Court Opinion

ID: 9609210
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:23:56.450886+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:28.900247
License: Public Domain

BAKES, Justice,
concurring specially:
I agree that the commission’s order must be reversed and the matter remanded to the commission for further proceedings.
When the commission first evaluated the claimant, it made its permanent physical impairment evaluation and ordered a retraining program for the claimant. When claimant declined to participate in the retraining program, the commission correctly proceeded to rate the claimant for a permanent disability. In reviewing the commission’s findings of fact, it appears that the permanent disability rating was based upon the claimant’s present ability to engage in gainful activity without consideration of the claimant’s probable future ability to engage in gainful activity. That conclusion was appropriate as long as the commission retained jurisdiction as it initially did in its final order. However, when on rehearing it changed the order, removing the retained jurisdiction provision, then it was incumbent upon the commission at that time to mg.ke a permanent disability award to the claimant representing both his “present and [his] probable future ability to engage in gainful activity.” I.C. § 72-425. I agree with the majority that the record does not disclose that the commission did that in this case, and therefore the commission’s order must be reversed and the matter remanded for further consideration.
As the Court’s opinion points out, the commission can do one of two things. It can either retain jurisdiction, as its final order originally provided, or, if it does not, then it should make a permanent disability award which includes an evaluation both of the “present” and the “probable future ability” to engage in gainful activity.
Whether the commission ultimately decides to retain jurisdiction will depend a great deal upon its evaluation of the medical evidence regarding the claimant’s rehabilitation. Several statutes need to be considered, as pages 6 and 7 of the Court’s opinion point out. I.C. § 72-428(6) uses the phrase “following the period of recovery----” I.C. § 72-422 uses the language “ ‘permanent impairment’ is any anatomic or functional abnormality or loss after maximal medical rehabilitation has been achieved and which abnormality or loss, medically, is considered stable or nonprogressive at the time of evaluation." I.C. § 72-423 uses the phrase “and no fundamental or marked change in the future can be reasonably expected.”
It is to be expected that many permanent disabilities will become more serious with age. Even if a medical condition does not deteriorate, a disability which one may be able to overcome in his prime years may, with age and loss of overall body strength, become a more disabling physical condition. With some medical conditions, even though maximum medical rehabilitation has been achieved, future medical deterioration can reasonably be expected. This appears to be just such a case. The evidence demonstrates that sometime in the future degenerative arthritis caused by the accident and injury will probably require surgery. In such cases, the commission must decide if a claimant has reached “maximal medical rehabilitation” and is “considered stable or nonprogressive” in order to make a permanent impairment evaluation. I.C. §§ 72-422, -424. In arriving at the permanent disability evaluation, the commission must consider whether any “fundamental or marked change in the future can be reasonably expected.” I.C. §§ 72-423, -425. If a “fundamental or marked change in the future can be reasonably expected,” the commission should not make a permanent disability rating without retaining jurisdiction. If the commission does make a final permanent disability rating without retaining jurisdiction, that permanent disability rating must include an evaluation of both the *971present and the probable future ability of the claimant to engage in gainful activity.
Our prior cases have indicated a preference for making final determinations of permanent disability, rather than retaining jurisdiction. McCall v. Potlatch Forests, 67 Idaho 415, 182 P.2d 156 (1947). However, any final determination of disability must include both a “present” and the “probable future ability to engage in gainful activity.”
I concur in the majority’s reversal and remand of this matter to the commission for further proceedings.
BISTLINE, Justice,
specially concurring:
Having readily concurred with the well-reasoned opinion authored by Justice Huntley, my only concern has been occasioned by the special concurring opinion of Justice Bakes, which, no matter how many times I read it, demonstrates that he is in agreement everything with which Justice Huntley has written. For certain, he voices no disagreement whatever with what Justice Huntley has written.
On one final reading, however, I came across one sentence in Justice Bakes’ special concurrence which made me ponder, and then engage in a little research. I refer to the top of page 971, 751 P.2d page 119 where he writes: “Our prior cases have indicated a preference for making final determination of permanent disability, rather than retaining jurisdiction. McCall v. Potlatch Forests, 67 Idaho 415, 182 P.2d 156 (1947).” It appears to be a rather innocuous statement, but it is the one thing which Justice Bakes has written which Justice Huntley did not intimate or even mention. McCall v. Potlatch Forests has passed its fortieth birthday, and, as could be expected, might not now stand for as much as it did in 1947.
In the year 1971, the legislature enacted a sweeping revision of the Workman’s Compensation Law. Chapter 124,1971 Idaho Sess. Laws 422. (A caveat to be mentioned now and kept in mind is that some of those old and earlier Idaho cases in the realm of Workman’s Compensation Law must be reviewed in light of any later case precedent, and also in light of the changes of the statutory law.) The 1947 McCall case seems to be a case that should not just be casually cited without an investigation and analysis of its present day application, if any, to a 1987 review of the compensation claim of Mr. Reynolds.
Over the protest of Mr. Reynolds, the Commission, on petition of Browning Ferris and its surety, retreated from its earlier decision to retain jurisdiction, which claimant had requested as being in his best interests. As Justice Huntley points out, Reynolds’ appeal raises the contention that the Commission erred in doing so. The McCall case, which Justice Bakes apparently believes should be of some control and guidance to the Commission in further proceedings was in just the opposite position as this case. Mr. McCall, a Potlatch employee, was the appellant. The main thrust of McCall’s appeal was that he was eligible for an award in keeping with his changed physical condition under then I.C. A. 43-1407. He had originally been injured in July of 1941, and in December of that year entered into an agreement for compensation wherein his permanent partial disability was fixed and determined to be the equivalent of 15 percent compared to an amputation of a leg at the hip. His July 1945 application based on change of condition was timely, and the Commission (then the Board), found there was a change in his condition and that he was entitled to a modification of the compensation agreement. It was also specifically found that his physical impairment was greater than at the time that agreement had been entered into.
But, on the basis that permanent impairment was not yet definite, fixed, or permanently determinable, the Board declared that he was not entitled (then) presently to an order fixing or determining the amount of permanent physical impairment. The Board ruled as a matter of law that it could and would retain jurisdiction until such time as his injury, “becomes fixed and definite and the amount, if any, of his physical impairment over and above the 15 percent *972loss by amputation of the leg at the hip can be permanently fixed and determined,” and on that basis the second proceeding in McCall’s case was brought to a conclusion; he appealed on the basis of his desire for an immediate award.
The Supreme Court, unanimously, after first observing that, “An examination of the record does disclose that no witness, expert or lay, said or attempted to estimate how long it would be before claimant’s disability would become fixed,” added, “That time might come early or late, and might never come during claimant’s lifetime.” The Court concluded accordingly: “The Board’s motive in delaying is praiseworthy. However, its action withholds from claimant relief to which he is now entitled and presents a situation which brings to mind the statement ‘Justice delayed is justice denied.’ ” 67 Idaho at 420, 182 P.2d 156. Accordingly, the continuance was reversed and the case was remanded to the Board with instructions to determine his permanent disability and to make an award.
It is, perhaps, easy to overlook the fact that the law which was applicable at the time of McCall’s journey through the Board and into the Supreme Court, did not seem to recognize any distinction between impairment and disability. But one should be more careful. In 1947, there were no statutes in the Workman’s Compensation Law worded anything like I.C. §§ 72-422, 72-423, 72-424, and 72-425. Accordingly, in 1947, the Board, and in turn the Court, had no reason to concern itself with a determination of whether fundamental or marked change in the future can be reasonably expected. All four of those sections of the present worker’s compensation law evolved as a result of the sweeping 1971 recodification amendments.
Using the plural, rather than the singular, Justice Bakes has nevertheless written that, “Our prior cases have indicated a preference for making final determinations of permanent disability, rather than retaining jurisdiction.” That statement simply will not stand the light of day, meaning 1988 light of day. Nor was there anything in the opinion of the Court in the McCall case which expressed any such sentiment or philosophy on the part of the Supreme Court. The case stands for but one proposition: That in the year 1947 under the then status of the Workman’s Compensation Law, an injured worker who so desired was entitled to a final determination of his permanent disability, and that converted into a monetary award.
As a precaution, that case has been Shepardized to ascertain if any case out of this Court has since cited it for the proposition advanced by Justice Bakes in his separate opinion. No such case has been found. McCall has been cited in a number of instances, mostly for the proposition that the workman’s compensation act is to be liberally construed, as stated in McCall, and for the proposition that the Board’s order of continuance, postponing McCall’s award until his condition was fixed, definite, and determinable, was appealable as a final order.
A worthwhile by-product brought about by Justice Bakes use of the McCall case in his special concurrence was that the task of Shepardizing it lead to the case of Griffin v. Potlatch Forests, Inc., 93 Idaho 174, 457 P.2d 413 (1969).
Here, too, is another case predating the 1971 revision, and which for that reason most likely has no precedential value. For reasons which may surface in some other opinion or at some other time, I have strong misgivings as to its validity when written, and see the dissent of Justice Spear being more in accord with the law and policy of the Workman’s Compensation Law as of that date.
The earlier caveat in this opinion is probably worth repeating and perhaps expanding. When one reviews the Workmen’s Compensation Law, observes the sweeping 1971 revisions, and many other amendments since made from time to time, the inevitable conclusion is drawn that some of the many compensation cases which are in the Idaho Reporter system actually have no remaining efficacy whatever, but because the statutory law has changed there has been no occasion to overrule or disavow them.
*973Perhaps a dedicated group of attorneys who are knowledgable in that field could go through all of the reported cases and report to the Court which should be overruled by judicial determination based upon the recommendation given, or go to the legislature and do so, in order that they do not any longer encumber or muddy the law. McCall and Griffin are two cases that should be overruled one way or the other. I would vote today that neither has any precedential value under now existing case law or statutory law, but others more versed in this field of law should be heard from.
As for the case now at hand, and the tendered guidance on remand per the opinion for the Court and per the separate opinion of Justice Bakes, I add my own thought which is that the wishes of claimant should be of paramount consideration when the Commission determines the period of retained jurisdiction. Claimant will have the able advice of his attending physicians and his attorney in making that decision. While it is true that a jury often has to forecast as best it can for future surgery, expense thereof, and results obtained therefrom, that is because a district court cannot retain jurisdiction in order to ascertain five to ten or more years later what an injured person’s condition will be.
For what it may be worth, and because none of us can be very comfortable in the use of medical terminology, I suggest that the Commission with its own and available expertise will be more precise than Justice Bakes where he writes of “expected medical deterioration” and “future degenerative arthritis.” Those words may be found to be not wholly synonymous.
Not knowing, I have examined a medical thesaurus. An injured joint appears to be subject to both chemical change in tissue and an abnormal infiltration of abnormal matter — cartilage out and calcium build-up in. Apparently it can spread throughout the body.
All things considered, there is no reason why claimant, this badly injured young claimant, should not be to some extent the master of his own destiny.
Because the defendants’ have prodded the Commission into the error committed, there is no reason why claimant should not have his costs and attorney fees both in this Court and in Commission proceedings which led to the improvident change in the order discarding jurisdiction.
HUNTLEY, J., concurs in all except the final paragraph.