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COURT OF APPEALS
DECISION
DATED AND RELEASED
NOTICE
AUGUST 20, 1996
A party may file with the Supreme Court                                              This opinion is subject to further editing.
a petition to review an adverse decision                                             If  published,  the  official  version  will
by the Court of Appeals.  See § 808.10 and                                           appear  in  the  bound  volume  of  the
RULE 809.62, STATS.                                                                  Official Reports.
No.   95-3212
STATE OF WISCONSIN                                                                   IN COURT OF APPEALS
                                                                                     DISTRICT III
GARY C. SALVESON,
Plaintiff-Respondent,
v.
MARY G. HANSON and
UNITED FIRE & CASUALTY
COMPANY,
Defendants-Appellants.
APPEAL from a judgment of the circuit court for Douglas County:
JOSEPH A. MCDONALD, Judge.  Affirmed.
Before Cane, P.J., LaRocque and Myse, JJ.
PER CURIAM.    Mary Hanson and her insurer appeal a judgment
awarding Gary Salveson past and future earnings and loss of earning capacity
due to injuries he suffered in a traffic accident.   Hanson argues that Salveson's
medical experts provided an insufficient foundation for his vocational expert's




No.                                                                                    95-3212
testimony  regarding  lost  wages.    We  reject  this  argument  and  affirm  the
judgment.
At  the  time  of  the  accident,  Salveson  was  self-employed  as a
refrigeration technician and also had a rural newspaper delivery route.   After
the accident, he quit the newspaper delivery job and modified his refrigeration
business practices.   He testified that his injuries slowed him down on the job,
required him to purchase a lift truck to assist him in moving equipment and
required  that  he  take  off  some  hours  from  work  after  the  accident.    His
vocational consultant estimated loss of past earnings of $21,000 and projected
$6,000 to $20,000 per year loss of future earnings.   The jury awarded Salveson
$4,000 for past earnings loss and $20,000 for future earnings loss.
The testimony of Salveson's medical experts provides an adequate
foundation for his vocation expert's testimony.   To establish a premise for a loss
of earning capacity, Salveson had to establish a permanent injury that disabled
him from performing his jobs as before.   Wells v. National Indemnity Co., 41
Wis.2d 1, 11, 162 N.W.2d 562, 566-67 (1968).   Salveson's chiropractor testified
that Salveson sustained a permanent injury and that his work would continue
to  aggravate  his  condition.    His  neurosurgeon  testified  that  the  accident
permanently  aggravated  an  underlying  preexisting  condition.     Salveson
suffered from muscle spasms, a loss of cervical lordosis and bulging discs at
multiple levels.   The neurosurgeon testified that the injury was permanent and
it would affect Salveson's ability to work and to lift.  The doctors' diagnosis and
prognosis, when combined with Salveson's confirmation that he suffered pain
as a result of his work and was required to modify the way in which he worked,
provided an adequate basis for the vocational expert's opinions regarding lost
wages and earning capacity.
It is not necessary for the doctors to instruct their patient to quit
any job or place formal restrictions on his work in order to establish an adequate
medical foundation for the vocational expert's opinion.   Rather, the doctors'
statements  that  Salveson  would  experience  pain  if  he  engaged  in  lifting,
twisting and bending, combined with Salveson's observation that he suffered
on-the-job  pain  when  doing  his  job  as  he  previously  did,  constitutes  an
adequate  basis  for  the  vocational  expert's  opinion  that  permanent  injuries
reduced Salveson's past earnings and future earning capacity.
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No.                                                                   95-3212
By the Court.—Judgment affirmed.
This opinion will not be published.  See RULE 809.23(1)(b)5, STATS.
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