Wyoming: Worker Fails To Show Pigeon-Toed Foot Led to Auto Accident

The Supreme Court of Wyoming affirmed a finding that an injured worker failed to establish a causal relationship between his original work-related injury which, after surgery, left the worker pigeon-toed, and injuries sustained in a subsequent automobile accident that the worker contended was caused when his affected foot slipped off the brake pedal as he attempted to slow his vehicle to avoid a turning car. The Court, citing cases that quoted Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, agreed that the worker could recover for subsequent injuries that were the direct and natural result of his original injury. The Court acknowledged that the Office of Administrative Hearings found that the worker had residual problems from the work related injury, yet there was expert medical evidence that the worker’s problems occurred when he was standing, walking and/or weight bearing—not when he was in a seated position. The Court also observed that some of the comments the worker made to emergency room personnel and later to a caseworker were not consistent with his version of the auto accident. Substantial evidence supported the findings of the OAH and the trial court.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Claim of Jensen v. State ex rel. Department of Workforce Servs., 2016 WY 87, 2016 Wyo. LEXIS 94 (Aug. 30, 2016)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 10.01.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law