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LTV Steel Co. v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board3/16/1999
ARGUED: February 8, 1999
LTV Steel Company, Inc. (Employer) petitions for review of an order of the Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Board) awarding hearing loss benefits to John Mozena (Claimant) as a result of a 26.56% binaural hearing loss he suffered due to his long-term exposure to hazardous occupational noise while in the course of his employment.
Claimant began working at Employer's Aliquippa plant as a laborer in 1957 and is still employed at that plant. On August 21, 1995, Claimant filed a claim petition alleging that he had suffered bilateral hearing loss as a result of his long-term exposure to hazardous occupational noise during the course of his employment with Employer. Employer opposed Claimant's petition, and the matter was assigned to a Workers' Compensation Judge (WCJ) for Disposition.
Before the WCJ, Claimant testified that during his forty-two years of employment at the Aliquippa plant, he was exposed to loud, continuous noise in the form of machinery and blast furnaces. He stated that he began to notice some hearing loss as far back as 1988 and assumed that it was a result of his exposure to noise at work, but was never told by a doctor that his hearing loss was work-related.
In support of his petition, Claimant introduced the testimony of Michael Bell, M.D., a board certified otolarynologist, who examined Claimant on August 15, 1995. Dr. Bell testified that audiometric testing of Claimant revealed bilateral hearing loss, and according to the American Medical Association's Guide to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (AMA Guides) which were required to be used pursuant to Section 306(c)(8)(i) of the Workers' Compensation Act in evaluating the percentage of hearing loss, Claimant had suffered a binaural loss of 26.56% as a result of continuous long-term exposure to occupational noise.
Not disagreeing that Claimant's hearing loss was caused in part by his employment, Employer introduced the testimony of Sidney Busis, M.D., board certified in otolaryngology, to testify regarding the amount and cause of Claimant's hearing loss. Dr. Busis stated that he, too, performed audiometric testing that revealed bilateral hearing loss, but Claimant only suffered a 23.5% binaural hearing loss as measured by the AMA Guides. Dr. Busis stated, however, that in his opinion, only 15.31% of that loss could be attributed to Claimant's exposure to occupational noise, with the remaining 8.11% of his hearing loss due to the aging process. Dr. Busis explained that the 8.11% he calculated that resulted from the normal aging was determined from International Standard 1999 of The International Organization of Standardization (ISO 1999) which sets forth a predetermined hearing loss that occurs solely as a result of aging. He also stated that the portion of Claimant's hearing loss resulting from exposure to occupational noise occurred entirely within his first ten to fifteen years of employment at the Aliquippa plant, and beyond that, any hearing loss was attributable to heredity and aging.
Employer also introduced the testimony of its senior attorney, Mark Katz, to show that Claimant worked for a different employer prior to 1974 and that Claimant suffered hearing loss prior to that date for which it was not responsible. Katz testified that when Claimant began working at the Aliquippa plant in 1957, it was owned by J & L Steel (J&L;. In 1974, however, LTV Corporation, a Dallas-based holding company, purchased 100% of J&L;s stock at which time J&L;ceased to exist as an independent steel producer and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of LTV Corporation. In the merger, LTV Corporation took on all of J&L;s assets and liabilities
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