Filtered Decisions

The Commission affirmed the administrative law judge's award of workers' compensation benefits to Ernest Hallock for a right hand and trigger finger injury sustained on June 4, 2012, when a drill bit caught while he was operating a drill. The Second Injury Fund was found liable for permanent total disability benefits of $233.23 per week beginning April 27, 2014, and continuing for the claimant's lifetime.

The Missouri Court of Appeals reversed part of the Commission's April 2014 award, finding the Commission exceeded its authority by deciding subrogation issues. The Commission modified the administrative law judge's award by removing the subrogation section while affirming all other aspects of the award.

The Commission affirmed the Administrative Law Judge's award allowing workers' compensation benefits for Gary Emmons, a car hauler who sustained a right knee injury when he missed a step and fell while unloading minivans from his transport vehicle on December 3, 2009. The claimant was awarded 8 weeks of permanent partial disability compensation totaling $3,383.76 for a 5% permanent disability to the right knee.

The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission affirmed the Administrative Law Judge's award finding that the employee's left shoulder injury sustained while lifting a 200-pound door on July 15, 2013, was a compensable workers' compensation claim. The award is temporary or partial in nature, with proceedings kept open for further order pending a final award.

The Commission affirmed the Administrative Law Judge's award finding the employee permanently totally disabled from the last injury alone, with the Second Injury Fund not liable. The Commission corrected a factual error regarding the employee's prior headache history in 2000 but otherwise upheld the award including future medical care for headaches and dental reimbursement of $650.00.

The Commission reversed the administrative law judge's decision and awarded compensation for a psychiatric injury sustained as an occupational disease arising from the employee's 20+ years of work as a highway supervisor responding to fatal motor vehicle accidents. The employee's mental stress injury was found to be causally related to extraordinary occupational exposures including witnessing multiple fatalities and traumatic accident scenes.

The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission affirmed the administrative law judge's award denying workers' compensation to Kathy Finnell, finding she did not sustain a compensable accident or occupational disease arising out of her employment on August 21, 2003. The commission corrected clerical errors in the original award and clarified that psychological disability allegedly resulting from an alleged assault at the prosecutor's office was not causally related to work.

The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission affirmed the administrative law judge's decision denying workers' compensation benefits to Jerry Murray. The Commission found that the alleged injury or occupational disease did not arise out of and in the course of employment, and therefore was not compensable under Missouri law.

The Commission affirmed the administrative law judge's award allowing compensation for an employee's work-related asthma with bronchial reactivity caused by occupational exposure. The Commission found the employee satisfied statutory notice requirements, as the 30-day notice period was triggered by the correct medical diagnosis of irritant-induced bronchial reactivity rather than an earlier misdiagnosis of restrictive lung disease.

The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission modified the administrative law judge's award regarding past medical expenses and future medical care for an employee's right knee injury from an August 6, 2009 workplace accident. The Commission affirmed the 40% permanent partial disability determination but modified the award concerning medical causation and the scope of past medical expenses owed.

The Commission affirmed the Administrative Law Judge's decision denying workers' compensation benefits to Cynthia Knight for a head injury sustained on January 13, 2009, when she stumbled into a hole. The claim was barred by the statute of limitations under Section 287.430, RSMo, as it was not filed within the required timeframe.

The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission affirmed the Administrative Law Judge's award in this workers' compensation case involving an alleged right hand injury on January 27, 2012. No compensation was awarded, and the case remains open as a temporary or partial award pending further proceedings.

The Commission affirmed the administrative law judge's award of workers' compensation benefits to Felicia Buffington for an occupational disease involving repetitive use of upper extremities and cervical spine injury occurring on November 9, 2010. The total compensation awarded was $115,846.09, including unpaid medical expenses, permanent partial disability, and disfigurement benefits.

The Commission affirmed the Administrative Law Judge's award of workers' compensation benefits to Jane Cook Noyes for a back injury sustained on April 3, 2001, while bending down to remove items from a drawer at a Wal-Mart store in Macon, Missouri. The claimant was awarded permanent total disability benefits of $202.89 per week for life, with a total value of $65,678.39, supported by competent and substantial evidence and in accordance with Missouri Workers' Compensation Law.

The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission affirmed the administrative law judge's award allowing workers' compensation for an employee who injured his back when his chair collapsed during a lunch break on employer premises. The Commission found that the employee's injury arose out of and in the course of employment because he was exposed to the risk of the employer's specific chair collapsing, a hazard not equally present in normal nonemployment life.

The Commission affirmed the administrative law judge's denial of permanent total disability benefits from the Second Injury Fund, finding insufficient evidence that the employee's preexisting conditions constituted a serious hindrance to employment. Although the employee credibly testified to multiple disabling preexisting conditions including chronic thoracolumbar strain, the case was ultimately unsuccessful due to inadequate proof connecting these conditions to the statutory threshold for Second Injury Fund liability.

The Commission affirmed the administrative law judge's denial of workers' compensation benefits, finding that the employee failed to establish extraordinary or unusual work-related stress due to unreliable testimony regarding alleged harassment. The court found the employee's account of harassment incidents to be unpersuasive and lacking in credibility, partly based on inconsistencies with a prior claim against a different employer.

The Commission reversed the ALJ's decision and found the Second Injury Fund liable for permanent total disability benefits in a workers' compensation case involving a sheet metal worker with multiple preexisting back injuries who sustained a primary low back injury on January 16, 2009. The employee had previously settled three separate back injury claims (1988, 1992, 2001) before the current injury, establishing a significant preexisting disability that triggered Second Injury Fund coverage.

The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission affirmed the Administrative Law Judge's award of permanent total disability benefits to Linda Brown, finding the award supported by competent and substantial evidence and in accordance with Missouri Workers' Compensation Law. The Commission clarified that analysis of permanent total disability requires first addressing the nature and extent of disability from the primary injury, then determining whether the primary injury combined with preexisting conditions results in total and permanent disability.

The Commission affirmed the Administrative Law Judge's award of workers' compensation benefits for a left shoulder injury sustained on May 30, 2009, when the employee lifted and twisted while attaching machine hoses. The Second Injury Fund was held liable for permanent total disability benefits of $180 per week beginning February 10, 2012.

The Commission affirmed the administrative law judge's award denying compensation for an occupational disease claim by employee Cheryl E. Tauvar, finding that her medical causation evidence did not persuasively support that work was a substantial factor in causing her condition. The decision clarifies that under Missouri law, an occupational disease is compensable only if clearly work-related and meeting statutory requirements, not merely because work was a triggering or precipitating factor.

The LIRC modified the administrative law judge's award regarding permanent partial disability benefits for an employee's complete loss of vision in his left eye. The Commission reviewed whether the employee qualified for an additional 10% increase in compensation under Missouri's schedule of losses for complete loss of use.

The Commission affirmed the administrative law judge's award denying workers' compensation benefits for an occupational disease claim involving the right shoulder. The employee failed to establish by a preponderance of credible evidence that permanent disability resulted from her approximately three weeks of work exposure in Missouri rather than from non-compensable prior or subsequent events.

The Commission affirmed the Administrative Law Judge's denial of workers' compensation benefits for Kent Kersten's work-related stress claim, finding he failed to prove that job-related stress was the prevailing factor in causing his psychiatric disability. The Commission determined that Kersten did not demonstrate he was subjected to extraordinary or unusual work stressors that arose out of and in the course of his employment as a prosecutor.

The Commission affirmed the Administrative Law Judge's award allowing workers' compensation for a right knee injury sustained in an accident on April 24, 2009, finding the accident was the prevailing factor causing the employee's condition requiring total knee replacement. The Commission adopted the ALJ's findings based on medical testimony, particularly crediting Dr. Hopkins' opinion that the traumatic accident was the prevailing cause given the lack of prior symptoms and treatment history.