W.C. No. 4-353-264Industrial Claim Appeals Office.
November 24, 1998
FINAL ORDER
The respondents seek review of a final order of Administrative Law Judge Martinez (ALJ), which awarded medical impairment benefits under § 8-42-107(8)(d), C.R.S. 1997. The respondents contend that the ALJ erred in ordering them to pay benefits at the maximum temporary total disability rate, instead of the claimant’s temporary disability rate. We perceive no error, and therefore, affirm the ALJ’s order.
The matter was submitted to the ALJ on the following stipulated facts. The claimant suffered a compensable injury in 1997. At the time of the injury, the claimant was a minor. The claimant reached maximum medical improvement on November 13, 1997, and sustained permanent medical impairment of 12 percent of the whole person.
In Fluck v. Arkansas Valley Seeds, Inc., W.C. No. 4-245-075
(August 25, 1997), we held that minor claimants are entitled to the benefit of § 8-42-102(4), C.R.S. 1998, when it is determined that they sustained a whole person medical impairment. Section 8-42-102(4) provides that the permanent disability benefits awarded to a minor “shall be paid at the maximum rate of compensation payable” at the time of maximum medical improvement. Therefore, we concluded that whole person medical impairment benefits to an injured minor must be calculated at the maximum temporary disability rate in effect on the date of maximum medical improvement.
Expressly relying on our conclusions in Fluck, the ALJ determined that the claimant’s medical impairment benefits must be calculated in accordance with § 8-42-102(4). Consequently, the ALJ ordered the respondents to compute the claimant’s medical impairment benefits at the maximum temporary total disability rate in effect on November 13, 1997.
The respondents concede that the facts of this claim are similar to the facts in Fluck v. Arkansas Valley Seeds, Inc., supra. Furthermore, the respondents recognize that our conclusions in Fluck were upheld by the court in Arkansas Valley Seeds, Inc., v. Industrial Claim Appeals Office, ___ P.2d ___ (Colo.App. No. 97CA1504, July 23, 1998). However, the respondents contend that Arkansas Valley Seeds, Inc., supra, was wrongly decided.
We are bound by published decisions of the court. C.A.R. 35(f). Further, the respondents raise the same arguments which were rejected by the court in Arkansas Valley Seeds, Inc., v. Industrial Claim Appeals Office, supra. It follows that the ALJ did not err in requiring the respondents to pay medical impairment benefits based on the maximum temporary total disability rate instead of the claimant’s temporary disability rate.
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the ALJ’s order dated July 21, 1998, is affirmed.
INDUSTRIAL CLAIM APPEALS PANEL
________________________________ Kathy E. Dean
________________________________ Robert M. Socolofsky
NOTICE This Order is final unless an action to modify or vacate theOrder is commenced in the Colorado Court of Appeals, 2 East 14thAvenue, Denver, Colorado 80203, by filing a petition to reviewwith the court, with service of a copy of the petition upon theIndustrial Claim Appeals Office and all other parties, withintwenty (20) days after the date the Order was mailed, pursuant to§§ 8-43-301(10) and 307, C. R. S. 1998.
Copies of this decision were mailed November 24, 1998
to the following parties:
Brady Sartain, 6600 Preston Rd., #211, Plano, TX 75024
Sutherland’s, 4000 Main St., Kansas City, MO 64111-2313
Lumbermen’s Underwriting Alliance, Attn: Deborah Kaufman, 15055 S.W. Sequoia Pkwy., #120, Portland, OR 97224
Gudrun Rice, Esq., 101 S. 3rd St., #265, P.O. Box 3207, Grand Junction, CO 81502 (For Claimant)
Lawrence D. Blackman, Esq., 1515 Arapahoe St., Tower 3, #600, Denver, CO 80202 (For Respondents)
By: ______________________