RICHARD S. REED, Employee/Appellant,
v.
CHANDLER-WILBERT VAULT CO. and HARTFORD INS. CO., Employer-Insurer,
and
SPECIAL COMPENSATION FUND.
No. WC05-232
Minnesota Workers Compensation
Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals
December 22, 2005
HEADNOTES
PERMANENT
TOTAL DISABILITY - SUBSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. Where the
employee had not worked at all during the twenty-two-year
interim since his work-related heart injury, where, in
addition to his continuing heart condition, the employee
suffered from diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, depression,
legal blindness, and surgically treated low back problems,
and where the judge's decision was otherwise supported by
the medical opinion and other evidence of record, the
compensation judge's conclusion that the employee had
been permanently totally disabled since the date of his work
injury was not clearly erroneous and unsupported by
substantial evidence, notwithstanding the absence of any
vocational evidence in the record.
Affirmed.
Joel
C. Monke, Attorney at Law, Woodbury, MN, for the Appellant.
Anne
E. Kevlin, Law Offices of Adam S. Wolkoff, Eagan, MN, for the
Respondents.
Determined by: Pederson, J., Rykken, J., and Johnson, C.J.
Compensation Judge:Catherine A. Dallner
OPINION
WILLIAM R. PEDERSON, Judge
The
employee appeals from the compensation judge's finding
that the employee has been permanently and totally disabled
since September 27, 1982, as a result of his work-related
heart attack on that date. We affirm.
BACKGROUND
For
purposes of this appeal, the relevant facts are essentially
undisputed. Richard Reed [the employee] sustained an
admitted injury in the nature of a heart attack on September
27, 1982, while working for Chandler-Wilbert Vault Co. [the
employer]. On that date, the employee was forty-six
years old and was earning a weekly wage of
$352.00. Since the date of the injury, the employee has
not worked and the employer and insurer have been paying
temporary total disability benefits, nor has there...
