Court Opinion

ID: 9796931
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 04:08:36.857398+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:51:47.963842
License: Public Domain

OPINION
EHRLICH, Judge.
¶ 1 This is a special-action review of an Industrial Commission of Arizona (“Commission”) award and decision upon review finding that Jose Luis Gonzalez Gamez (also known as Mario G. Lopez) is medically stationary with no permanent impairment. Ga-mez’s issue is whether the award of the administrative law judge (“ALJ”) is reasonably supported by the evidence. Because we find that the award and decision upon review are supported by the record, we affirm.

FACTS

1

 AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

¶ 2 Gamez began working for Thunderbird Furniture on April 23, 2001, using the name and Social Security number of a Mario Lopez.2 On June 19, 2001, he injured his lower back while lifting furniture in his capacity as a finisher for Thunderbird Furniture. He later developed pain in his neck, leg, right shoulder and right arm. Gamez later testified that he continued working for Thunderbird Furniture doing “fight duty” until October 4, 2001, when he ceased working completely upon his doctor’s recommendation.
¶ 3 Gamez’s injury was treated with physical therapy, injections and medication. His claim for workers’ compensation benefits was accepted by the State Compensation Fund (“SCF”). In February 2002, the SCF issued a notice of claim status terminating temporary compensation and medical benefits without permanent disability. Gamez protested, and he was awarded continuing medical benefits and temporary compensation.
¶ 4 In October 2003, Gamez was involved in an automobile accident that caused him to suffer increased pain in the areas affected by the industrial injury. Athough he received three months of treatment after the accident, his pain did not lessen.
¶ 5 In December 2003, the SCF again issued a notice of claim status terminating medical benefits and temporary compensation without permanent disability, effective December 18, 2003. Gamez filed a request for hearing to protest the decision.
¶ 6 During the ensuing hearing, Gamez and two physicians testified.3 The opinions of the two medical experts, Dr. Douglas Slaughter and Dr. James Maxwell, conflicted.
¶7 On April 1, 2005, the ALJ issued a decision upon hearing resolving the conflicting medical evidence by accepting the opinion of Dr. Maxwell. The ALJ found that Ga-mez’s condition was stationary without permanent impairment as of December 18, 2003. Gamez was awarded medical, surgical and hospital benefits and temporary compensation from the date of his injury through the date he was found to be medically stationary.
¶ 8 On April 29, 2005, Gamez filed a request for review. On May 20, 2005, the ALJ issued a decision upon review affirming the ALJ’s prior findings and award. Gamez timely filed a petition for special-action review by this court.

DISCUSSION

¶ 9 Gamez argues that the ALJ erred in finding that he was not permanently disabled. He asserts that the conflicting medical evidence offered by Dr. Maxwell and Dr. Slaughter should have been resolved in his favor. We deferentially review the ALJ’s factual findings, although we independently review the ALJ’s legal conclusions. See, e.g., PFS v. Indus. Comm’n, 191 Ariz. 274, 277, 955 P.2d 30, 33 (App.1997). We will not set aside an award unless it cannot be supported by any reasonable theory of the evidence. *316Phelps v. Indus. Comm’n, 155 Ariz. 501, 506, 747 P.2d 1200, 1205 (1987).
¶ 10 Dr. Slaughter is a board-eligible orthopedic surgeon. He treated Gamez approximately seven times from January 2002 through September 2003, conducted an orthopedic examination and reviewed plain films and an MRI report.
¶ 11 Dr. Slaughter observed a disk degeneration on the x-rays, stating that “the MRI report suggested a disk bulge at L5-S1 and an annular tear at L4-5.” He evaluated Ga-mez as having an SI distribution right lower extremity sciatica or radiculopathy, degenerative disk disease and an annular tear at L4-5. He found the industrial injury to be the cause of Gamez’s injuries and symptoms because Gamez had stated that he had suffered no symptoms before the accident. Dr. Slaughter gave Gamez steroids for the pain in his legs, and he recommended intradiscal electrothermal therapy (“IDET”) as well as epidural injections.
¶ 12 Gamez accepted epidural injections but refused IDET. Although he reported continued leg pain after the injections, Ga-mez continued to refuse IDET. On June 16, 2003, Dr. Slaughter designated Gamez as stationary with an 18 to 20% permanent impairment.
¶ 13 Dr. Maxwell, a board-certified orthopedic surgeon, examined Gamez and reviewed the MRI films. He found no annular tear, and he concluded that Gamez “had some mild desiccation at L5-S1 ... consistent [with] what a 25-year-old has.” He determined that Gamez suffered from degenerative disk disease unrelated to the industrial injury.4
¶ 14 Dr. Maxwell concluded that Gamez was medically stationary as to the industrial injury because of the absence of any objective findings, the long history of Gamez’s treatment and the diagnosis of degenerative disk disease. He further concluded that Ga-mez did not suffer any permanent impairment based on “the fact that there was nothing objective that [Maxwell] could identify.” He disagreed with Dr. Slaughter’s opinion that Gamez suffered from a lumbar radiculo-pathy, and stated that his review of Dr. Slaughter’s records and testimony did not support that conclusion. Dr. Maxwell added that Dr. Slaughter’s reliance on an EMG was insufficient to support radiculopathy. Thus, he disagreed with Dr. Slaughter’s impairment rating, concluding instead that Gamez “has a zero percent impairment” and that Gamez could work without restrictions.
¶ 15 The ALJ resolved the conflict by accepting the opinions of Dr. Maxwell “as being more well founded and correct.” It is the ALJ’s responsibility to resolve conflicts in the medical evidence, and we will not disturb that resolution unless it is “wholly unreasonable.” Ortega v. Indus. Comm’n, 121 Ariz. 554, 557, 592 P.2d 388, 391 (App.1979) (citation omitted). Because this decision was not unfounded, we affirm the award.

CONCLUSION

¶ 16 Because the ALJ’s award and decision upon review are sufficiently supported by the evidence, we affirm.
CONCURRING: MAURICE PORTLEY, Presiding Judge.

. We review the evidence in the light most favorable to sustaining the ALJ’s findings and award. Salt River Project v. Indus. Comm'n, 128 Ariz. 541, 544-45, 627 P.2d 692, 695-96 (1981).

. Gamez is a 31-year-old male undocumented immigrant. He testified that he does not know Mario Lopez but that he used that name and a corresponding Social Security number in order to work in the United States. At least five Industrial Commission claims have been filed in the name Mario Lopez from June 1998 through November 2000. Gamez denied having filed any of those claims.

. Gamez was represented by counsel during the ■ hearings.

. Dr. Maxwell stated that Gamez has some disk degeneration, adding that he did not know if it was there before the industrial injury. However, he did not believe that, if the degeneration were pre-existing, it was aggravated by the injury.