March 20, 2008

The Arkansas Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 Wednesday that the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission unfairly denied disability benefits to a Home Depot worker who aggravated a pre-existing back condition at work. Jonathan Jordan suffered a back injury at work Sept. 27, 2003, trying to install a rack while on a ladder. The next day he reported the injury and was diagnosed with a back strain at an emergency room.

1 During the next 2 / 2 years, Jordan saw several doctors who gave him differing diagnoses but generally agreed he had a preexisting spinal condition aggravated by heavy lifting.

The commission found Jordan failed to prove he was entitled to more medical treatment and temporary total-disability benefits.

The commission, in denying Jordan’s benefits, said his back pain was a temporary aggravation of a pre-existing condition.

The appeals court ruling written by Judge Josephine Linker Hart stated that the evidence suggested that the workplace injury caused his congenital defect to progressively worsen instead of being “temporarily aggravated.”

Pre-existing conditions are compensable, Hart wrote, under workers’ compensation law. The court ruled that Jordan’s claim be sent back to the commission for an award of further medical benefits.

The court also ruled that the commission should reconsider its denial of temporary total-disability benefits because its ruling was based on a “flawed premise” that Jordan’s pain was the only basis for his claim.

Judges John B. Robbins and Brian S. Miller agreed.

At the appeals court, the case is CA 07-131, Jonathan Jordan v. Home Depot, Inc. and American Home Assurance, from the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission.