26] I respectfully dissent.
[¶ 27] Under all of the rules, regulations and procedures promulgated and followed by the agency, I should be joining the majority. Under the agency appeal procedure, there can be scant quarrel that rules were obeyed. Under the judicial appeal procedure of the administrative practices act, the district judge scrupulously followed the statute governing such review. And now, under the rules of appellate construction and a sea of precedent, this court affirms. Everyone was right, everyone followed the law and precedent but the injured worker loses.
[¶ 28] The reason this claimant loses is because a doctor employed by the agency as a reviewer of medical records formed and then convincingly expressed his opinion that claimant’s condition was not work-injury related. The record reviewer had never met, examined or even seen the claimant. Yet his record-studied opinion was sufficient to trump the opinions of her treating physicians. This kind of evidence signals a dilution in the integrity of the doctor/patient relationship and, in my view, should not be tolerated. I would therefore defy precedent and remand to the agency with instructions to reconsider without regard for or any deference to agency-generated adverse medical opinions.
[¶ 29] Perhaps this lament might be more apt as a letter to the editor or to the deliberative members of our state legislative body. However, I write only to express my belief that this injured worker and others are being denied rightful redress by this flawed agency protocol.