Monthly Archives: October 2018

LINDNER & MARSACK, S.C. WELCOMES LAUREN MATTHIESEN TO TEAM  

Leave a reply

 Lindner & Marsack, S.C., one of the region’s most respected and long-standing management-side labor and employment law firms, today announced Lauren Matthiesen has joined the firm as an Associate. Ms. Matthiesen will focus on defending worker’s compensation claims across a variety of industries. Prior to joining Lindner & Marsack, Ms. Matthiesen was a worker’s compensation defense attorney at Husch Blackwell and an associate attorney at Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer, S.C., where she focused on insurance defense and subrogation.

“Our worker’s compensation team has grown steadily in recent years, and Lauren will be a great asset to our clients in delivering efficient and effective representation for employers in all aspects of worker’s compensation defense,” said Thomas Mackenzie, Firm President.

Ms. Matthiesen received her law degree from Marquette University Law School in 2012. While in law school, she did pro bono work for LAMP (the Legal and Medical Partnership) and served as in intern in the Office of the Chief at the Milwaukee Police Department. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, after which she spent a year studying abroad at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.

Licensed in both the Eastern and Western District courts in Wisconsin, Ms. Matthiesen is a member of CLM (Claims + Litigation Management). In addition to judging Wisconsin’s high school mock trial competition, she volunteers her time at Milwaukee area events including Germanfest and the Wauwatosa’s Farmer’s Market.

EMPLOYEE NOT ENTITLED TO FURTHER WORKER’S COMPENSATION BENEFITS BECAUSE HER DISABILITY-CAUSING SURGERY WAS NOT RELATED TO A COMPENSABLE WORK INJURY

Leave a reply

By:      Daniel M. Pedriana and Claudia R. Harke

On August 28, 2018, District I of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals held that the Plaintiff was not entitled to further worker’s compensation benefits because her disability-causing surgery was not related to a compensable work injury.

In Theresa Payton-Myrick v. LIRC, Theresa Payton-Myrick was diagnosed with arthritic changes and degenerative disc disease in her spine. Payton-Myrick was employed as an administrative assistant at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. On July 21, 2009, she fell out of her desk chair and sustained several muscle strains. She subsequently received opinions from several doctors, one of whom recommended a spinal fusion surgery.

Despite conflicting medical opinions, Payton-Myrick underwent surgery, which resulted in multiple procedures and left her “arguably disabled.” Payton-Myrick applied for worker’s compensation benefits. The UW System denied her benefits, which caused Payton-Myrick to file a worker’s compensation claim.

An administrative law judge concluded that Payton-Myrick had “suffered a work-related injury that aggravated Payton-Myrick’s back condition beyond its normal progression” and that “the treatment, including surgery, was necessary and reasonable.”

The Labor and Industry Review Commission (“LIRC”) reversed the ALJ and found that Payton-Myrick’s muscle strains were from a compensable work injury, however, the work injury had healed and did not aggravate her pre-existing condition enough to necessitate surgery. LIRC also made several factual findings including that Payton-Myrick’s disability causing surgeries treated her pre-existing condition, not her compensable work injury.

The Court of Appeals upheld LIRC’s denial of further benefits based on a holding from the Wisconsin Supreme Court in Flug v. LIRC. In Flug, the Supreme Court ruled that Wis. Stat. § 102.42(1m), which states that if an employee who has sustained a compensable injury undertakes treatment in good faith that is medically acceptable, but unnecessary, the employer shall pay for all disability incurred as a result, only applies if the unnecessary, but acceptable surgery is to address the workplace injury.

Since LIRC made a factual finding that Payton-Myrick’s two spinal surgeries were focused on her pre-existing disc problems, not the workplace injury, the Court of Appeals upheld LIRC’s denial of further benefits.

This Decision does not drastically change the law surrounding whether an employee is entitled to further worker’s compensation benefits, however, it reinforces that Wis. Stat. § 102.42(1m) only applies if the unnecessary-but-acceptable surgery was done to address the workplace injury. However, it will be important to have treating and independent doctors specifically note the reason for an employee undergoing an unnecessary-but-acceptable surgery, as that will determine whether they are owed additional benefits.

The time to appeal this decision has passed and the decision remains unpublished.

If you have questions about this decision, please contact Daniel M. Pedriana by email at dpedriana@lindner-marsack.com or Claudia R. Harke by email at charke@lindner-marsack.com or any other attorney with whom you have been working with at Lindner & Marsack, S.C.

THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR ISSUES TWO NEW ADVISORY OPINION LETTERS ON THE FMLA

Leave a reply

By: Oyvind Wistrom

On August 28, 2018, for the first time in almost ten years,  the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (DOL) issued two new advisory opinion letters providing employers with guidance on the application of the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to organ donors and a no-fault attendance policy.  While the advisory opinion letters are not binding authority or legal precedent, they signal DOL’s interpretation of the law and provide helpful guidance for employers in handing some interesting nuances of the law.

FMLA Protects Organ Donors

In one of the advisory letters, the DOL concluded that organ-donation surgery can qualify as a “serious health condition” under the FMLA, thus entitling an employee with up to 12 weeks of protected leave.  This is the case even if the employee was in good health before the donation and voluntarily elected to undergo the surgery.  The DOL reasoned that organ-donation surgery may require both “inpatient care” or “continuing treatment” and, therefore, meets the regulatory definitions of a serious health condition.  A serious health condition is defined as an illness or physical condition that requires inpatient care at a hospital.  Since the typical hospital stay after organ donation surgery is four to seven days, organ donation qualifies as a serious health condition.

No-Fault Attendance Policy under the FMLA

In another letter, the DOL addressed a company’s no-fault attendance policy and found that it did not violate the FMLA.  Under the company’s policy, employees accrued points for tardiness and absences, except for certain absences, including FMLA-protected leave.  The points remained on an employee’s record for 12 months, and the employer would extend that period for any time the employee was not in “active service,” such as during an FMLA leave.

The DOL concluded that “freezing” an employee’s attendance points while on FMLA leave did not violate the Act by denying a benefit to the employee who took FMLA leave.  The DOL reasoned that the FMLA does not entitle an employee to superior benefits because of FMLA leave, and the attendance policy placed the employee in the same position as if he or she had never taken leave.  The DOL cautioned, however, that employers must not treat FMLA leave different from other forms of leave.  Thus, the employer must “freeze” an employee’s attendance points for all similar types of leave.

This opinion letter highlights, first, that absences necessitated by an FMLA leave cannot be counted under a company’s no-fault attendance policy.  Additionally, an employer is not required to remove attendance points from an employee on FMLA leave where the employer has an “active service” component to their policy – as long as the company treats other employees on leave for other reasons the same (i.e., vacation, W.C. leave, etc.).