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Clark v. State12/7/1998
October Term, A. D.1998
Appeal from the District Court of Natrona County: The Honorable Dan Spangler, Judge
A hearing examiner from the Office of Administrative Hearings denied the claim presented by Appellant Gladys Clark (the employee) for worker's compensation benefits. The employee petitioned the district court for a review of the hearing examiner's decision, and the district court affirmed the decision. The employee appealed from the district court's order to the Wyoming Supreme Court.
We affirm.
ISSUES
The employee presents the following issues on appeal:
1. Whether the hearing examiner properly excluded hearsay testimony.
2. Whether the hearing examiner correctly interpreted and applied W. S. 1977 §27-14-502.
FACTS
The employee worked in a convenience store operated by Cenex Petroleum, Inc. (the employer). In February of 1996, the employee injured her back when she slipped and fell while she was carrying trash to a receptacle located outside the store. The employee verbally reported the accident to the assistant manager later that day. In early July 1996, she told the store manager that she was going to take some vacation time later that month to "find out what was wrong" with her back. The manager asked the employee whether she was going to file a worker's compensation claim or she was going to use the private insurance that the employer provided. The employee elected to use the private insurance because, under that option, the employer would pay her seventy-five percent of her wages for up to six months if she was not able to work.
The employee worked until July 17, 1996, at which time she left work to seek medical treatment. She ultimately had surgery done on her injured back. The employer paid her seventy-five percent of her wages until January 1997. After the employer stopped paying her wages, the employee returned to work for a short time, but her injury prevented her from continuing to work.
The employee filed an injury report in June 1997. The Division of Workers' Safety and Compensation (the division) denied the employee's claim for worker's compensation benefits because the employee did not file her injury report in a timely manner. The employee requested a hearing, and the division referred the case to the Office of Administrative Hearings.
A hearing examiner held a contested case hearing on October 9, 1997. After the hearing, the hearing examiner ruled that the employee did not file her injury report with the clerk of court in a timely fashion and that, under WYO. STAT. § 27-14-502(c) (1991), a presumption arose that the employee's claim should be denied. The hearing examiner stated that the employee did not meet her burden of rebutting the presumption by producing clear and convincing evidence to show that the employer and the division were not prejudiced by her late filing. The hearing examiner, therefore, denied the employee's claim for worker's compensation benefits.
The employee filed a petition for review with the district court, and that court affirmed the hearing examiner's decision. The employee then perfected her appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court.
DISCUSSION
When the Wyoming Supreme Court considers an appeal from a district court's review of a hearing examiner's decision, we scrutinize the case as if it had come directly from the administrative agency, and we do not accord deference to the district court's determination. Shaffer v. State ex rel. Wyoming Workers' Safety and Compensation Division, 960 P. 2d 504, 506 (Wyo. 1998). WYO. STAT. ANN. § 16-3-114(c) (Michie 1997) gover
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