THERESA R. GIRON, Petitioner,
v.
BLACK DIAMOND and WORKERS COMPENSATION FUND, Respondents.
No. 19-0420
Utah Workers Compensation Decisions
Utah Labor Commission
November 2, 2020
ORDER
ON MOTION FOR REVIEW
ORDER
OF REMAND
Kathleen Bounous, Chair
Theresa
R. Giron asks the Appeals Board of the Utah Labor Commission
to review Administrative Law Judge Newman’s denial of
Ms. Giron’s claim for benefits under the Utah
Workers’ Compensation Act, Title 34A, Chapter 2, Utah
Code Annotated.
The
Appeals Board exercises jurisdiction over this motion for
review pursuant to §63G-4-301 of the Utah Administrative
Procedures Act and §34A-2-801(4) of the Utah
Workers’ Compensation Act.
BACKGROUND
AND ISSUES PRESENTED
Ms.
Giron claims workers’ compensation benefits for a
low-back injury she attributes to an accident that occurred
on April 13, 2017, while she was working for Black Diamond.
Ms. Giron also asserted that she suffered a low-back injury
due to repetitive trauma from April 12, 2017, to 2019. Judge
Newman held an evidentiary hearing and referred the medical
aspects of Ms. Giron’s claim to an impartial medical
panel. The medical panel determined that Ms. Giron did not
suffer any injury due to repetitive trauma, but that the work
accident on April 13, 2017, medically caused an acute
worsening of her underlying degenerative lumbar-spine
problems.
Judge
Newman relied on the medical panel’s opinion and
determined that the more stringent standard of legal
causation outlined in Allen v. Industrial
Comm’n, 729 P.2d 15 (Utah 1986), applied to Ms.
Giron’s claim. Judge Newman concluded that Ms. Giron
did not meet the more stringent standard of legal causation
and dismissed her claim for benefits. Ms. Giron seeks review
of Judge Newman’s order by arguing that he misconstrued
the mechanism of Ms. Giron’s injury and erred in
finding that she did not meet the more stringent standard of
legal causation. Ms. Giron also contends that Judge Newman
erred by allowing counsel for Black Diamond to cut Ms.
Giron’s testimony off during the hearing and by not
excluding certain statements from Black Diamond’s
medical consultant.
FINDINGS
OF FACT
The
Appeals Board finds the following facts to be material to Ms.
Giron’s motion for review. On April 13, 2017, Ms. Giron
was working for Black Diamond pulling items from its facility
to fulfill customer orders. She was tasked with retrieving a
box containing six pairs of skis from a shelf and moving them
to a new location. The skis were in an old and worn cardboard
box and weighed about 50 pounds. To remove the box from a
shelf slightly below waist height, Ms. Giron had to push and
pull it from other boxes of skis stacked around...
