Annette Gilliam Applicant
Sargento Foods, Inc. Employer
Federal Ins. Co. Insurer
Claim No. 2011-009541
Wisconsin Workers Compensation
State of Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission
March 29, 2019
Atty.
Douglas M. Feldman
Atty.
Joseph J. Voelkner
WORKER’S COMPENSATION
DECISION
[1]
David
B. Falstad, Chairperson
Order
The
commission modifies and
affirms the decision of the administrative
law judge. Accordingly, the application for benefits is
dismissed.
By the
Commission:
Georgia E. Maxwell, Commissioner, Michael H. Gillick,
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 June
of 2011, alleging a left ankle/left joint injury caused by
walking quickly from one end of a line to the scraping room
on March 22, 2011. She filed another hearing application in
October of 2017 alleging a left ankle injury caused by
“Stepped into/onto drain cover” on March 22,
2011. The employer and its insurer (collectively, the
respondent) conceded jurisdictional facts and an average
weekly wage of $857.27. An administrative law judge for the
Department of Administration, Division of Hearings and
Appeals, Office of Worker’s Compensation Hearings,
heard the matter on May 21, 2018, and issued a decision on
August 15, 2018, dismissing the application. The applicant
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 and affirms the decision of the administrative law
judge.
Findings
of Fact and Conclusions of Law
The
commission makes the same findings of fact and conclusions of
law as stated in the decision of the administrative law judge
and incorporates them by reference into the
commission’s decision, subject to the following:
Modifications
On page
4 of the decision, replace the second and third sentences of
the third paragraph of the Findings of Fact with:
In the recorded statement taken by the insurance carrier, the
applicant indicated she was walking and felt like she twisted
or twitched her ankle. She indicated that she felt a pull or
twist in her ankle that stopped her in her tracks for a
second.
On page
3 of the decision, in the fifth paragraph, replace the first
word, “Do,” with “Due.”
Memorandum
Opinion
The
applicant, who was born in 1976, worked as a process
technician for the employer on a cheese packaging production
line. She alleges that she injured her left ankle when she
was walking across the floor on March 22, 2011, and that the
injury necessitated medical treatment, including two
surgeries. The respondent denies a work injury.
The
issues in this case are whether the applicant sustained a
work-related left ankle injury by accident arising out of and
incidental to her employment on March 22, 2011, the nature
and extent of any disability, and the respondent’s
liability for medical expenses and indemnity. The applicant
has the burden of proving beyond a legitimate doubt all the
facts necessary to establish a claim for
compensation.
2 Compensation must be
denied if a legitimate doubt exists regarding the facts
necessary to establish a claim, but not every doubt is
automatically legitimate or sufficient to deny
compensation.
3 Legitimate doubt
must arise from contradictions and inconsistencies in the
evidence, not simply from intuition.
4
The
applicant argues that her ankle condition was not idiopathic
(a force or thing solely personal to the applicant) or the
manifestation of a preexisting condition, but that it was the
result of a traumatic injury. The applicant argues that,
construing the requirement of cause liberally, she has met
her burden of proof. Prior to the work incident, the
applicant was asymptomatic. She asserts that she injured her
ankle when she walked on the uneven surface of the drain area
as she walked across the floor to notify employees to take a
break. She asserts that she walked quickly on this uneven
drain area and felt a sharp pain in her left ankle which
eventually turned into a throbbing. She notes that she
reported the incident to her supervisor and sought treatment
immediately on March 22.
...
