In Harley-Davidson v. LIRC (2017AP2284), the Court of Appeals District I upheld a Labor and Industry Review Commission (LIRC) decision that a Harley-Davidson employee sustained 85 percent hearing loss from noise exposure during his employment, despite conflicting medical opinions.

After retiring from Harley-Davidson’s power train assembly division, Robert Schulfer underwent several hearing tests indicating he had severe hearing loss. When Harley-Davidson denied his claim for hearing aids reimbursement, Harley-Davidson requested he undergo another test by their appointed doctor. That doctor indicated Schulfer might have been faking his hearing loss, based on results conflicting with other tests.

LIRC appointed a third independent physician, whose tests were inconsistent. A pure tone audiometry test suggested severer hearing loss than a speech reception threshold test. Citing the unreliability of the patient, the physician used the speech reception threshold test to calculate Schulfer had 33 percent hearing loss.

Despite the unreliability of the physician’s pure tone audiometry test, LIRC used the pure tone test to determine that Schulfer had 85 percent hearing loss as a result of working at Harley-Davidson. Department of Workforce Development code requires pure tone tests for determining hearing impairment.

Harley-Davidson appealed on the grounds that the physician himself stated the pure tone test was unreliable. However, the appeals court found that LIRC resolved the inconsistencies among the tests and there was substantial and credible evidence in all three physicians’ test results supporting LIRC’s determination.