Cronk v. The Ill. Workers' Comp. Comm'n

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2024 IL App (1st) 221878WC-U

KEVIN CRONK, SON OF RICHARD CRONK, DECEASED Appellant, v. THE ILLINOIS WORKERS' COMPENSATION COMMISSION et al., Kimball Hill Homes, Appellee.

No. 1-22-1878WC

Court of Appeals of Illinois, First District, Workers' Compensation Commission Division

May 10, 2024

This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).

Appeal from the Circuit Court of Cook County No. 20L050534 Honorable Daniel P. Duffy, Judge, Presiding.

Presiding Justice Holdridge and Justices Hoffman, Mullen, and Cavanagh concurred in the judgment.

ORDER

BARBERIS JUSTICE

¶ 1 Held: We reverse the circuit court's judgment confirming the Commission's decision, where (1) the Commission's finding that decedent's cardiac arrest did not arise out of or in the course of his employment was against the manifest weight of the evidence; (2) the Commission's finding that decedent's cardiac arrest was not causally related to his work accident was against the manifest weight of the evidence; and (3) section 7(a) the Act does not preclude claimant from receiving benefits.

¶ 2 On December 4, 2009, claimant, Kevin Cronk, son of Richard Cronk (decedent), filed an application for adjustment of claim seeking survivor benefits on behalf of decedent under the Illinois Workers' Compensation Act (Act) (820 ILCS 305/1 et seq. (West 2006)). The application alleged that decedent suffered a heart attack and died while shoveling snow for employer, Kimball Hill Homes, on December 6, 2006.

¶ 3 Following an arbitration hearing held on March 13, 2019 the arbitrator issued a written decision on April 12, 2019. The arbitrator found that claimant failed to prove decedent sustained an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment on December 6, 2006, and that decedent's death was causally related to an alleged work accident. The arbitrator further found that claimant failed to prove he was entitled to survivor benefits under section 7(a) of the Act (820 ILCS 305/7(a) (West 2018)) and denied benefits. Claimant sought review of the arbitrator's decision before the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission (Commission).

¶ 4 On November 13, 2020, the Commission, with one commissioner dissenting, issued a decision affirming and adopting the arbitrator's decision denying benefits under the Act. The dissenting commissioner found that claimant proved that decedent sustained accidental injuries arising out of and in the course of his employment on December 6, 2006, resulting in his death, and that such injuries were causally related to decedent's employment. The dissenting commissioner further found that claimant was a dependent of decedent at the time of his death, pursuant to section 7(a) of the Act. Thus, the dissenting commissioner would have awarded claimant benefits under the Act. Claimant sought judicial review of the Commission's decision before the circuit court of Cook County.

¶ 5 On November 17, 2022, the circuit court entered an order confirming the Commission's decision. Claimant filed a timely notice of appeal.

¶ 6 I. BACKGROUND

¶ 7 The following factual recitation was taken from the evidence adduced at the arbitration hearing held on March 13, 2019, as well as the decisions of the arbitrator and Commission. Additional facts will be recited as necessary in the analysis portion of this order.

¶ 8 Claimant testified that he was born to decedent and Barbara Cronk on May 1, 1988. Decedent and Barbara divorced on January 15, 1990, when claimant was about one-and-a-half years old. On November 7, 1998, decedent married Barbara Annette Mullner (hereinafter "Rowe-Cronk") and had one child, Miranda Mullner, who was a minor at the time of decedent's death on December 6, 2006.

¶ 9 The coroner, Dr. Bryan Mitchell, filed an initial report, which indicated that decedent, a construction manager, complained of difficulty breathing while shoveling snow at a home build site.^[1] Coworkers contacted 911 and paramedics responded. The paramedics observed decedent alert and oriented sitting in his truck. Decedent rated his difficulty breathing as a 7 out of 10. Decedent then went into cardiac arrest in front of the paramedics. An additional ambulance arrived and transported decedent to the emergency room. The report further indicates that decedent had no known medical history, rarely used alcohol, and took a daily multi-vitamin. Decedent, however, smoked a pack of cigarettes every day and recently experienced stress due to his mother's recent health issues.

¶ 10 On December 7, 2006, the coroner conducted an autopsy of decedent. The autopsy found cardiomegaly, 560g, with left ventricular hypertrophy, 1.6cm; coronary atherosclerosis, with 50% occlusion of the right coronary artery and 50% occlusion of the left circumflex artery, and left anterior descending, two. Dr. Mitchell concluded, indicating on decedent's death certificate, that the immediate cause of death as "Hypertensive Cardiovascular Disease, with coronary atherosclerosis as a factor significantly contributing to his death.

¶ 11 On March 4, 2007, at employer's request, Dr. Richard Carroll, a cardiologist, authored a record review report. Dr. Caroll found decedent's coronary artery disease was most likely due to genetic factors, low "good" cholesterol, and daily cigarette smoking. Dr. Carroll stated that the "wording of the death certificate certainly makes the physical exertion of snow shoveling less suspect" as a contributing factor to decedent's death because it listed the cause of death as hypertensive cardiovascular disease instead of an acute myocardial infarction. Dr. Carroll believed physical exertion did not precipitate decedent's death, in part because "only shoveling a 10 x 10 section of driveway would not seem overly exertive to me." Dr. Carroll concluded his report, however, stating that "given the temporal relationship between his shoveling activities and his development of chest pain, it would make sense that the two were related." Dr. Caroll authored an addendum report on April 8, 2007, after he reviewed the autopsy report and records.

¶ 12 In Dr. Carroll's addendum report, he acknowledged that decedent had multi-vessel coronary artery disease with 50% narrowing noted in the left anterior descending coronary artery, the circumflex coronary artery, and the right coronary artery. Dr. Carroll reported that there was no evidence of occlusion or thrombosis or that decedent suffered an acute heart attack. Dr. Carroll opined that the immediate cause of death was likely a fatal cardiac arrythmia as a result of decedent's abnormal heart muscle. Dr. Carroll believed that decedent's cardiac arrest was unrelated to physical activity, given that the minimal amount of activity performed and the degree of narrowing noted on the autopsy would not have been so significant to precipitate an acute heart attack or fatal arrhythmia. Dr. Carroll noted that patients with cardiomegaly experience such arrhythmias spontaneously, separate and distinct from any physical activity, because of the abnormal architecture of the heart.

¶ 13 On March 23, 2007, decedent's second wife, Rowe-Cronk, filed an application for adjustment of claim seeking survivor benefits. The application was entered as an exhibit at the arbitration hearing. Rowe-Cronk obtained a record review from Dr. Thomas Tamlyn, an interventional cardiologist. Dr. Tamlyn opined that decedent's cardiac arrest most likely resulted from cardiac ischemia and unstable angina or transient coronary occlusion. Dr. Tamlyn found that decedent had cardiac hypertrophy and that the fatal event was "obviously brought on or aggravated by physical exertion," because decedent developed symptoms consistent with cardiac ischemia while shoveling snow. Dr. Tamlyn further stated that "spontaneous cardiac arrythmia [does] not manifest as several minutes of chest pain and shortness of breath" but consists instead of "either brief light headedness followed by loss of consciousness[,] or they are so sudden that they do not cause symptoms before arrest." Rowe-Cronk and employer entered into a settlement agreement to resolve her claim for survivor benefits, which the Commission approved on April 27, 2009. In the settlement, employer denied that decedent sustained accidental injuries arising out of and in the course of his employment and denied a causal relationship between decedent's condition of ill-being and any injury arising out of his employment.

¶ 14 Specific to claimant's application for adjustment of claim seeking survivor benefits, the arbitrator issued a decision on April 12, 2019, finding that the accident did not arise out of and in the course of decedent's employment and that decedent's condition of ill-being was not causally related to his employment. In finding the accident did not arise out and in the course of decedent's employment, the arbitrator determined that claimant did not present testimony regarding the accident and that there was "no indication of the amount of snow or weight of snow contained in the record." In finding decedent's death was not causally related to his employment, the arbitrator, relying on the opinion of Dr. Carroll, found the physical activity preceding decedent's death unrelated to decedent's death. The arbitrator determined that claimant failed to establish entitlement to survivor benefits under section 7(a) of the Act because, at the time of decedent's death, he was not enrolled full-time in school and over the age of 18, and did not testify to having any dependency upon the decedent.

¶ 15 Claimant filed a petition for review of the arbitrator's decision before the Commission. The Commission, with one commissioner dissenting, issued...