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State ex rel Meissner v. Industrial Commission of Ohio2/6/2002
Workers' compensation - R.C. 4123.57(B), scheduled loss compensation for a digit, construed and applied.
Submitted October 30, 2001
Appellant-claimant, Richard P. Meissner, suffered a hand injury at work, which included a fracture of the tip of the right ring finger. He later moved for scheduled loss compensation for the digit pursuant to R.C. 4123.57(B). Dr. Alan A. Palmer indicated that:
"* * * The injured worker has no active flexion or extension of the DIP joint. Passive range of motion is quite limited but fluid without crepitation. Two-point discrimination on the volar aspect of the digit is unreliably reported. Active range-of-motion of the remainder of the finger is fluid without crepitation. There is a 15 degrees ulnar deviation angle deformity at the DIP and a 15 degrees ulnar (viewed end on) ulnar rotational deformity at the DIP. The MP and PIP fully extend. Active MP flexion is accomplished to 80 degrees and active PIP flexion is accomplished to 95%. The DIP is 55 degrees at rest; there is no active flexion or extension; however, there is limited passive extension."
Appellee Industrial Commission of Ohio awarded claimant a one- third-loss-of use award, based "on the 4-12-99 report from Dr. Palmer indicating that the distal interphalangeal (DIP) joint of the claimant's right ring finger is ankylosed.
"The Staff Hearing Officer further finds that the District Hearing Officer correctly limited the award to a one-third loss. ORC 4123.57(B) states in pertinent part:
" `For ankylosis (total stiffness of) * * * which makes any of the fingers * * * or parts (thereof) useless, the same number of weeks apply to the members or parts thereof as given for the loss thereof.'
"The statute further provides:
" `The loss of the third, or distal, phalange of any finger is considered equal to the loss of one-third of the finger.'
"With his ankylosed DIP joint, the claimant has suffered the loss of use of his third (distal) phalange, equivalent to the amputation of that phalange. As such, the statute provides for a one-third loss of use award under the facts of this case."
Seeking a two-thirds loss of use, claimant filed a complaint in mandamus in the Court of Appeals for Franklin County. That court, finding no abuse of discretion, denied the writ.
This cause is now before this court upon an appeal as of right.
A permanent and total loss of use of a body part enumerated in R.C. 4123.57(B) generates a "scheduled loss" award under that section. The loss of the third or "ring" finger at issue here, for example, generates twenty weeks of compensation. Id.
In certain cases, the statute measures loss according to the anatomy of the affected member. For example, loss of part of a finger generates an award commensurate with the impairment of total function caused by the loss. R.C. 4123.57(B) bases awards on the amount of finger lost and on which finger is affected. Preceding downward, the tip of the finger, including the nail, is the distal phalanx ("DP"). It is connected by the distal interphalangeal joint ("DIP") to the middle phalanx. It continues with the proximal interphalangeal joint ("PIP"), or mid-knuckle, the proximal phalanx and, finally, the metacarpophalangeal joint that unites the finger with the hand. Stedman's Medical Dictionary (26 Ed.1995) 1030.
Logic dictates that the closer the loss is to the hand, the greater the functional damage. Consistent with that rationale, R.C. 4123.57(B) provides:
"The loss of the third, or distal, phalange of any finger is considered equal to the loss of one-third of the fing
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