Name
Haskell v. Katahdin Paper and GNP Maine Holdings
Insurance Company
Sedgwick CMS and MEMIC
Date Decided
December 13, 2017
Panel Members
Elizabeth Elwin
Sue Jerome
Evelyn Knopf
Categories
ApportionmentTags
Multiple Injuries Ongoing Injury Gradual Injury Kidder Multiple Insurers
File Size
182 KB
DownloadSummary from the Troubh Heisler Attorneys
Mr. Haskell injured his neck in 2010 at Katahdin and again in 2013 at GNP. GNP apportioned against Katahdin based in part on a ยง312 IME report issued in 2011, 2 years before the 2013 DOI, finding that the 2010 injury was a significant aggravation of Mr. Haskell's pre-existing degenerative cervical disc disease.
In the apportionment case, Judge Hirtle considered "the only medical opinion on the issue of apportionment" that attributed 15% to the 2013 injury and 85% to Mr. Haskell's pre-existing condition. Under the Maine Supreme Court's 1975 Kidder decision, Judge Hirtle was permitted to apportion liability 50/50 if "apportionment is impossible" otherwise. Judge Hirtle rejected the only apportionment opinion before him, because it suggested that Mr. Haskell's prior condition was degenerative cervical disc disease. In addition, the mill medical records "documented the ongoing nature of Mr. Haskell's 2010 injury."