Martinez, 042419 ARWC, G801980
| Case Date | April 24, 2019 |
| Court | Kansas |
“On or about September 29, 2017, the claimant suffered an accidental injury to the left shoulder arising out of and in the course of his employment. He is entitled to medical expenses and out-of-pocket medical expenses.”The respondents’ contentions are as follows:
“a. There is no medical evidence of an injury;
b. There is no injury per statutory definition; and
c. No major contributing cause.”The claimant in this matter is a 41-year-old male who alleges to have sustained a compensable injury to his left shoulder on or about September 29, 2017 through a specific incident. The claimant alternatively argues that he sustained his alleged compensable injury via gradual onset. The claimant was employed by the respondent in a mattress factory and his duties, as described in his testimony, was that of bagging and stacking mattresses. However, the claimant’s testimony is contrary to that of his supervisor, Jonathan Williams, who, in part, testified as follows:
A His main position was a position we called tape edge. The finished mattress would be closed on a sewing table. From time to time he did fill in on the bagging line. Main job duties would be to take a nearly finished mattress, place it on the table, close it with a sewing machine, and then place it on the conveyor.
Q Okay. And when he performed that job duty, was there anyone else who was working alongside him?
A Yes, there was always a second.Following is a portion of the claimant’s direct examination testimony about his job duties:
Q And what was your job title?
A Well, we would bag up beds and bag them up and stack them up.
Q And by beds, are you referring to mattresses?
A Mattresses and bases.
Q Okay. Now, did you typically do this job with another person?
A Yes.
Q And were there times that you had to do the job alone?
A Sometimes, yes.
Q Okay. Did your job consist of pulling a mattress off of a stack and putting it on a roller table?
MS. MARKHAM: I am going to object to the form as leading the witness. He hasn't been asked to describe what his job is. Mr. Shock is essentially testifying to what his job was.
THE COURT: I will sustain the objection. I think you need to ask that one very important question. I am not going to be very strict on leading as we do have a language barrier here, but let's get his description of his job first.
MR. SHOCK: Yes, sir.
Q [BY MR. SHOCK]: Before you touched them, where are the mattresses?
A Well, the guys that were working inside, the one who stitches them up, puts them on a line. They come down and there is two lines. There are two fulls is what they call them. So then we would bag them up –
Q Wait. Now, when they come to your area, is it one mattress or is it many?
A It is many. What happens is on occasions it would get full, so we would have to get them down from up high and that was a bit difficult for me.
Q How high would the mattresses be stacked?
A Well, I could say it was a few -- ten feet tall sometimes.
Q Okay. All right. So you get the top one off the stack. What do you do with it?
A Well, we would bring up the one from the top and put them on the fulls and we would bag it up. Then we would carry it on our shoulders and take it over to get stacked up.
Q Now, what size of mattresses did you work with?
A It's twins, full and king. Twins, full and queen.
Q Okay. What is the weight of the lightest mattress?
A Well, I am not sure, but . . . probably 30, 40 pounds, the lightest one.
Q The heaviest?
A Well, like I said, I am not sure, but it could be about 120 pounds.
Q Okay. How far would you carry the mattress to its next stop?
A The lightest ones would take approximately a few -- about more or less around 50 meters, the longest one. And the heaviest ones, perhaps maybe ten, perhaps five meters.
Q Okay. What is your height and weight?
A Height is 160 and weight is 165, also.
Q 165 what?
A No, no. When you are talking about height, I think it is one -- I am not really sure.
Q Do you have a driver's license on you?
A Yes.
Q What does it say your height is?
A Which one would be the height on here? 5' 04". I got it.
Q Okay. And when you say you weigh 165, is that 165 pounds?
A Yes.
Q What is the number of times you would take a mattress and move it to these bins during a typical day?
A Well, we were two on the line usually. And normally it would be a number of about 200, 250 if production was very busy.
Q And you usually shared this job with another worker; is that right?
A Yes.
Q And as far as the -- how did you divide up the work of taking the mattress off the table and walking with it on your shoulder to the bin?
A What we would do is we would rotate. We would take a break, like two hours I would carry and then two hours the other guy would carry them, and we would do it like that until the eight hours would be finished.
Q Okay. Did this work cause any problems for your shoulder?
A Well, yes, because I didn't -- well, starting from there is when I started to feel pain on my shoulder.The claimant’s supervisor, Mr. Williams, also gave additional testimony about the claimant’s job duties on direct examination as follows:
Q Did you hear him testify about bagging mattresses?
A Yes.
Q Did you ever hear him testifying anything about sewing mattresses?
A No.
Q Was his testimony, in your opinion, accurate in...
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