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Employer must pay full disability benefits to worker with long injury history

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Under the state’s “fresh-start rule,” an Iowa employer isn’t entitled to apportion its liability for permanent partial disability benefits in the case of a worker with a long history of work-related injuries, the Iowa Supreme Court has ruled.

Grady Billick sustained injuries working for Squealer Feed Co. in Iowa in 1985 and Milky Way Transport in Missouri in 1993, court records show.

Mr. Billick also sustained four compensable injuries while driving a semitrailer and delivering milk products for Grimes, Iowa-based Roberts Dairy, now Hiland Dairy, according to records. While the trucks were generally loaded by other workers, Mr. Billick was required to unload the truck at points of delivery. He injured his left ankle in March 2004, his left shoulder and neck in June 2004, and his left arm and elbow in 2006, and he suffered a chest injury and emotional trauma in 2007, according to records.

Iowa’s workers compensation commissioner awarded Mr. Billick “healing period benefits for various periods of temporary total disability, permanent partial disability benefits for a loss of 12% of his left lower extremity, and permanent partial disability benefits for the loss of 35% of his earning capacity for the unscheduled components of injury,” records show.

Roberts argued that Mr. Billick’s industrial disability should be apportioned since he was previously compensated for his 1985 and 1993 injuries, according to records. Both parties sought judicial review of the commissioner’s decision.

Stating that the commissioner misinterpreted the Iowa Legislature’s 2004 amendments to Iowa’s workers comp laws, a U.S. District Court judge reversed and remanded the case, records show.

The state Supreme Court then retained the appeal to interpret the 2004 amendments.

On Friday, the Iowa Supreme Court reversed the district court’s ruling, stating that Roberts Dairy is not entitled to apportion its liability for permanent partial disability benefits under the “fresh-start rule.”

“The fresh-start rule states that when an employee who has sustained a work-related injury resulting in permanent partial industrial disability begins employment with a new employer, the employee enjoys a renewed earning capacity,” according to the ruling.

Since Mr. Billick “gained a fresh start” when he started working for Roberts in 2001, the company’s liability for permanent partial disability benefits can’t be apportioned to account for disability that resulted from the injuries Mr. Billick sustained working for other employers, the ruling states.

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