Neff v. Warwick Trading Company LLC, 070821 VAWC, VA02000030707

• Case Date: July 08, 2021
• Court: Virginia

CHRISTINA NEFF v. WARWICK TRADING COMPANY LLC HDI GLOBAL INSURANCE COMPANY, Insurance Carrier NORTH AMERICAN RISK SERVICES, Claim Administrator Jurisdiction Claim No. VA02000030707 Virginia In The Workers' Compensation Commission July 8, 2021           Date of Injury: July 7, 2018.           Claim Administrator File No. PBHD18070001           Johnny C. Cope, Esquire For the Claimant.           Adam S. Rafal, Esquire For the Defendants.          OPINION           RAPAPORT Commissioner          REVIEW on the record by Commissioner Marshall, Commissioner Newman, and Commissioner Rapaport at Richmond, Virginia.          The defendants request review of the Deputy Commissioner's February 25, 2021 Opinion awarding permanent partial disability benefits for her right arm, and medical benefits for the claimant's left knee injury as a compensable consequence of her occupational right knee injury. We AFFIRM.^[1] I. Material Proceedings          The claimant sustained a compensable injury by accident on July 7, 2018, suffering injuries to her right shoulder, back and right knee. The defendants have paid medical benefits and temporary total disability benefits. Pertinent to our inquiry, the claimant filed a claim on May 8, 2020 seeking medical benefits for a left knee injury as compensable consequence. She wrote that she injured the left knee "as a result of a fall when her right knee buckled."          Deputy Commissioner Wilder conducted an evidentiary hearing on February 8, 2021. Regarding the left knee injury, the Deputy Commissioner found that the claimant proved it to be a compensable consequence. He explained:

Neff testified that as she ascended a set of steps at her home in early July 2019, her right knee, injured in her July 7, 2018 industrial accident, collapsed, causing her to injure her left knee as she tried to prevent falling. Although it is noted that the available medical records indicate that Neff reported that her left knee injury may have occurred after a slip or trip, it is found that she credibly testified about the mechanism of this incident. Neff's left knee injury is found a compensable consequence of her industrial accident. . . . The available medical records reflect Neff's occasional complaints of right knee instability before her July 26, 2019 injury at home as well as intermittent episodes of instability after this incident. This evidence, combined with Neff's credible testimony about her injury to her left knee, demonstrates that the medical attention she required for her left knee after July 26, 2019 . . . arose from her industrial accident as a compensable consequence of the right

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