89-1535 (1993). LORETTA DIMASCIO VS. CREST CRAFT, INC.

• Court: Rhode Island

Rhode Island Worker Compensation January 1989 - December 1993. 89-1535 (1993). LORETTA DIMASCIO VS. CREST CRAFT, INC Term: January 1989 - December 1993W.C.C. 89-1535LORETTA DIMASCIO VS. CREST CRAFT, INC.W.C.C. 89-9117LORETTA DIMASCIO VS. CREST CRAFT, INC.STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS PROVIDENCE, SC. WORKERS' COMPENSATION COURT APPELLATE DIVISION DECISION OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION GILROY, J.These cases are before the Appellate Division on cross appeals. W.C.C. 89-1535 was the employee's petition to review, alleging a return of incapacity on March 25, 1988 from the effects of a prior compensable injury. W.C.C. 89-9117 was heard below on the employee's original petition which alleged that she sustained a new compensable injury on March 25, 1988. Following hearing, the trial court found that the employee proved that she sustained a recurrent left wrist injury and a left arm injury which resulted in incapacity on March 25, 1988, which were recurrences of a prior 1982 injury, as a result of constant repetitive use of the left arm at work. He awarded benefits in the petition to review, W.C.C. 89-1535, and denied the original petition, W.C.C. 89-9117. Both sides appealed. We deny the appeals and affirm the decrees below. The employee's appeal from the denial of her original petition, W.C.C. 89-9117, was for strategic purposes, being a contingent appeal alleging that if the Appellate Division reversed the trial judge's decision in the petition to review, W.C.C. 89-1535, it should also reverse his decision in W.C.C. 89-9117 and grant the employee's original petition which alleged that her incapacity for work was caused by new constant and repetitive work activity. There is no factual dispute, the only witnesses being the petitioner and her treating physicians, Dr. Stanley Stutz, an orthopedic surgeon, and Dr. Peter Pizzarello, also an orthopedic surgeon. It appears that the employee, having worked for the respondent for over some twenty-five years, left work on March 25, 1988, saying she just couldn't move her arms or fingers anymore. She said that her job consisted of making boxes of many sizes and shapes, using tapes and staples, saying she normally put together at least one hundred per hour, done in a mostly standing position using constant hand and finger motions. She said she had previously sustained a work-related right-hand injury in 1982 and had seen physicians at that time, and had informed her employer of said condition. She said that when...