06/11/2024
Last week, attorney Dave Lybbert was in Walla Walla County Superior Court on a jury trial. Below is his story of the case, and his favorable verdict:
We represented a lady who sustained a significant injury several years ago to her mid-back and we believed also sustained injury to her shoulder. The Self-Insured Employer had sent her to over 10 examinations during the 6 years of claim management, including a single Psychiatric evaluation that reported no related psychiatric condition, despite evidence of treatment of and existence of mental health issues in her treatment records.
The matter was tried initially before the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals and the first Proposed Decision found the injury had aggravated a pre-existing mental health condition but denied further Time Loss and Denied Pension. The Board's Proposed decision awarded Permanent Partial Disability of a Category 3 mental health impairment.
Both the employer and the worker appealed. The Full Board accepted the matter for review. We argued that if a finding of a Category 3 impairment was accurate, then there had to be an effect upon the employability of the worker. Our experts had testified of such limitations and impairments. The Employer's witnesses all denied there were any limitations or impairments.
The Board agreed with our arguments and issued a Final determination that ordered the Self Insured to pay 3 years of retro Time Loss up to the date of closure, and ordered/found the worker was entitled to pension benefits as of claim closure. They segregated some diagnosed conditions of the shoulder as these had been treated outside the coverage of the claim and specifically denied by the SIE for administrative reasons.
The Self-Insured Employer filed an appeal to Superior Court for Walla Walla County. The Employer continued to argue that the Mental Health issues were not related and formed no basis for conclusions of total disability.
The Parties cooperated in cleaning up a record that was replete with objections from both sides.
The Certified Appeal Board Record was read to a jury of 2 women and 4 men. Over a thousand pages of transcript were read. The Trial started on Monday and the Jury was sent out in the early afternoon on Thursday.
The Jury returned a verdict in less than an hour. The Jury, in a unanimous decision, upheld all of the findings of the Board. The client has been allowed to retain the several years of benefits and will continue to receive her pension benefits.
We are so grateful for the ability of a jury of her peers to see through the smoke screens and double talk of the multiple experts called to testify by the employer.
