BARRY A. HOOTS, EMPLOYEE CLAIMANT
H&M INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORTATION, INC., EMPLOYER RESPONDENT
CONTINENTAL INDEMINTY COMPANY/ APPLIED UNDERWRITERS, CARRIER/TPA RESPONDENT
No. G408197
Arkansas Workers Compensation
Before the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission
May 9, 2019
(10/11/2014)
Hearing
before Chief Administrative Law Judge Andrew L. Blood on
April 4, 2019, at Marion, Crittenden County, Arkansas.
Claimant represented by the Honorable Gary Davis,
Attorney-at-Law, Little Rock, Arkansas, and the Honorable
Andrew Schlichter, Attorney-at-Law, St. Louis, Missouri.
Respondents represented by the Honorable William C. Frye,
Attorney-at-Law, Little Rock, Arkansas, and the Honorable
James A. Arnold, II, Attorney-at-Law, Fort Smith, Arkansas
ANDREW
L. BLOOD, Chief Administrative Law Judge.
STATEMENT
OF THE CASE
A
hearing was conducted on April 4, 2019, to determine whether
the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission has
jurisdiction of this claim. A prehearing conference was
conducted in this claim on February 26. 2019, from which a
Prehearing Order of the same date was filed. The Prehearing
Order reflects the issue to be addressed during the course of
the hearing, and the contentions of the parties relative to
same. The Prehearing Order is herein designated a part of
this record as “Commission Exhibit #1.”
Comprising
the record in this claim are the medical reports of the
claimant, briefs of the parties, and the prior record
generated at prior proceedings, to include depositions of
Barry Hoots, Jesse DeGroot, Charles Connors, Vontarrius Cloy,
William McConnell, William Glenn Parnell, and Christopher
Schmidt. Additionally, subsequent to the hearing, the parties
were permitted to submit post-hearing brief within ten (10)
days after receipt of the April 4, 2019, hearing transcript,
which are blue-backed and made a part of the record.
DISCUSSION
The
procedural history of this claim is not disputed. Barry
Hoots, the claimant, with a date of birth of May 7, 1958,
commenced his employment with respondent-employer on October
8, 2014, as a grounds man. On October 11, 2014, the claimant
suffered an accidental fall, within the course and scope of
his employment; thereby, sustaining an injury to his spine.
Respondent-employer maintained a policy of workers’
compensation insurance in place at the time of the
claimant’s October 11, 2014, work-related, accidental
fall. Respondents instituted the payment of workers’
compensation benefits to and on behalf of the claimant at the
outset of the claim.
Pursuant
to a request for additional medical benefits, and following a
June 22, 2015, prehearing teleconference, a June 22,2015,
Prehearing Order was entered in the claim, scheduling an
August 14, 2015, contested hearing in Forrest City, Arkansas.
The June 22, 2015, Prehearing Order reflected stipulations
entered by the parties, to include the fact that the Arkansas
Workers’ Compensation Commission had jurisdiction of
the claim; the existence of the...
