Davis, 062819 WIWC, 2017-018661

• Case Date: June 28, 2019
• Court: Wisconsin

Gwendolyn Davis Applicant MillerCoors, LLC Employer Ace American Ins. Co. Insurer No. 2017-018661 Wisconsin Workers Compensation State of Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission June 28, 2019           Atty. Robert C. Menard           Atty. Scott E. Wade           WORKER'S COMPENSATION DECISION 1           Michael H. Gillick, Chairperson          Order          The commission modifies and affirms the decision of the administrative law judge. Accordingly, within thirty (30) days, the respondent shall pay:

1. To the applicant, the sum of six thousand, eight hundred ninety-one dollars and ninety-eight cents ($6,891.98), as temporary total disability compensation; and the sum of two thousand, forty-five dollars and fifty-four cents ($2,045.54) for out-of-pocket medical expenses.

2. To Attorney Robert C. Menard, the sum of one thousand, seven hundred seventy-three dollars and fifty-eight cents ($1,773.58), as attorney's fees; and the sum of two hundred two dollars and thirty-four cents ($202.34) for costs.

3. To Hand Surgery Limited, the sum of one hundred thirty-six dollars and forty-two cents ($136.42).

4. To Orthopaedic Hospital of Wisconsin, the sum of three thousand, three hundred seventeen dollars and ninety-one cents ($3,317.91).

         Respondent and insurer are entitled to take a credit against the amount to which the applicant is otherwise entitled under this order for any corresponding payments of worker's compensation benefits that have already been paid.          By the Commission:           David B. Falstad, Commissioner, Georgia E. Maxwell, Commissioner          Procedural Posture          This case is before the commission to consider the applicant's entitlement to worker's compensation benefits. The applicant filed a hearing application in August of 2017, alleging bilateral occupational arm injuries with a date of injury of January 10, 2013. The employer and its insurer (collectively, the respondent) conceded jurisdictional facts and an average weekly wage of $1,191.20. An administrative law judge for the Department of Administration, Division of Hearings and Appeals, Office of Worker's Compensation Hearings, heard the matter on February 6, 2018, and issued a decision on June 11, 2018, finding that the applicant sustained a work-related injury which required treatment, including carpal tunnel surgery, awarding temporary total disability benefits, and ordering payment for medical expenses. The respondent filed a timely petition for commission review.          The commission has considered the petition and the positions of the parties and has independently reviewed the evidence submitted at the hearing. Based on its review, the commission modifies (rewrites) and affirms the decision of the administrative law judge.          Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law          1. The applicant, who was born in 1963, worked for the employer, a brewery, for about 17 years in different capacities. Prior to 2008, the applicant worked in the sanitation department doing janitorial services; her duties included cleaning offices and bathrooms, and she took care of the offices and building.2          2. After 2008, the applicant worked in the packaging department.3 Some of the jobs that she did in the packaging department included feeding cartons into a machine that put bottles in a machine and sent them to the shipping department. She also worked on a labeler machine where she fed labels into the machine that put labels on the bottles.4 She would take a label package and open the labels up and fan them out and then put them in the machine.^[5]When she did this work, she did it for a full 8-hour shift.6 In an 8-hour period, she estimated that she would do close to 400,000 bottles.7 She would get two 15-minute breaks and one 30-minute break for lunch.8          3. The applicant also worked on a Jones Machine where she would pick up boxes of cartons and flip them over onto a conveyor, continuously loading the machine.9 She would do about 24 boxes of 80 cartons in an hour.10 The applicant also worked on a Packer Cell where she would pick up stacks of cartons and put them onto a conveyor.11 She also loaded boxes of bottle caps into a hopper.^[12]          4. The medical records show the applicant complained of numbness in her hand at least as far back as 2005. On August 15, 2005, the applicant treated with Dr. Gregory J. Matthews, M.D. He noted that the applicant was complaining of headache, neck pain, and right arm pain. "Occasionally she will get numbness up in her arm, down to her hand and into her thumb."^[13] He assessed headaches, neck pain, mild right paresthesias in the upper extremity, as well as some minimal arthritic disease.          5. On February 12, 2007, Dr. Matthews noted that the applicant complained of numbness, tingling, and pain in her right arm. "She wakes up in the morning and her arm is numb or tingling all the way down into her forearm and fingers. She has pain that radiates up the arm into the shoulder, trapezius muscle, deltoid muscle, and into the lateral neck on the right...