Allen Pueblo v General Motors Corporation, 2008 ACO #255
The Plaintiff was granted an open award of benefits for injuries to the wrists and shoulders.

The Plaintiff testified that his physical problems started when he worked as a press operator, a job he held for almost 15 years. He treated for his complaints at the plant medical department, but he did not lose time from work. In 1999, the Plaintiff transferred to a plant in Wisconsin. The work in Wisconsin caused him more physical problems. In September of 2001, he transferred to a plant in Flint, Michigan, where he worked until December of 2001, until the plant was no longer able to accommodate his restrictions.

The Plaintiff was off work almost two years, from December of 2001 until October of 2003. Shortly after he returned to work in 2003, he bid on a “tail gate job,” which he worked until the end of his employment. The plant medical department told him that they could not accommodate his restrictions, so he worked without restrictions, performing the tail gate job, until October of 2005 when he was taken off work as a result of a diagnosis of terminal liver cancer in September of 2005. Mr. Pueblo testified that he would have continued to work, but for his cancer diagnosis.

The Workers’ Compensation Appellate Commission reversed the Magistrate’s wage loss award because the Plaintiff’s wage loss was not related to his work injury. He was capable of working in a regular job, a job he bid on, until he was diagnosed with a non-occupational cancer.

The Appellate Commission addressed the Magistrate’s opinion that the case was compensable because the Plaintiff “should” have been accommodated at work. However the Workers’ Compensation Appellate Commission advised that according to Mr. Pueblo’s own testimony, he was able to work at General Motors without accommodations, albeit with symptoms, until he left work for a non-occupational cancer, which negates any findings that Mr. Pueblo needed accommodations.