Harry v. Buse Timber & Sales, Inc.

¶1 Noise-related hearing loss is not a progressive disease, yet it has been referred to as “progressive” in workers’ compensation case law.1 And it is considered to be “partially disabling” long before the worker is perceptibly impaired. These two facts have led to the strange outcome below in this case: a worker is paid for his lost hearing based on a 1974 schedule of benefits for damage to his hearing that occurred long after 1974. His self-insured employer knew of, but did not disclose, his hearing loss for almost 30 years and as a result has succeeded in paying for the disability at the…