JC Country Club loses worker's comp case

Jefferson City Country Club
Jefferson City Country Club

The Jefferson City Country Club must pay worker's compensation benefits to a former employee after the state appeals court rejected all 11 legal objections the club raised to the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission's decision last year awarding the benefits.

In a 29-page opinion released Tuesday, a three-judge Kansas City panel found the commission didn't make any mistakes in determining Lydia Pace was permanently, totally disabled and entitled to future medical care, as well as treatments she already had received.

The issues began Oct. 4, 2002, when Pace - a Country Club waitress, bartender and banquet worker - was breaking down some tables, and five or six table toppers fell on her, injuring her neck and right shoulder.

She immediately "consulted a number of doctors regarding her neck and shoulder and was referred to physical therapy and prescribed pain medications," Judge Gary Witt noted in the appeals court opinion. "Eventually, Pace was referred to a Dr. Timothy Graven, who, in August of 2004, performed surgery on Pace's neck."

She later had a second operation, performed by a different doctor, on her right shoulder.

"All treatment for Pace's neck and right shoulder and temporary total disability (TTD) resulting from these injuries until November 17, 2005, were authorized and paid for as a worker's compensation benefit by Employer," Witt wrote for the appeals court panel. "Following her release from treatment, Pace continued to suffer from shooting pain in her neck and down from her right shoulder.

"She also experienced numbness and cold down her arm to her right index finger. Further, she was diagnosed with depression."

But Pace hasn't improved to the point where she could get or hold onto another job.

She saw numerous doctors seeking treatment and disability opinions as to her condition between her release from treatment in November 2005 and a hearing on temporary benefits by the Division of Workers' Compensation in 2010, the appeals court ruling noted.

The parties stipulated Pace had reached her maximum medical improvement, or MMI, on Aug. 25, 2011.

An administrative law judge held a final hearing in 2015, and the final award was issued in July 2015.

The country club appealed to the Kansas City court.

Witt noted the court's duty is to "review the whole record to determine whether there is sufficient competent and substantial evidence to support the award, or if the award is contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence."

The court defers to the commission's determination of the facts and witness' credibility.

The country club had challenged the commission's findings that Pace's depression was linked to the October 2002 injury.

But, Witt noted, the medical experts testified on both sides of the issue, and "the Commission concluded that work was a substantial factor in causing her depression."

The country club challenged the award of future medical expenses, noting the agreement Pace already had reached the MMI point.

"We find substantial and competent evidence in the record to support the Commission's finding that Pace sustained her burden of proof for future medical treatment regarding her shoulder and neck," Witt wrote in upholding the Labor commission's finding.

"The record is clear that Pace had ongoing and persistent pain resulting from her work-related injury."

Witt also wrote conclusive evidence of future medical treatment wasn't needed on Pace's part, just demonstration of a reasonable probability of future medical treatment.

He noted previous court cases with similar findings.

The country club also argued some of Pace's benefits should come from Missouri's Second Injury Fund, which was created to shield employers from having to pay worker's compensation benefits for an injury that pre-existed the "new" injury.

But in Pace's case, the appeals court ruled there was no evidence Pace had a pre-existing disability at the time she was injured.