MARIA T MARTINEZ Applicant
DUFECK MFG CO Employer
MIDWEST FAMILY MUTUAL INS CO Insurer
No. 2017-012336
Wisconsin Workers Compensation
State of Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission
August 17, 2020
Attorney Melissa M. Stone.
Attorney Daniel S. Lenz.
WORKER’S
COMPENSATION DECISION 1
Michael H. Gillick, Chairperson.
Interlocutory
Order
The
commission affirms the decision of the administrative law
judge (ALJ) issued in this matter on December 3, 2019.
Accordingly, within 30 days from this date, Dufeck
Manufacturing and Midwest Family Mutual Insurance Company
(respondents) shall make the payments the ALJ ordered in his
Interlocutory Order of December 3, 2019.
Jurisdiction
is reserved for such further findings and orders as may be
necessary.
By the
Commission:
David
B. Falstad, Commissioner, Georgia E. Maxwell, Commissioner.
Procedural
Posture
On
April 9, 2019, the applicant filed a hearing application
alleging that on May 20, 2017, she was acting in the course
of her employment with the employer, Dufeck Manufacturing
Company, when she sustained an injury to her right upper
extremity. Respondents disputed the applicant's claim,
and on October 2, 2019, an ALJ of the Department of
Administration, Division of Hearings and Appeals, Office of
Worker's Compensation Hearings held a hearing in the
matter. On December 3, 2019, the ALJ issued a decision
finding a compensable injury and ordering payment of
compensation including medical expense, as well as attorney
fees and costs. Respondents timely filed a petition for
commission review alleging error in the ALJ's decision.
The
commission has reviewed the evidence submitted at the
hearing, and it has considered the parties' arguments
submitted in their briefs to the commission. Based upon its
review and analysis, the commission has affirmed the
ALJ's decision and adopted it as its own.
Memorandum
Opinion
There
is no dispute that on May 20, 2019, co-worker Alta Gracia
Sanchez (Sanchez) threw the applicant to the concrete floor
at the employer's plant, resulting in the applicant's
right comminuted distal radius fracture. There is a dispute
over exactly how Sanchez threw the applicant to the floor,
and over who initiated the physical contact between these two
individuals. The only firsthand witnesses to the incident
present at the hearing were the applicant, and another
co-worker named Maria Arcos. The...
