A former Rockport police officer injured in a 2010 car crash is ineligible for permanent disability benefits because he failed to link a later-developing brain injury with the on-duty accident, an appeals court ruled Wednesday.
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In a divided opinion, a panel of five Arkansas Court of Appeals judges upheld a ruling by the Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission that former officer Glenn Myers didn't prove his head injury was compensable under state law. The appeals court said the commission was correct in its decision to compensate the officer for injuries suffered in the crash.
Three judges on the panel also agreed with the commission in finding that the time period in which Myers received temporary total disability payments properly ended in February 2012 and not afterward, when his brain injuries manifested.
But two judges took issue with the majority ruling, with Judge Raymond Abramson writing that any finding that did not connect the officer's brain trauma with the crash was "simply put, clearly erroneous."
"Myers testified that he had vivid memories of his treatment after the accident. When he was removed from the vehicle, he could not walk ... He had complaints of pain in his shoulders, head ... the pain in his head, neck and back was not addressed during [treatment] periods," Abramson wrote.
In April 2010, Myers was on duty when his vehicle was struck by a truck near Malvern. The police car spun eight times before it slammed into a concrete wall.
His right shoulder was operated on that month and he received surgery on his left shoulder in October 2011.
According to the majority opinion written by Chief Judge Robert Gladwin, Myers' first surgeon said the officer reported no head pain at the time. He noted that Myers' doctor found in February 2012 that the officer had reached his "maximum medical improvement," thus ending his temporary total disability pay.
In late 2012, Myers went to a physician about headaches and memory loss. He received an MRI in February 2013, and the doctor found that Myers had brain tissue scarring.
A neuropsychologist who examined Myers said the officer's "cognitive deficits" were the result of a traumatic brain bruise consistent with those in car crashes.
Myers was sent to a specialist who found that Myers could never return to "competitive employment." Rockport claimed the head injury was not compensable by the city because there were no "objective findings" saying so.
An administrative law judge of the commission found that Myers was disabled and entitled to more benefits, but the commission found that Myers failed to offer enough proof that the injury was compensable or that he was permanently and totally disabled.
Attorneys for the city argued that the doctor's findings that the officer suffered a compensable brain injury were based on loose questioning between the doctor and the officer and that even the doctor noted that Myers had "clear, logical and coherent" thinking and that his "speech and language" were intact.
Abramson suggested that his fellow judges gave too much deference to the commission's findings, which he said "blatantly disregarded [evidence that the crash caused the brain injury] and the City provided no counter evidence to explain the cause of the injury."
Metro on 12/17/2015