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Palos Electric Co. v. Industrial Commission5/30/2000
This appeal follows the Commission's denial of Palos Electric's petition under the Worker's Compensation Act, 820 ILCS 305/19(o) (West 1993). An employee of Palos alleged he suffered on the job injury and filed a claim for compensation under the Workers' Compensation Act. Palos, believing the claim to be non-compensable, requested that the insurer deny the claim. Sentry Claims Service settled the claim and paid the employee's the claim over Palos' objections. Palos filed a §19(o) petition requesting Sentry purge their records of the expense related to the claim. The Commission denied Palos' §19(o) petition and the Cook County Circuit Court affirmed the Commission's decision. Palos now appeals the Commission's denial of its petition.
Appellant, Palos Electric (Palos), employed Jeffrey Geibel (Geibel) as an electrician for approximately six years prior to July 25, 1994, the date of the alleged accident. After having suffered from numbness and tingling in his hand for three and one-half years, on April 19, 1994, Geibel saw a physician and was diagnosed with bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome. On July 26, 1994, he underwent surgery to correct his carpal tunnel syndrome. All medical expenses related to Geibel's carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosis and treatment were paid by his group health insurance. Geibel's treating physician, Dr. Henry Fuentes, a board certified orthopedic surgeon, offered no opinion as to the cause of Geibel's carpal tunnel but, on the group health insurance claim form, checked "no" in answer to the question "is condition related to [current or previous] employment." In a written statement, Geibel described how Tom Bulow, one of the three brothers who owned Palos, asked him not to file for workers' compensation. Tom asked him to accept a check from Palos that would get him through the four weeks he needed to be off work to recover from the surgery. Tom Bulow later stated that the money was not intended to prevent Geibel from filing a workers' compensation claim but rather was a bonus for Geibel's good work. Palos had paid Geibel a bonus on two prior occasions. Geibel accepted $2000 for the time he would need to take off work and agreed to come back after four weeks of recovery. After four weeks off, Geibel called Bulow to arrange his return to Palos but was told there was no work for him. Geibel stated that he believed that he was not given work as a result of his injury and the bad feelings about the money that Palos had given him. In September of 1994, Geibel resigned from Palos and, on October 1, began a new job as an electrician with another company. Palos stated that it believed Geibel quit because he could not get along with his co-workers.
On February 7, 1995, Geibel filed an Application for Adjustment of Claim (application) with the Illinois Industrial Commission against Palos for his bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome treatment and surgery. On his application, Geibel indicated that his accident occurred on July 25, 1994, one day prior to his carpal tunnel surgery. Palos forwarded the application to its insurer, Sentry Claims Service (Sentry). On March 17, 1995, Palos wrote to Sentry stating that it believed the claim was non-compensable and should be denied. Sentry undertook an investigation of the claim and hired an investigator to obtain the statements of Bill Bulow and Tom Bulow, Palos' principal officers. Sentry also hired a physician, Dr. Richard Shin, to examine Geibel. Dr. Shin agreed with Dr. Fuentes that Geibel did have carpal tunnel but did not conclude that the condition was caused or aggravated by his work as an electrician. Sentry's senior claims adjustor originally took the position that the claim should not be paid because Geibel had symptoms of the condition, ting
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