Iowa District Court for Webster County Upholds Iowa Workers' Compensation Commissioner's Review-Reopening Decision for Injury Occurring in 2012

Attorneys Kathryn A. Smith and Ryan M. Clark obtained another favorable decision in a workers’ compensation case dating back to 2012. A former employee of North Central Iowa Regional Solid Waste Agency (“NCIRSWA”) sustained a compensable work-related injury in 2012. After a few months of treatment, the employee’s medical providers deemed her back to baseline, finding that the employee was malingering/exaggerating her alleged continued symptoms. However, the employee disagreed and filed a formal workers’ compensation Petition. After an adverse decision against the employee at a 2014 Arbitration hearing, the employee proceeded to file several appeals, all of which were largely in favor of NCIRSWA.

In 2018, the employee filed a Petition for Review-Reopening, arguing that her temporary condition had now become permanent. NCIRSWA filed a motion for summary judgment based on res judicata. While the Iowa Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the employee was entitled to file for Review-Reopening, this proceeding resulted in another favorable ruling for NCIRSWA, in which Iowa Workers’ Compensation Deputy Commissioner James Christenson determined the employee failed to show a “changed condition” that would entitle her to additional workers’ compensation benefits. Once again, the employee appealed, and Commissioner Joseph Cortese II affirmed Deputy Christenson’s decision in its entirety.

On judicial review from Review-Reopening, the Iowa District Court for Webster County upheld the Commissioner’s decision in its entirety, agreeing that the employee failed to demonstrate a change in her condition since the time of the original Arbitration decision in 2014. This decision exemplifies what an employee must show when alleging a “changed condition” in a Review-Reopening proceeding and demonstrates that an employee must show more than a continued duration of the same alleged symptoms in order to recover.