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Wright v. MidAmerican Energy Co.2/27/2004
G. Alan Wright appeals from the district court's ruling on judicial review reversing an industrial disability award. REVERSED.
G. Alan Wright appeals from the district court's ruling on judicial review reversing an industrial disability award. We reverse.
I. Procedural History
In an arbitration decision filed on June 21, 2000, the Iowa Workers' Compensation Commissioner found Wright suffered a fifteen percent industrial disability as a result of a compression fracture of his L-3 vertebra when he fell while working at a construction site. The disability was based, in part, on an agency finding that the injury made it impossible for Wright to perform the physically demanding functions of a journeyman electrician and therefore caused a "loss of access to the job market." Wright's employer, Mid-American Energy, sought judicial review.
The district court filed a ruling on judicial review on February 5, 2001, reversing the agency's decision. The ruling noted that Wright had not performed the heavy work of a journeyman electrician for more than thirteen years and concluded the agency had "incorrectly determined that [Wright] was entitled to industrial disability based upon his 'inability to return to work for which he has prior training and experience.'" In reaching this conclusion, the district court was influenced by "uncontroverted evidence... that [Wright's] work related injury has not affected his ability to perform his duties as a design technician." The district court's ruling directed the agency "to determine whether [Wright] has sustained an industrial disability that has affected ability to be gainfully employed in the job market, not simply examining ability to be gainfully employed as a journeyman electrician."
On appeal, this court affirmed the district court's ruling. We agreed "with the trial court's determination that a more comprehensive assessment of Wright's employment history and future earning capacity necessary." Wright's application for further review was denied by our supreme court.
In his remand decision, the Interim Workers' Compensation Commissioner reviewed the record and found Wright sustained a ten percent industrial disability as a result of the subject injury. The commissioner reasoned that although the injury did not result in a rating of permanent physical impairment or cause Wright to lose earnings in his present occupation, the claimant had proved a loss of earning capacity in this case. Although Wright had not been employed as a journeyman electrician since 1983, the commissioner was persuaded that residual physical symptoms caused by the vertebral fracture "make him unable to return to the full range of work performed by a journeyman electrician" and "will similarly impact [Wright] in any other occupation that involves similar physical activity." The commissioner provided the following explanation of why the work-related restriction of Wright's access to the labor market as a journeyman electrician was probative of a loss of earning capacity:
[Wright] has not been employed as a journeyman electrician since 1983. He has been a design technician, a position with higher pay and lesser physical demands than a journeyman electrician. It is a specialized position, however, that exists with much less frequency in the job market than journeyman electrician. While his job presently appears relatively secure, there is little true job security in the general job market. Many employees are employed at will. It is commonplace for a company to merge, reorganize, lay off employees, or go out of business. When that happens it is not uncommon for an employee to be compelled to re-enter the workforce, oft
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