4-835-527 (2011). JULIE BLAKE, Claimant, v. FORT LEWIS COLLEGE, Employer, and PINNACOL ASSURANCE, Insurer, Respondents.

• Court: Colorado

Colorado Workers Compensation 2011. 4-835-527 (2011). JULIE BLAKE, Claimant, v. FORT LEWIS COLLEGE, Employer, and PINNACOL ASSURANCE, Insurer, Respondents INDUSTRIAL CLAIM APPEALS OFFICEW.C. No. 4-835-527IN THE MATTER OF THE CLAIM OF JULIE BLAKE, Claimant, v. FORT LEWIS COLLEGE, Employer, and PINNACOL ASSURANCE, Insurer, Respondents.FINAL ORDERThe respondents seek review of an order of Administrative Law Judge Mottram (ALJ) dated June 30, 2011, that ordered the claimant's claim to be compensable. We affirm. The following facts are taken from the record and the ALJ's findings of fact. The claimant was employed as a library technician for approximately eight-and-a-half years for the employer. On September 16, 2010, the claimant had completed her workday and was walking with her co-worker from the library to the parking lot where she had parked her car. The employer has numerous parking lots on its property, and the claimant's car was parked in the parking lot where she normally parks in a handicap parking spot. The claimant previously had purchased a parking permit for the purpose of parking in the employer's parking lot. The employer does not direct the claimant where to park. The claimant chose to park in this particular parking lot because it provides the claimant with the easiest route to the building in which she works. The claimant's car would be ticketed or towed if she parked in the employer's lot without a permit, or she would have to park in the metered spaces around the employer's campus. As the claimant and her co-worker were on a pathway leading to the parking lot, they began discussing a unique moped or motor scooter that also was parked in the parking lot where the claimant's car was parked. The moped was parked across the parking lot from where the claimant's car was parked. The claimant walked toward the moped and stepped off the sidewalk curb and into the parking lot in order to get a closer look at the moped. If the claimant had continued directly to her car, she would have stayed on the sidewalk and walked around the parking lot toward her car in the handicap spot before stepping off the curb to get to her car. As the claimant stepped down from the curb, she did not notice a storm drain where she was stepping off the curb. The storm drain made the curb higher than the claimant anticipated, and she fell as she stepped off the curb and broke her right ankle. The claimant was taken to the emergency room and eventually underwent an open reduction and internal fixation of a trimalleolar fracture of her right ankle. This surgery was performed by Dr. Goodman. As pertinent here, in March 2004, long before her fall in the employer's parking lot, the claimant was involved in a head-on motor vehicle collision that resulted in injuries to the claimant's legs. The claimant sustained a right open femur fracture and a left closed femur fracture. The claimant underwent surgery that included intromedullary rod fixation of her right and left femur fracture. The claimant followed up with Dr. Goodman, who provided her with a recommendation for a handicap parking placard. Following her surgery, the claimant reported a history of experiencing balance problems due to the broken femurs. The respondents filed a notice of contest for the claimant's claim. The respondents requested that the claimant undergo an independent medical examination (IME) with Dr. Scott. Dr. Scott opined that it was unlikely that but for the claimant's pre-existing injury or medical condition of the right foot, that she would have suffered her injury on September 16, 2010, when she stepped off the curb. According to Dr. Scott, the claimant's pre-existing right foot pain, dysfunction, or weakness probably caused her to fall when she stepped off the curb. Respondents' Hearing Submissions Exhibit B at 8. After Dr. Scott's IME, Dr. Goodman provided a report at the request of the claimant. Dr. Goodman opined that he did not believe that the claimant's previous injuries to her right lower extremity were contributory to the injury she suffered in the employer's parking lot. Dr. Goodman opined that he "frequently see[s] patients who have not had any previous injury to an extremity but with a misstep or fall, suffer similar fractures from the same mechanism of injury." Exhibit 9 at 38. A hearing was held on April 27, 2011. On June 30, 2011, the ALJ entered his findings of fact, conclusions of law, and order. In his order, the ALJ concluded that the claimant's injury was...