What the panel ordered
Petition for Reconsideration denied.
Petition for Reconsideration filed by Defendant, reviewed and denied by the Appeals Board panel.
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.
ApportionmentDefendant prevailedlumbar spine
The AME corrected an error in his original report but this did not represent new and further disability; the parties stipulated 100% industrial causation for the lumbar spine injury, so no apportionment was warranted.
From the decision · page 6Petitioners contend that AME Dr. Newton's opinion, expressed in cross examination, that only 80% of the Applicant's increase in lumbar spine impairment is attributable to the 8/19/2018 Date of Injury. (See Petition for Reconsideration on page 3, lines 25-28). However, in the AME's cross examination on 4/24/2024 he testified to an error in his original report issued prior to the Award and stated that he should have rated the Applicant in the higher DRE 3 category when he saw the Applicant in 2018 but did not. He then amended his original opinion regarding the impairment to the Applicant's lumbar spine to 12% WPI. This court does not believe that this represents a new and further disability as it is simply a correction by the AME based on his evaluation of the Applicant in 2018. (See Exhibit EE on page 40, lines 6-21).