W.C. No. 4-237-646Industrial Claim Appeals Office.
August 23, 1996
ORDER
The claimant has appealed an order issued by Administrative Law Judge Gandy (ALJ) insofar as it failed to award temporary total disability benefits between December 12, 1994 and April 13, 1995. We remand the matter for further proceedings.
The ALJ found that the claimant was employed as a customer service representative, which required that she spend fifty percent of her time performing keyboarding duties. The claimant began experiencing bilateral wrist numbness in October 1993, and in October 1994, the numbness began to interfere with the claimant’s ability to perform her keyboard work. The claimant consulted her personal physician, who referred her to Dr. Tolge. In November 1994, Dr. Tolge prescribed rigid wrist splints which allowed no wrist motion and further restricted the claimant’s ability to perform her keyboarding duties. The ALJ found that the claimant was able to perform the work assigned to her while wearing the splints, only because the volume of work had considerably decreased due to downsizing of the company. The ALJ further found that the claimant would not have been able to perform her normal volume of work.
The claimant continued to perform the reduced volume of work until December 1994, when she was laid off in conjunction with the closure of her office. In April 1995, the employer referred the claimant to Dr. Oligmueller, who opined in a report dated April 14, 1995, that the claimant was restricted from performing repetitive typing and lifting in excess of twenty pounds. Thereafter, the claimant underwent two carpal tunnel release surgeries, the first occurring on August 31, 1995. The employer admitted liability for temporary total disability benefits effective August 31, 1995.
The ALJ found that claimant is entitled to temporary total disability benefits beginning April 14, 1995. However, the ALJ made no findings which indicate why benefits were not awarded prior to that date. Because we believe that the evidence is susceptible of conflicting inferences on this issue, the case shall remanded for additional findings. See George v. Industrial Commission, 720 P.2d 624 (Colo.App. 1986) (factfinders are not held to a crystalline standard in articulating findings, but the basis for the order must be apparent).
We have held that it is inherent in § 8-42-105(3), C.R.S. (1995 Cum. Supp.), that the initiation of a temporary total disability award must be supported by the medical opinion of the attending physician. See e.g., White v. TV Communications Network, Inc., W.C. No 4-157-203, November 24, 1993; Terrie Ray v. Martin Marietta Corp.,
W.C. No. 4-210-328, March 22, 1995. Our interpretation of this statute was approved by the Court of Appeals in Ray v. Industrial Claim Appeals Office, Colo. App. No. 95CA0553, July 27, 1995 (not selected for publication).
However, these cases do not necessarily preclude an award of disability benefits for a period of time prior to the issuance of the physician’s report. Rather, based on medical evidence that a condition was disabling as of a certain date, and other evidence that the same condition of similar severity preexisted the physician’s opinion, the ALJ could reasonably infer that the claimant was disabled prior to the issuance of the physician’s opinion and award temporary total disability benefits on that basis.
Here, as we understand the ALJ’s order, he was persuaded that the claimant was impaired at the time her job ended in December 1994. See Ricks v. Industrial Claim Appeals Office, 809 P.2d 1118 (Colo.App. 1991) (disability may be evidenced by impaired ability to perform job duties). However, in denying temporary disability benefits prior to April 14, 1995, it is unclear whether the ALJ was unconvinced that the evidence established she was previously disabled, or whether he erroneously believed that the claimant was required to present a medical report specifically stating that she was disabled prior to April 14, 1995.
Consequently, the case shall be remanded for further findings clarifying the basis for the ALJ’s determination of the claimant’s entitlement to temporary disability benefits prior to April 14, 1995. See George v. Industrial Commission, supra. In light of this remand, we decline to address the claimant’s remaining arguments at this time.
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the case is remanded to the ALJ for further findings as indicated above, and a new determination of the claimant’s entitlement to temporary disability benefits prior to April 14, 1995.
INDUSTRIAL CLAIM APPEALS PANEL _______________________________ Dona Halsey _______________________________ Bill Whitacre
Copies of this order were mailed August 23, 1996 to the following parties:
Carol Deibel, 3137 21st Ave., Greeley, CO 80631
Pam Butler, Public Service Co. of Colorado, P.O. Box 840, Ste. 800, Denver, CO 80201-0840
Kristi Coffin, Esq., 1416 11th Ave., Greeley, CO 80631 (For the Claimant)
Michael A. Perales, Esq., 999 18th St., Ste. 3100, Denver, CO 80202 (For the Respondent)
By: ______________