EMAD ABED, Employee/Appellant,
v.
ERA VENTURE CAPITAL and AMTRUST GROUP, Employer-Insurer/Respondents,
and
NORAN NEUROLOGICAL CLINIC, P.A., CTR. FOR DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING, and UCARE, Intervenors.
No. WC18-6200
Minnesota Workers Compensation
Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals
February 22, 2019
EVIDENCE
– EXPERT MEDICAL OPINION. The compensation
judge’s choice of which expert medical opinion to adopt
did not constitute a finding that the rejected opinion was
not adequately founded. The expert medical opinions in this
matter have adequate foundation and the employee’s
arguments regarding the expert medical opinions go to the
weight to be assigned to the opinions by the compensation
judge, not to their foundation.
CAUSATION
– SUBSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. Substantial evidence, including
adequately founded medical opinion, supports the compensation
judge’s findings that that the employee had not
sustained neck or low back injuries as a result of the work
injury and that the admitted right foot and ankle injury had
resolved.
Benjamin Harper, Osterbauer Law Firm, Minneapolis, Minnesota,
for the Appellant.
Tracy
M. Borash and Kathryn L. Hammers, Brown & Carlson, P.A.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, for the Respondents.
Determined by: Patricia J. Milun, Chief Judge, Deborah K.
Sundquist, Judge, Sean M. Quinn, Judge
Compensation Judge: Sandra J. Grove
Affirmed.
OPINION
PATRICIA J. MILUN, Chief Judge.
The
employee appeals the compensation judge’s denial of his
claims based on findings that the employee had not sustained
injuries to his neck or low back as a result of his February
25, 2017, work injury, and that the admitted right foot and
ankle work injury had resolved. We affirm.
BACKGROUND
On
February 25, 2017, Emad Abed, the employee, was injured when
he either fell off a stool or his foot slipped off of a stool
rung while working at a Budget Rent a Car franchise which he
owned through ERA Venture Capital, the employer. The employee
treated for the injury a few days after the incident and
reported right foot pain, and did not report that he had
fallen to the ground. The employee testified that he began to
feel pain in his neck and low back a few days after that
appointment, and he reported pain in his neck, low back,
right heel, and right elbow in March 2017. The employee filed
a claim petition listing injuries to his neck, low back,
right elbow, and right foot and claiming temporary total
disability benefits, medical expenses, and rehabilitation
services. The employer’s workers’ compensation
insurer admitted primary liability for the employee’s
right foot and ankle injury but disputed the nature and
extent of that injury. The employer and insurer denied
liability for injuries claimed to the employee’s right
elbow, neck, and low back.
The
employee had previously claimed multiple injuries after a
2007 non-work-related incident on an airport escalator,
including injuries to his neck, shoulders, arms, low back,
and numbness in his anterior thighs. A December 2007 cervical
spine MRI indicated a non-compressive central disc herniation
at C2-3, multilevel degenerative disc disease with foraminal
stenosis at C4-5 and C5-6, as well as posterior osteophytic
ridging and hypermobility at C5-6. The employee was also
diagnosed with a spinal myoligamentous strain injury and
meralgia paresthetica.1 In May 2011, another cervical spine
MRI showed spondylosis at multiple levels, disc space
narrowing at C5-6, mild central stenosis at C4-5 and C5-6
with mild right ventral cord flattening, mild central canal
stenosis at C3-4, and moderate right foraminal stenosis at
C4-5 and bilaterally at C5-6. In September 2011, another
cervical spine MRI showed left/central osteophyte or
herniated disc with foraminal root compression at C5-6 and a
smaller left central herniated disc at C4-5, as well as...
