Wyo. Worker's Odd-Lot Argument Falls Short

Casper, WY (WorkersCompensation.com) -- An impairment rating isn’t the end of the story for determining whether a worker is or isn’t due workers’ compensation benefits. 

As the worker learned in Rodriguez v. Wyoming, No. S-22-0131 (Wyo. 12/30/22), in attempting to apply an odd-lot argument to his case, an impairment rating might not overcome medical evidence to the contrary. 

In the case, a construction worker injured his left wrist, left shoulder, and right knee after falling out of a truck bed while working. He was released to light-duty work within a few days of having surgery for his wrist and placed on lifting restrictions. However, the worker did not return to the job despite his employer’s accommodations. As a result, the employer terminated him. 

The worker applied for temporary disability benefits and underwent two impairment ratings, which assigned him a two- to three-percent impairment rating. He was awarded temporary partial and temporary total disabilities benefits. 

In the following months and years, the worker continued to report pain throughout his body and did not work or look for work after the accident. 

The worker eventually applied for permanent total disability benefits under the odd-lot doctrine. In his application, the worker reported that he was unable to work because standing, sitting, or walking caused him extensive pain and he could not lift, bend over, or concentrate. 

The Department of Workforce Services, Workers’ Compensation Division denied the worker’s PTD application. On review, the Medical Commission upheld the denial, concluding that the worker failed to show that the degree of obvious physical impairment, coupled with other facts, such as mental capacity, education, training, or age, qualified him for odd-lot treatment. 

The worker appealed to the Wyoming Supreme Court. 

Under Wyoming law, the odd-lot doctrine allows a claimant who is not totally incapacitated but cannot be employed regularly in any well-known branch of the labor market to receive PTD benefits. 

For the odd-lot doctrine to apply, the claimant must demonstrate that he is incapacitated from performing work at any gainful occupation for which he is reasonably suited by experience or training.  

According to the Wyoming Supreme Court, the worker did not have a degree of obvious physical impairment. 

“Multiple doctors were unable to identify an injury and those that did were not offered the benefit of a complete medical record review and had to rely on subjective patient complaints rather than medical evidence,” the court explained. 

Although the worker had a three-percent impairment rating and was released to work with limitations, the court held that his “pain complaints were less reliable than objective medical findings” and that he could return to work. 

Thus, in upholding the commission’s ruling against the worker, the court explained that it did not “need consider whether his degree of physical impairment, coupled with other facts, makes him de facto unemployable.” 

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