MICHAEL H. McMILLAN, Employee/Appellant,
v.
FREEMAN EXPOSITIONS, INC., and OLD REPUBLIC INS. GRP., Employer-Insurer/ Respondents,
and
CTR. FOR DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING, ALLINA MED. CLINIC, ABBOTT NW. HOSP., CARPENTERS & JOINERS WELFARE FUND and MINN. DEP’T OF HUMAN SERVS., Intervenors.
No. WC20-6354
Minnesota Workers Compensation
Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals
November 25, 2020
CAUSATION
– SUBSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. Substantial evidence, including
adequately founded expert medical opinion, supports the
compensation judge’s finding that the employee did not
sustain a bilateral knee injury when he stepped on a power
cord threshold while working for the employer.
Pro se
Appellant.
Craig
B. Nichols, Hansen, Dordell, Bradt, Odlaug & Bradt, St.
Paul, Minnesota, for the Respondents.
Determined by: Sean M. Quinn, Judge, Patricia J. Milun, Chief
Judge, Gary M. Hall, Judge
Compensation Judge: William J. Marshall
Affirmed.
OPINION
SEAN
M. QUINN, Judge.
The pro
se employee appeals the compensation judge’s finding
that the employee did not sustain a work-related injury to
his knees. We affirm.
BACKGROUND
On
April 6, 2019, the employee, Michael H. McMillan, was working
for the employer, Freeman Expositions, Inc., at U.S. Bank
Stadium to prepare the facility for the upcoming NCAA Final
Four men’s basketball tournament. The employee was
hanging drapes under bleachers to form a corridor for players
to walk through before entering the court. While stepping
backwards, he stepped on top of a “threshold,” a
plastic or rubber covering placed over power cords. The
employee described the threshold as having a steep slope on
both sides with a flat middle and claimed he hyperextended
both knees when he stepped on it. He did not experience
immediate pain, but had pain by the end of that day.
Before
the work injury, the employee had a history of bilateral knee
difficulties. An MRI scan of his right knee performed on May
3, 2007, showed complex tearing of the posterior horn of the
medial meniscus, with additional superior surface tearing and
fraying of the anterior horn of the lateral meniscus,
chondral thinning and irregularity of the medial tibial
plateau, femoral trochlea and patella, and mild to moderate
knee joint effusion. Another MRI scan of the right knee
performed on April 25, 2008, showed a moderately complex
horizontal and vertical tearing of the body and posterior
horn medial meniscus with a small to moderate associated
parameniscal cyst, and mild to moderate patellofemoral and
mild medial compartment degenerative articular cartilage
loss, and small joint effusion.
Further,
on January 18, 2011, the employee saw his doctor to follow up
on a torquing injury to his left knee and swelling of both
knees which he sustained in a motor vehicle/pedestrian
accident the previous October. He was diagnosed with
bilateral osteoarthritis of the medial and patellofemoral
compartments of the knees. An MRI scan of the left knee on
January 26, 2011, showed superficial undersurface tearing or
fraying of the medial meniscus in the junction region between
the posterior horn and body, with grade 2 chondromalacia of
the medial compartment, and mild joint effusion. There was
also a showing of possible low-grade partial tearing, stretch
injury, or mild degeneration of the anterior cruciate
ligament and grade 2 chondromalacia of the medial facet of
the patella.
In
addition, on July 28, 2015, the employee reported left knee
pain since an injury the previous April when he was carrying
a heavy load of items down some stairs. He was diagnosed with...
