A Claimant sustained a compensable injury to his left knee while walking across the deck of a ship. The accident and injury were accepted as compensable and medical and indemnity benefits were provided, including two knee surgeries. A few years after the Claimant had been placed at MMI for the left knee, he brought claims alleging that he had also injured his back, right shoulder and right knee, arising from the same accident. The Claimant asserted two theories of liability: that either he injured those other body parts directly in the accident, or that they became symptomatic after favoring his left knee for an extended period of time.
At hearing, the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) found it significant that there was no mention of any injury to those other body parts in either the Employer’s in-house accident report or in the medical records from the providers who were initially authorized to treat the Claimant’s left knee injury. Thus, the first theory of liability was rejected.
In the medical records of physicians who were subsequently authorized to treat the left knee, there was no mention of any other injured body part until almost two years following the Claimant’s last left knee surgery. Collectively, those physicians testified in deposition that if any of those body parts were to have become symptomatic because of the Claimant’s favoring of the left knee, they would have expected symptoms to arise much earlier than two years.
The Claimant, at hearing, testified that he had been treated by a few other doctors who had rendered different opinions. However, the records of those physicians were not offered into evidence by the Claimant. In addition, the Claimant testified that he had been advised by his Employer not to say anything about the other body parts. In rebuttal, the Employer testified that no such instruction had been given. In the end, the ALJ rejected the “altered gait” theory of liability, and the Claimant’s claims were denied in their entirety.
The defense of this claim was a team effort. Special thanks go to Ms. Mary Morgan, who before she retired completed several of the depositions submitted at trial. Mr. Mark Eckels completed the remaining depositions and tried the case, and Ms. Kelly Kay was the principal drafter of the post-trial brief.
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