What the panel ordered
Findings of Fact and Order of August 13, 2021 rescinded; new decision that applicant did not carry burden of proving industrial causation; applicant takes nothing except reasonable medical-legal costs.
Petition for Reconsideration granted to review WCJ Findings of Fact and Order of August 13, 2021, and prior Findings of September 6, 2019, with remand for further evidence on industrial causation.
What was disputed, and how it came out
Each issue the panel decided, with the reasoning it gave. An outcome is what this panel did on this record — not a rule, and not a prediction.
AOE/COEDefendant prevailedright foot · bilateral knees
Applicant did not present substantial medical evidence tying the work incident to disability or need for medical treatment; medical opinions based on incomplete or speculative history were rejected.
From the decision · page 1In order to further study the factual and legal issues in these cases, we1 granted defendant's Petition for Reconsideration of a workers' compensation administrative law judge's (WCJ) Findings of Fact and Order of August 13, 2021, wherein it was found "applicant did sustain injury to her right foot and bilateral knees on an industrial basis." Previously in this matter, in a Findings of Fact and Order of September 6, 2019, the WCJ had found industrial injury to the right foot. Defendant sought reconsideration of the September 6, 2019 decision and in an Opinion and Decision after Reconsideration of December 2, 2019, we found that the record as it then stood did not support a finding of industrial injury, but we sent the case back to the trial level to afford applicant the opportunity to procure and present substantial medical evidence of industrial injury.