BOARD NO.: 05181792Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents
Filed: September 10, 1998
REVIEWING BOARD DECISION
(Judges Wilson, Smith and McCarthy)
APPEARANCES
Ronald St. Pierre, Esq., for the employee at hearing Alan S. Pierce, Esq. for the employee on brief Frances D. O’Toole, Esq., for the self-insurer
WILSON, J.
In Antoniou v. Marshall’s/Mellville Corp., 11 Mass. Workers’ Comp. Rep. 260 (1997), the reviewing board recommitted this case to the administrative judge for further findings on the narrow issue of the reasonableness and necessity of the employee’s first knee surgery. Id. at 262. When the judge filed his decision on remand, that issue was only one of a multitude that he gratuitously addressed, all the others of which had already been adjudicated in his prior decision, and which the reviewing board had either summarily affirmed or reversed in Antoniou, supra. This new decision is now before the reviewing board, with the cross-appellants arguing the merits of the several superfluous issues that should not have been addressed anew, as they were not part of the specific and limited recommittal in 1997. We hasten to point out that, as both a matter of law and efficiency, judges and parties need address only those issues on recommittal that are the subject of that disposition.
The sole issue before the judge on recommittal was whether the employee’s first knee surgery was reasonable and necessary under § 30 of the Act. Accordingly, our review focuses only on that issue. The judge found, based on adequate subsidiary findings of fact, that the first knee surgery was reasonable and necessary. (Dec. 8, 10.) Contrary to the insurer’s contention, there was no error.
The decision is affirmed. The insurer shall pay an attorney’s fee of $1,174.41.
So ordered. _________________________ Sara Holmes Wilson Administrative Law Judge
_________________________ Suzanne E. K. Smith Administrative Law Judge
_________________________ William A. McCarthy Administrative Law Judge