On February 5, 2020 Deputy Workers’ Compensation Commissioner Michelle McGovern issued an arbitration decision in the case of Chavez v. MS Technology, LLC and Westfield Insurance Co. This is one of the first cases to interpret the new Iowa work comp law concerning shoulder injuries and a new requirement that injured workers must satisfy in order to receive industrial disability/loss of earning capacity damages.
The Claimant was 61 years old and had worked for her employer cleaning labs since 2010.
The Claimant injured her right shoulder on February 5, 2018 while squeezing water out of a mop with a broken ringer system.