PHILLIP L. JUNTUNEN, Employee/Petitioner,
v.
OGSTON'S, INC., and STATE FUND MUT. INS. CO., Employer-Insurer,
and
SILVERNESS PLUMBING, HEATING & EXCAVATING, INC., and MINNESOTA WORKERS' COMP. ASSIGNED RISK PLAN/BERKLEY ADM'RS, Employer-Insurer,
and
SILVERNESS PLUMBING, HEATING & EXCAVATING, INC., and STATE FUND MUT. INS. CO., Employer-Insurer.
Minnesota Workers Compensation
Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals
January 26, 1999
HEADNOTES
VACATION
OF AWARD - SUBSTANTIAL CHANGE IN CONDITION. Where
colorable changes in the employee's ability to work,
extent of permanency, and need for additional medical expense
were not shown, in any way, to be causally related to the
work injuries covered by the stipulation for settlement, the
employee failed to demonstrate good cause to vacate his award
on stipulation on grounds of a substantial change in
condition.
Petition
to vacate award denied.
Determined by Pederson, J., Wilson, J., and Wheeler, C.J.
OPINION
WILLIAM R. PEDERSON, Judge
The
employee petitions this court to set aside an award on
stipulation served and filed October 30,
1995,1 on grounds that his condition has
substantially worsened since the issuance of the
award. We deny the petition.
BACKGROUND
The
employee, Phillip L. Juntunen, has alleged that he sustained
work-related injuries to his lower back in the course of his
employment with Silverness Plumbing, Heating &
Excavating, Inc. [Silverness], on May 1 and August 1, 1990,
and with Ogston's, Inc. [Ogston's], on May 19,
1993. Silverness was insured against workers'
compensation liability by the Minnesota Workers'
Compensation Assigned Risk Plan/Berkley Administrators
[ARP/BA] for the alleged injury of May 1, 1990, and by State
Fund Mutual Insurance Company [State Fund] for the alleged
August 1, 1990, injury. State Fund was also
Ogston's' Minnesota insurer at the time of the
alleged May 19, 1993, injury.2
On
April 11, 1990, at thirty-one years of age and while employed
by Silverness as a laborer and heavy equipment operator, the
employee sought treatment for a lower back problem with Dr.
R. R. Juntunen, the employee's uncle. He complained
to Dr. Juntunen that for the past two or three weeks he had
experienced low back pain that radiated down his right
leg. He reported no history of injury. A
lumbosacral x-ray was performed, which revealed a slightly
narrowed L4 interspace with associated hypertrophic
changes. The employee was given a prescription for
Voltaren, and on April 19, 1990, he sought further treatment
with chiropractor Dr. John A. Benson. The employee
complained to Dr. Benson also of "shooting pain down
[right] leg" that had begun three weeks earlier, noting
that he had "had it before but [it] went
away." Again the employee identified no cause of
the condition, and he refrained from relating it to his
work.3 Dr. Benson subsequently treated
the employee five more times between April 20 and May 4,
1990, without effecting much improvement, and neither of his
two May 1990 records relate the employee's problems to
any particular activity on or about May 1, 1990, although the
record for May 4, 1990, does note "[symptoms] yesterday
[May 3, 1990] while working." On August 6,
1990, the employee returned to Dr. Benson's clinic,
complaining again of lower back pain, this time as a result
of an injury sustained at Silverness on August 1,
1990. Following an MRI scan on December 27, 1990, the
employee was referred to surgeon Dr. Robert Donley, who
diagnosed an extruded right L5 disc with right S1 root
entrapment. Surgery was recommended, and on February 7,
1991, Dr. Donley performed a laminectomy with excision of a
herniated disc at L5-S1 on the right. In a Maximum
Medical Improvement Physician's Report dated October 2,
1992, Dr. Donley indicated that the employee had achieved
maximum medical improvement [MMI] on February 7, 1992, from a
work injury on August 2, 1990, and as a result of that injury
had sustained a 9% impairment to the body as a whole pursuant
to Minn. R. 5223.0070, subp. 1B(2)(a). In a subsequent
report, dated June 11, 1993, Dr. Donley related the
employee's condition to injuries sustained while employed
by Silverness both in August 1990 and in May 1990.
On July
16, 1993, subsequent to termination of employment with
Silverness and reemployment with Ogston's, the employee
filed a claim petition seeking impairment compensation for a
9% permanent partial disability, together with payment of
certain medical expenses, both related to alleged...
