The Iowa Supreme Court recently held that a woman who filed a Petition for Arbitration with the Iowa Workers' Compensation Commissioner's Office more than two years after the injury, beyond the statute of limitations, had filed a timely Petition, since she did not learn that the injury was serious until the statute had run. See Midwest Ambulance Service v. Jodi Ruud.

Jodi Ruud dislocated her left shoulder, was sent to a physician chosen by the employer, and was released without restrictions. His notes indicated that her shoulder would dislocate again due to the left shoulder injury. Just over two years later, Ms. Ruud began experiencing serious problems with dislocation, during an off-work incident. She promptly reported the problem to her employer, and asked for medical care. Her request was denied, she eventually required orthopedic surgery, and she was not able to return to work.

She filed a Petition for Arbitration, and the Deputy Commissioner sitting as Administrative Law Judge upheld the defendants' defense that the Petition was not timely, since it was filed more than two years after the initial injury. However, the Commissioner held that the Petition was timely, and awarded healing period benefits plus permanent partial disability benefits for 125 weeks. The Iowa District Court and the Iowa Supreme Court affirmed.

While courts have long applied the "discovery rule," a person may be allowed additional time to pursue a legal action if they have a reasonable grounds for not discovering that they have sustained a work injury. However, this case involves a known work injury, which was promptly reported to the employer in May of 2000, and a re-injury in June of 2002. Jodi Ruud obviously knew about the injury in May of 2000, more than two years before the Petition was filed. In this case, the Court noted that she did not have reasonable grounds to know the seriousness of the injury until at least June of 2002, and extended the time to file on that basis.