S-21-0530, James R. Spratt (Appellant) v. Crete Carrier Corporation
Attorneys: Brynne Holsten Puhl & Emily T. Newcomb, senior certified law clerk (Atwood, Holsten, Brown, Deaver, Spier & Israel Law Firm, P.C., L.L.O.) --- Paul T. Barta & Micah C. Hawker Boehnke (Baylor Evnen, LLP)
Workers’ Compensation Court, Hon. John R. Hoffert
Civil: Compensability of injury; preclusion
Proceedings Below: In 2019, the trial court awarded Appellant future and indemnity benefits related to his lumbar spine injury. Appellees later filed a petition for further award. The trial court entered a further award denying Appellant any further indemnity or medical benefits for his thoracic spine injuries. The Appellant filed a motion to bypass the Court of Appeals, which was sustained by the Nebraska Supreme Court.
Issues: Whether the trial court erred as a matter of law when 1) it found that it did not have statutory authority or power to re-open the issue surrounding the compensability of Appellant's ongoing thoracic injury, 2) it found issue preclusion applied to bar the consideration of compensability of Appellant's ongoing thoracic injury, preventing the trial court from ruling on its compensability, 3) applying any preclusion doctrine, including collateral estoppel, res judicata, and law-of-the-case doctrine, given the intervening change in material facts and/or circumstances, 4) not finding that a physician's misdiagnosis of a work-related injury did not preclude Appellant from receiving benefits once the true origin of the symptoms was discovered, and 5) failing to apply the "unreasonable" standard as set forth in Williams v. Dobberstein, 182 Neb. 862, 157 N.W.2d 776 (1968).