Payne v. Boeing Co.

McAnany, J.:

In this case we are called upon to construe and to . consider the constitutionality of statutory limits on workers compensation benefits received by an injured worker who has a preexisting nonwork-related disability.

Linda J. Payne worked for the Boeing Company (Boeing) for 23 years. She had a history of low back problems which resulted in a microdiskectomy at the L5-S1 level in 1996. She experienced a disk herniation at that same level in 1998, causing her surgeon to redo her diskectomy in 1999. When this failed to provide relief, she had a fusion of these vertebral bodies and…